Grayson’s Grades: Eagles lose to Chargers in Overtime

The Philadelphia Eagles suffered a tough 22-19 loss in overtime to the Los Angeles Chargers. The defense kept compensating for mistakes by the offense. Jalen Hurts turned it over five times. He fumbled once and tossed four interceptions including one on the final play of the game that allowed the Chargers to seal the victory.

The Eagles lost their third straight game and appeared to take a big step backward as an offense. The turnovers are flat out killing this team. It's the one common theme in this three game losing streak. The Eagles have turned it over nine times over the last three games. That is asking the defense to do too much and they almost did enough anyway to win it.

The defense did play well and sacked Justin Herbert seven times. They also forced three turnovers to help offset the amount of times the Eagles offense turned it over. The secondary covered very well and made it hard on Herbert to find an open receiver downfield.

Jalen Hurts played his worst game as an Eagle. Three of the four interceptions are on him. The other one probably should have been caught by AJ Brown. Another big mistake occurred when Jake Elliott missed a 48 yard field goal.

The Magic Number to clinch the NFC East remains at three with four weeks remaining in the regular season. The Eagles fall to 8-5 and host the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.

One side of the ball gets decent grades while the other is getting a horrible report card. Here is the latest edition of Grayson's Grades:

A

Saquon Barkley - Barkley has his second best game of the season rushing the ball. He carried it 20 times for 122 yards and a touchdown. His touchdown went for 52 yards. Barkley looked better running the ball overall. He managed to push the pile forward and averaged six yards per carry. It was an encouraging sign for a rushing attack that has clearly struggled mightily this year.

Dallas Goedert - Goedert was the same reliable receiver he always is and did a nice job of making some big catches and clutch times to help move the chains. He caught eight passes for 78 yards.

Vic Fangio - Fangio had his defense swarming to the ball and looking to hit Justin Herbert as much as possible with his surgically repaired broken left hand. He appeared to blitz a little more frequently than usual and it occasionally got home resulting in sacks. Fangio also got a great game out his secondary which did a great job in coverage throughout the game. They forced Herbert to hold the ball and that allowed the pass rush to make plays.

Cooper DeJean - DeJean had a great game. He was solid in coverage and blanketed receivers very well. DeJean had two passes successfully defended. He also recorded three  tackles. DeJean did have an interception in this game that was erased due to a penalty by the Eagles. I liked the way he stuck to his receivers and made Herbert think twice before trying to throw it in his direction.

Jordan Davis - Davis was a beast in this game. He needed to step up his play with the absence of Jalen Carter due to injury. He was great rushing the passer and did an excellent job against the run. Davis filled up the box score. He had six tackles including 1.5 sacks with two tackles for a loss and two quarterback hits.

Jalyx Hunt - Hunt had a very good game. He finished tied for first on the team with eight tackles. Hunt also led the team with 2.5 sacks and three quarterback hits. Hunt also added one tackle for a loss. Hunt clearly stepped up his game in the absence of Jalen Carter.

B

Nakobe Dean - I thought Dean did a great job when blitzing. He drove hard to the quarterback and did a great job of pushing through running backs and getting to Justin Herbert. I like the speed at which he attacks the ball. I also like how Vic Fangio used him in this game. Dean responded with a solid performance. He had seven tackles including one sack, one tackle for a loss and two quarterback hits.

Adoree Jackson - Jackson played arguably his best game as an Eagle. He did a good job in coverage and had two passes successfully defended. He also had five tackles in this game.

C

AJ Brown - Brown racked up his third straight game with at least 100 receiving yards and the Eagles lost all three of those games. Brown did a great job of tacking on yards after the catch. He broke some tackles and helped move the chains. However, he had a couple of uncharacteristic drops. One of them would have won the game in regulation, but the pass into the endzone went off his hand and fell incomplete. He also had a target earlier in the second half that was thrown his way. It was a little high and went off Brown's fingers and into the air where it got picked off. Had he caught those balls then the Eagles win this game in regulation. Brown caught six passes for 100 yards.

Offensive Line - The Offensive Line played better but did allow Saquon Barkley to again get hit behind the line of scrimmage on occasion. They did show signs of figuring out some of the issues facing the rushing attack. I also thought they did a better job in pass protection. The penalties were still there and did cost them at tough times in this game. But it was definitely a step in the right direction by this line.

Jake Elliott - Elliott booted four field goals through the upright, but the one that got away will not easily be forgotten. Despite making those four kicks, he did miss a big one late in the first half from 48 yards. Elliott bounced back and booted a 44 yard field goal to take a 3-point lead with 2:16 left in the game. That certainly contributed to the loss; however, he has made clutch kicks throughout his career. Elliott will need to be better, especially if this offense continues to struggle to put the ball in the endzone.

D

None

F

Jalen Hurts - Hurts was awful. He turned it over five times. Hurts tossed four interceptions and fumbled it once. This team was winning earlier in the year due in large part to the lack of turnovers by the Eagles. Now they are in a three game losing streak because of the amount of turnovers they have each week. He completed just over half of his passes and finished the game with a 31.2 quarterback rating. Hurts completed 21 of 40 passes for 240 yards with no touchdowns and four interceptions while also fumbling it once. He appeared once again to miss open receivers and turned it over way too much. Hurts has to bounce back strong against one of the league's worst teams, the Oakland Raiders.

Nick Sirianni - There were reports that Nick Sirianni was more involved in the offense, so then he must take ownership of part of the poor play by the offense. The play-calling once again lacked creativity, the scheme lacks creativity and appears to be predictable. Sirianni has to take responsibility for all of that as the Head Coach. His offensive coordinator needs help and his Quarterback needs to run this offense much better than he is right now. It is up to Sirianni to fix that before it gets too late.

Kevin Patullo - Patullo's offense lacked creativity and rhythm. His Quarterback is missing open receivers which does not help the offense stay on the field. Again, I see this offense find success when it goes into a no-huddle. Yet, this team refuses to get into a no-huddle unless it is the end of a half. There is very little motion and Patullo as the Offensive Coordinator has to take ownership of the fact that this offense is not coming anywhere close to living up to its potential. The Eagles were 4 of 13 on third down. They turned it over five times. They were 0 for 2 in the red zone. Those are all things they were doing much better earlier in the year when they were racking up the wins.