Eagles v. Vikings: 17 winners, losers, and I don’t know

Winners

The Vikings

In that their final score was higher than the Eagles’ final score, technically, the Vikings are winners.

Carson Wentz

Carson reaffirmed what seemed to be the case after the Tennessee game: he’s fully back. He made more eye-popping throws, modeled velocity and touch as the situation dictated, and was unafraid of attacking tight windows and man coverage. He had a characteristic escape...and a characteristic unnecessary negative play because he hung unto the ball for too long.

As I said, he’s fully back.

Listen, Carson’s performance is the single most important factor regarding Philadelphia’s success game in and game out. Without good quarterback play, it’s very difficult to win in the NFL, and the Eagles have good quarterback play.

Doug Pederson

And they also have good coaching.

We can always nitpick play-calls — I’m very happy to, especially in situations like the 3rd and 1 naked toss to Josh Adams that went predictably poorly. No coach has ever called the perfect game, and Pederson did a great job getting his team in rhythm in the second half. On the chalkboard, their approach for attacking the Vikings defense was on the nose.

The challenge was undoubtedly bad, but that’s a headset call — I have no idea how much influence Pederson has over that decision, and he likely won’t tell us. At the end of the day, Doug’s aggressiveness puts his team in positive positions far more often than it doesn’t, and today was no different.

Shelton Gibson

Caught a long pass! Stock UP!

Wendell Smallwood

Don’t ask Wendell to pass-protect, and he clears the bar for winners. Simple formula.

Big ups to Smallwood, who broke that tackle on the two-point conversion when everyone in the world thought Sendejo had him dead to rights. That drop on third down in the red zone was heart-breaking, but that catch later helped bring him back into the black. Smallwood had his best day running between the tackles that I can remember, but I remain unconvinced he’ll see significant time when Clement and Sproles return.

Stefen Wisniewski

See: Isaac Seumalo, listed among the losers

Zach Ertz

Ertz’s single-season high for receiving yards is 853; he’s currently on pace for 1,398 yards. Now, he picked up a huge amount of garbage time yards on that final drive when the Eagles’ hopes were mighty faint — but Ertz generally continues to dominate in the intermediate level of the field between the hashes. That touchdown catch was a mighty pretty extension and adjustment, too. He’s been offensive weapon No. 1 through five weeks.

Losers

The Eagles

In that their final score was less than the Vikings’ final score, the Eagles are losers this week.

Jim Schwartz

You gotta do something, man. Even if it doesn’t work out — read: the Tennessee game — you gotta find something to do about this.

I don’t think going back to heavy Cover 3 was a bad idea after the Tennessee struggles; I do wonder how Round 2 of “Avonte Maddox: The Free Safety” came to pass; I do wonder when we will see a shuffle at outside cornerback. Jalen Mills was one Fletcher Cox intervention away from becoming the subject of Philadelphian fury for the entire short week, and he’s been clearly circled as the target of choice for opposing offenses.

Move the corners up; get Rasul Douglas some snaps; throw in some more trap coverages.

Something’s gotta give.

Jalen Mills

That was the best I think I’ve ever seen Jalen Mills play a double move. It was a 68 yard completion.

Jalen received unnecessary flak following the Titans game, but those issues that were present against Tennessee showed up again against Minnesota: he is not quick; he is not fast; he does not have good instincts. His lack of ball production stands stark on his stat sheet.

The Eagles need to improve upon Mills at some point in the near future.

Sidney Jones

It’s low on my concern list, but Sidney had his rookie game this week that’s been a while coming down the mountain. Sidney got beaten pretty handily by Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen all game long, but most young slot corners get beaten by those two anyway. I’ll sleep at night.

Isaac Seumalo

Seumalo! Listen, Isaac had some good pass-protection reps throughout the course of the game. And really, he did a good job setting the expectation low after that first drive on which he surrendered three pressures on three plays. Everything afterward seemed positive.

I’ll reserve full judgment on Seumalo until after I see the coaches film on his performance, but it’s evidently clear that he’s no better an option than Stefen Wisniewski.

So...does that mean...we see...Chance Warmack?! next week.

Oi.

Jay Ajayi

It’s always going to be tough to evaluate Jay Ajayi, because we don’t really know how healthy he is this season. But man, on the list of coulda/shoulda/wouldas from the Vikings game, that fumble is the most gut-wrenching.

Carson Wentz

I love Carson to death, and this comes from a place of love: but when nobody else on the field is rocking pink and you’ve got on hot pink cleats...you look like a nerd.

I also thought the NFL was intentionally moving away from wearing pink, so as to recognize other forms of cancer. Either way, love Carson, total dweeb, best player in the world, complete dweeb.

I don’t knows

Lane Johnson

Yeah, Lane got beat on a great move from a defensive end for the second week in a row. This is like, a 2 on the scale of concerns. Good tackles get beat sometimes. Lane’s been beat before. It’s all okay.

He had multiple strong reps, against both Tennessee and Minnesota, that go under-noticed. Just like with Seumalo, I’ll wait to comment on his full performance until after we go through the coaches film. But I’d wager Lane is playing just fine.

Jason Peters

Same.

Avonte Maddox

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO EVALUATE A ROOKIE NICKEL CORNER PLAYING FREE SAFETY. I have no benchmark for what that is supposed to look like.