Domo: 5 reasons the Eagles beat the Vikings
PASS-RUSH REDEMPTION
After failing to record a single sack in a 27-20 Week 6 loss to the Redskins, Jim Schwartz's defense bounced back in a big way Sunday against Sam Bradford and the Vikings.
Taking advantage of a wounded offensive line that was missing both starting tackles, Schwartz's unit made Bradford's return to Philadelphia a miserable experience.
The Eagles sacked Bradford six times and forced him into three turnovers, including two strip fumbles and an end-zone interception triggered by pressure from defensive end Brandon Graham.
Graham and the rest of the defensive line were relentless. The ends repeatedly beat the Vikings' overmatched backup tackles, and tackles Fletcher Cox and Beau Allen got inside push that didn't allow Bradford to step up and avoid the outside rush.
Allen, subbing for injured Bennie Logan, had an excellent game against the Vikings' best o-lineman, left guard Alex Boone.
Schwartz, who usually doesn't blitz a lot, blitzed a lot on Sunday, attacking Bradford and his blockers with an array of perfectly timed zone blitzes. Three of the Eagles' six sacks came on blitzes. In the first five games, just two of their 14 sacks came on blitzes.
Four of the Eagles' six sacks came with the Vikings in Eagles territory, including three times when they were within kicker Blair Walsh's field-goal range.
ANOTHER SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
Dave Fipp's special-teams units turned in another outstanding performance. For the second week in a row, they returned a kickoff for a touchdown. Last week, it was rookie Wendell Smallwood. This week, it was Josh Huff.
His 98-yard second-quarter return gave the Eagles a lead they would never relinquish. It was a perfectly executed play: a right return with superb blocks by tight ends Zach Ertz and Brent Celek, who opened a lane for Huff wide enough to drive a bus through.
Going into the game, the focus was on the Vikings' two excellent returners, Marcus Sherels and Cordarrelle Patterson. Sherels had returned two punts for touchdowns in the previous three games. Patterson was the league's leading kickoff returner.
On Sunday, not a peep was heard from either of them. Patterson never got a chance to touch a kickoff because Caleb Sturgis put all five of his kicks through the end zone for touchbacks.
As for Sherels, he had two returns that gained a total of nine yards and had a costly muffed punt early in the fourth quarter. With Eagles special-teams ace Bryan Braman bearing down on him, Sherels tried to field a Donnie Jones punt on one bounce.
He attempted to dodge Braman before he had control of the football and lost it. Then linebacker Nigel Bradham drilled him, preventing him from recovering it. The Eagles' Trey Burton fell on the loose football.
A few minutes later, Sturgis booted his 14th straight field goal.
THE BLOCKING
This was a big concern going in, particularly given the poor performance by the offensive line against Washington.
The Vikings had one of the league's top defenses. They were ranked fourth in sacks per pass play. They were fourth in run defense, allowing just 77.8 rushing yards per game.
The Eagles had a right tackle, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who was making just his second NFL start and had all sorts of problems in the Redskins loss.
But Vaitai and the rest of the offensive line played well. Better than well. They didn't allow a sack. They did a solid job run-blocking as the Eagles rushed for 101 hard-earned yards on 26 carries.
Eagles running backs had just one carry for negative yardage. Ryan Mathews, who had 56 yards on 14 carries, had six runs of six yards or more, including a 20-yard draw up the middle on a third and 9 late in the second quarter that set up a Sturgis field goal. Left tackle Jason Peters and pulling right guard Brandon Brooks had terrific blocks to create a lane for Mathews on the play.
Coach Doug Pederson used two- or three-tight end personnel groupings on 23 of the Eagles' 54 offensive plays to help with blocking. He usually had at least one of those tight ends on Vaitai's side.
Peters had his best game of the season. Maybe his best game in two years. He pretty much put a muzzle on Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen. Griffen had one tackle.
RED-ZONE DEFENSE
In their back-to-back losses to the Lions and Redskins, the Eagles' defense gave up six touchdowns in nine red-zone challenges.
They were much better Sunday. The Vikings got inside the Eagles' 20 four times, but found the end zone just once.
The first time, they got as far as the 2-yard line. But an interception by Rodney McLeod in the end zone on a third-and-6 play foiled that drive.
The second time was after a Carson Wentz fumble that gave the Vikings the ball at the Philadelphia 17. That possession also ended with a turnover when Connor Barwin stripped the ball from Sam Bradford.
The third time, the Eagles stopped them on downs at the 6 after thwarting three straight run plays.
The Vikings' only red-zone touchdown came with 37 seconds left in the game when Bradford hit Cordarrelle Patterson for a meaningless 14-yard touchdown.
THE TIGHT ENDS
Yeah, I know what you're saying. The tight ends, Domo? Seriously? What the hell did they do?
Zach Ertz, Brent Celek and Trey Burton combined for just two receptions for 21 yards Sunday. But let's look a little deeper at some of the other things they did.
They did an effective job blocking against one of the league's very best defenses. As I mentioned earlier, Pederson used two- and three-tight end personnel groupings on 23 of 54 offensive plays.
Ertz had a nice block on Wentz's 6-yard run around left end on a fourth and 2 late in the first half that kept alive a drive that resulted in a Caleb Sturgis field goal.
Ertz and Celek also had the key blocks on Josh Huff's 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter. Celek took Charles Johnson out of the play, and Ertz did the same to Marcus Sherels, who recovered too late to catch Huff.
And Burton recovered Sherels' muffed punt near midfield early in the fourth quarter when it still was a two-touchdown game. The Eagles capitalized by driving to the Minnesota 2 and getting another field goal from Sturgis with 6:09 left that effectively clinched the win.