Eagles 33, 49ers 10: Alshon Jeffery, Jalen Mills highlight rain-soaked win

Carson Wentz watched the final five minutes of the Eagles' 33-10 win over the San Francisco 49ers from the Lincoln Financial Field sideline with good health and a raincoat. Backup Nick Foles entered the lopsided game. Wentz likes when he can take the last snap in a victory formation, but it's even better when he doesn't need to take the field at all because the result is already determined.

It was supposed to happen this way against the winless 49ers. The Eagles entered the game as nearly two-touchdown favorites  — they covered, by the way  —  and they didn't overlook a weak opponent. They are 7-1, their best start to a season since 2004, when they reached the Super Bowl. With the calendar turning to November and the season passing the halfway point, it's becoming clearer each week that the Eagles are legitimate contenders.

"We're halfway through the season, we're right where we want to be," veteran defensive end Brandon Graham said. "But things can go downhill real easily if you start [impressing] yourself. So we need to make sure … we don't worry about 7-1 until we get done and they say, 'Hey, we're going to the playoffs.' That's when we can have a different mind-set. But right now, we haven't done anything."

The Eagles dominated a game in which the offense didn't play especially well. That says much about the Eagles through eight weeks, and it might say even more about the 49ers. The Eagles defense excelled while limiting the 49ers to 238 yards with two turnovers, four sacks, and 12 quarterback hits.

In most of their wins this season, Wentz needed to star. But the Eagles didn't require Wentz to be spectacular to win Sunday.

"The beauty of it is you still put up 33 points," coach Doug Pederson said. "That's a positive. And you found a way to do it. Took … all three phases again. And at the end of the day if your quarterback doesn't have the numbers but we win, I'd rather have the win. We can fix the other."

Wentz finished 18 of 32 for 211 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He was sacked three times by the blitz-happy 49ers, and the Eagles will spend the coming days working on their blitz protections. It wasn't an awful game for Wentz, but it was his second-worst quarterback rating of the season as he played through wet and windy conditions.

"The weather was really not a big factor," Wentz said. "I thought the flow of the game for us offensively, we were slow. We were slow early on. [The 49ers] did some good things that limited what we did offensively early on and we just had to make some adjustments and stick to our game plan. Offensively, I know we have to be better."

The game started as ugly as the afternoon, with only three points in the first quarter and the first touchdown not coming until Wentz connected with Zach Ertz for their sixth red-zone TD in the closing minutes of the second quarter.

Cornerback Jalen Mills broke the game open when he jumped in front of rookie quarterback C.J. Beathard's pass to Pierre Garcon and navigated through San Francisco's offense for a 37-yard touchdown return 84 seconds before halftime. It was the first touchdown of Mills' career and the Eagles' second defensive touchdown of the season, enabling them to take a 17-0  halftime lead.

"I've been watching film hard all week," Mills said. "I've been studying that route. … I just trusted my technique and trusted my feet and my safety over the top to jump the route. I jumped the route and picked the ball off."

Mills' touchdown was rivaled on the highlight reel only by Alshon Jeffery's touchdown catch in the third quarter. After the 49ers cut the Eagles' lead to 20-7, Wentz responded by looking deep downfield for Jeffery. It was the type of 50-50 pass on which Jeffery has excelled in his career but hasn't demonstrated in Philadelphia. He did  Sunday. Jeffery outmuscled Ahkello Witherspoon for the ball and then bulldozed through tacklers for a 53-yard touchdown. It was Jeffery's longest play in an Eagles uniform and gave the Eagles a 27-7 lead.

"I just have to give that guy a chance to make plays sometimes. He did the rest," Wentz said. "That's why we brought him here. We brought him here to make those big plays."

Jeffery, a former basketball player, compared the catch to boxing out for a rebound. He tells Wentz to trust him to throw the ball up and let him catch it.

"It's either me or it's incomplete," said Jeffery, who had 62 receiving yards Sunday.

That lead swelled after Derek Barnett blocked a fourth-quarter field goal to set up LeGarrette Blount's rushing touchdown with more than 10 minutes remaining in the game. That allowed fans who endured the rain to exit to their cars and the subway knowing that the Eagles had secured their  sixth consecutive win. They will try to continue their hot streak next week at home against the Denver Broncos.

"Being 7-1 … it's a good place to be," Wentz said. "We just have to keep building."

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