The Eagles defense hit Sam Bradford early and often. Photo by Andy Lewis / contrastphotographt.com

The Eagles rebounded from their two-game losing streak with an ugly, turnover filled 21-10 win over the previously undefeated Minnesota Vikings at Lincoln Financial Field.

The Eagles (4-2) moved to within a game of the idle NFC East-leading Dallas Cowboys (5-1) who are on their bye week.

This game was marked by nine fumbles, three interceptions,14 penalties and opposing quarterbacks who combined to target 57 would-be receivers and completing just 40 of those throws.

For the second week in a row, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz struggled, going 16 of 28 for 138 yards and two interceptions. The rookie did throw a five-yard touchdown pass to Dorial Green-Beckham in the third quarter to put the Eagles up 18-3 and end a seven-quarter touchdown drought for the Birds offense. Wentz finished with a quarterback rating of 52.4.

As bad as Wentz was, the man he replaced as the Eagles starter, Sam Bradford, was worse.
The former Eagle was 24 of 41 for 224 yards. One touchdown and one interception. He was sacked by a relentless Birds defense six times. The Birds also forced Bradford to fumble four times, losing two of them. His QB rating topped put for the day at an abysmal 71.6.

The Vikings (5-1) rushed 27 times for just 93 yards.

Head coach Mike Zimmer was asked to evaluate Bradford’s performance. He didn’t hold back.

“I thought he missed some throws today that he normally makes,” Zimmer said. “We dropped balls; it’s hard to win football games when you do things like that. He got hit a lot, so it’s hard to evaluate his performance when we look like a sieve out there.”

Describing the play-by-play of the Eagles-Vikings first quarter may sound more like describing a soccer match with the way both teams kept giving the ball back to each other.

So here is the summary: Eagles offense was intercepted twice, the defense intercepted Sam Bradford once and forced a fumble that was run in for TD but called back as Malcolm Jenkins was ruled down after the review. The Eagles also lost a fumble.

The teams were penalized a combined six times for a total of 43 yards including a running-into-the-kicker penalty by Eagles rookie Kamu Grugler-Hill that kept a Vikings drive alive…at least for a while.

QB Ratings? 1st quarter: A Basket of horribles: Bradford 2.8 (no typo), Wentz 39.2.

The second quarter did calm down a bit.

The Vikings got on the board first with a 48–yard field goal by Blair Walsh.

The Birds answered with a 98–yard kickoff return by Josh Huff.

On the extra point the Vikings were called for roughing the kicker. Even though Caleb Sturgis made the extra point, Pederson took a chance to go for two as the ball was spotted at the one-yard line after the yards were marched off. His bet paid off.

Wentz took a shotgun snap and converted a quarterback draw to give the Eagles an 8-3 lead.

Both defenses continued to dominate.

Later in the quarter Eagles hit Bradford again, forcing another fumble by the seven-year veteran out of Oklahoma.

DT Beau Allen had a big day in his first start of the season coming up with three tackles, a quarterback hurry and a fumble recovery.
Photo by Contrastphotography.com

Defensive tackle Beau Allen recovered the fumble and returned it 10 yards to the 48-yard line.
After the turnover, the Eagles 10-play 35-yard drive that ended with a 35-yard Sturgis field goal making the score 11-3.

Allen was a happy-camper after the game and deservedly so.

The third-year pro started in place of the injured Bennie Logan and had arguable his best game as an Eagle.

He credited the home crowd for energizing not only himself but the whole defense.

Allen finished with three tackles, a quarterback hurry and the fumble recovery. He was also given credit for stuffing a fourth-and-one run early in the fourth Quarter by the Vikings at the Eagles six-yard line.

“Our fans were on fire today,” Allen said. “When you’re on the field as a defense and you hear everyone’s cheering, and their offensive line can’t hear anything, it’s exciting. In fact it’s awesome.”

Allen admitted getting off to a good start helped his confidence.

“It’s nice when you go out there on the first play and make a tackle,” Allen said. “When that happens it gives you a little bit of confidence. I felt good. I think a lot of people were worried with Bennie (Logan) out and me getting my first start of the year. I don’t think I was one of them. I’m just happy I can go out there and show people that I can play a lot of snaps and play good defense.”

Allen was asked if he was thinking about taking the fumble recovery to the house. When you are 6-foot-3 and never carry the ball, it was probably wise for him to go down after advancing the ball 10 yards.

“I thought about pitching it or try and make a move but at the end of the day that’s not … you don’t want to be that guy that’s fumbling the ball after you get the fumble,” Allen said with a laugh. “That kind of went through my head. I think it worked out all right. I didn’t look too fast out there, but I secured the ball. My full back training came into play on that play.”

Bradford talked about his team’s lack of offense.

“Obviously we knew they were good up front,” Bradford said. “I’ll have to go back and look at the tape, but we have to figure out a way. It involves all of us. I’ve got to figure out a way to get it out quicker. We’ve got to do a better job with staying on guys. I think there are a lot of answers to that problem.”

The Vikings offensive line struggled all afternoon against the Eagles defensive pressure. The Birds were credited with four sacks (Jordan Hicks, Rodney McCleod, Nigel Bradham, Connor Barwin) but Bradford was hit on almost every series.

“It was embarrassing, there’s no other way to put it,” right tackle Jeremiah Sirles said at his locker after the game. “It sucks. This one stings right now but we have a division game coming up on Monday (Bears) so we have to get in, watch the tape, correct it and keep moving.”

The Vikings have lost three tackles for the season due to injury Sirles offered no excuses.

“I don’t think any of us had the game we wanted to play at the position we played at,” he said. “We just have to go back to the drawing board and keep fighting.”

The 6-foot-6, 315-pound three year veteran out of Nebraska continued.

“It’s us,” Sirles said. “At the end of the day we put it on us. If Sam’s getting hit, if he doesn’t feel comfortable back there, it’s our fault. It’s not one guy’s fault, it’s five guys fault. But we all took our turn. I know I took my turn at the end a couple times, some other guys took their turn. You don’t win or lose as an individual … as an offensive line you lose as a group, you win as a group. We lost as a group today.”

Another Vikings offensive lineman talked about how the unit struggled.

“They are probably the best front four we’ve seen all year,” right guard Brandon Fusco said. “Our goal is to run the ball and make it easy for Sam, so he can get back in the pocket and make his reads. Ever since I’ve been here that’s was Vikings football is… run first, set up the pass. That’s what Viking football is and we didn’t do that today.”

Fusco talked about playing against Eagles standout defensive tackle Fletcher Cox.

“He’s a heck of a player, I have a lot of respect for him,” Fusco said. “He’s one of the best three techniques in the game. He’s a handful to block. It was me the whole game…it was a good fight.”

While the Eagles offense struggled to finish drives, one positive was the play of rookie right tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai.

He had a less than impressive debut in Washington last week, giving up two early sacks.

But yesterday, no one heard his name at all during the game because the fifth round pick out of TCU did not commit a penalty and was part of a line that did not surrender a sack.

Coach Doug Pederson was asked how much help did he Vaitai on the edge during the game.

“Quite honestly, this game, probably not as much as I did last week,” Pederson said. “I felt like he kind of settled in this week, did a nice job. You know, the run game obviously helps when you can come off the ball and run the ball. We were in some two tight end sets a little bit more today, and that obviously helped him a little bit. We’ll evaluate the film tomorrow, but I thought overall he did a nice job today.”