Grading the Eagles: Saquon Barkley, Jalen Carter, and the O-line deliver against the Rams

Instant grades on the Eagles’ performance in a 28-22 win over the Los Angeles Rams:

Jalen Hurts didn’t turn the ball over — although a safety essentially acted as one — and he was relatively efficient as a passer in difficult, snowy weather. But he took far too many inexcusable sacks and was again hesitant when he dropped to throw. Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 128 yards with neither a touchdown nor an interception.

He had more success as a runner, especially early on, and finished with 70 yards rushing on seven tries. Hurts got dinged up in the third quarter and limped off the field before heading to the medical tent. Backup Kenny Pickett warmed up, but Hurts emerged and went back into the game. He took a safety, though, on his first drop when he appeared to miss an open Dallas Goedert.

He did well to stay in the pocket until Goedert broke free for a 31-yard reception in the third quarter. But he took three sacks in the second quarter and nearly fumbled the ball away just before the half.

Hurts ran for the Eagles’ first touchdown on a counter zone read play. He shook a defender before motoring 44 yards for the score on the opening drive. It was the longest run of Hurts’ NFL career.

Saquon Barkley was kept mostly in check after his 62-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. But the running back iced the contest with a 78-yard burst into the open field and there was no Rams defender catching him. Barkley finished with 205 yards on 26 carries — giving him 200-yard rushing games in both meetings against the Rams this season — and scored two touchdowns.

Barkley ran hard on many of his carries. When he saw space, he hit the jets. He went turbo on the 62-yarder. As a receiver, he picked up 16 yards on a third-and-14 screen in the second quarter and finished with four catches for 27 yards.

Barkley got his wrist bandaged up late in the second quarter, but he missed only one set of downs. Kenneth Gainwell spelled him and made a Rams defender miss in the open field on a 10-yard catch in the second quarter. A play later, he went around the right end for a 10-yard run. Gainwell appeared to miss a blitz up the middle that resulted in Hurts getting sacked before the half. He was heads up enough to pounce on Hurts’ fumble.

The passing game was obviously limited in the second half by the snow, but Hurts and a few drops by wide receiver A.J. Brown in the first half also hindered the Eagles' air attack. Brown did come up with a couple conversions on slants, including a huge fourth-down conversion in the fourth quarter.

Earlier, Brown appeared to alligator arm a pass over the middle that he couldn’t secure in the first quarter. Later in the half, he couldn’t hang on to a deep back shoulder pass down by the goal line that would have been good enough for a 37-yard touchdown.

Goedert led the Eagles with four catches for 56 yards. He left a Rams defender in the dirt on his 31-yard grab. As a run blocker, the tight end had his moments, but he was late to his block on a split zone Barkley run that netted few yards in the second quarter.

Receiver DeVonta Smith finished with just four catches for 21 yards. He got popped by Rams cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon on a deep ball in the first quarter. Smith couldn’t hang onto the ball, but Witherspoon was flagged for unnecessary roughness.

The Eagles' front five fought hard against one of the better defensive fronts in the NFL. It was tough sledding in the run game at times, but they hung in there until Barkley broke the game open in the fourth quarter.

Hurts was sacked seven times, but he was mostly responsible for several of them. The pass protection was otherwise decent in tough conditions. Left tackle Jordan Mailata occasionally struggled vs. edge rusher Jared Verse. After the break, Verse bull rushed the tackle into Hurts’ lap, forcing him to throw wide of Brown on third down.

In the run game, Mailata failed to seal off Verse before he held Barkley to a short rush in the second quarter. He had a false start on the next play.

Right tackle Lane Johnson kept Rams defensive end Byron Young in check on the other side. He had a key block on Barkley’s 62-yarder. Johnson’s false start negated what appeared to be a Hurts Tush Push touchdown on fourth down in the fourth quarter. The Eagles had to settle for a Jake Elliott field goal.

Center Cam Jurgens got pushed around at times. He got driven back by Rams nose tackle Bobby Brown before Barkley was stopped for no gain in the third quarter. But Jurgens was solid in his exchanges with Hurts.

Left guard Landon Dickerson appeared to be limping at some point in the first half. Dickerson struggled to get a block off on a Barkley third-quarter run that netted few yards. Right guard Mekhi Becton had a killer lead block on Barkley’s 62-yard score, tossing Rams linebacker Christian Rozeboom on his back. He was flagged for an ineligible man downfield penalty on a screen to Goedert in the third quarter.

Defensive tackle Jalen Carter was a monster all game and made essentially the game-sealing play when he sacked quarterback Matthew Stafford on third down with the Rams driving late in the game. Carter tallied two sacks, a forced fumble, a batted pass, and five total tackles.

Carter had the game-changing play when he “Peanut” punched the ball out of Kyren Williams’ hands for a forced fumble in the third quarter. He sacked Stafford on a third down in the third quarter with an inside power move. A series later, he drew a holding penalty after beating tackle Rob Havenstein on a rush.

The Eagles’ edge rushers put a lot of pressure on Stafford. Defensive end Josh Sweat dropped Williams for a loss on a third-and-1 run in the second quarter. Outside linebacker Nolan Smith strip-sacked Stafford on third down in the fourth quarter.

Defensive end Jalyx Hunt registered a third-down coverage sack in the red zone in the third quarter. Hunt got there by fighting through two Rams O-linemen. Defensive end Bryce Huff barely played, if at all, as the Eagles stuck to a three-man rotation on the edge.

Defensive tackles Milton Williams and Jordan Davis did a lot of the grunt work vs. the run. Kyren Williams rushed for 106 yards on 19 carries, though. Defensive tackle Moro Ojomo got in on the sack party with one of his own in the fourth quarter.

Oren Burks got the start with Nakobe Dean out after last week’s season-ending knee injury. There was some talk of Jeremiah Trotter Jr. splitting time, but Burks went the entire way at middle linebacker.

He played well. Burks snuffed out a screen to Williams and tackled him for a loss in the first quarter. Burks got taken out on a second-level block on a 30-yard run up the middle in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, he batted a third-down pass to the snow-covered ground.

Zack Baun caught fire in the second half. Early in the fourth quarter, he met Williams in the backfield for a loss. A few plays later, he batted a swing pass to the ground. And he capped an impressive series by recovering Smith’s forced fumble.

He got sealed off on Williams’ 20-yard run up the middle in the first quarter.

There were some sweaty-palm moments in the final minutes, but the Eagles’ cornerbacks sealed up at the end to preserve the victory.

Stafford was up and down as a passer partly because of the Eagles’ coverage. Quinyon Mitchell broke up a short pass to receiver Puka Nacua in the first quarter, but injured his shoulder tackling Stafford on the next play. Mitchell left for good and was replaced by Isaiah Rodgers and not his usual backup, Kelee Ringo. Rodgers got outmuscled by Rams receiver Demarcus Robinson for a slightly underthrown deep pass over the middle that resulted in a 48-yard gain. Rodgers did break up a pass to Robinson a quarter later.

Receiver Cooper Kupp pulled in a third-quarter, third-down jump ball for 30 yards over him. But Rodgers was Johnny-on-the-spot after Carter’s forced fumble and ran back the recovery 40 yards.

Darius Slay allowed a 15-yard completion to Robinson with soft zone coverage on a fourth-quarter, third-down play. Stafford went at him early and Slay answered with two pass breakups — he could have intercepted the first — on the Rams’ opening drive.

Cooper DeJean had some good and bad moments. He trailed Nacua when he caught a 16-yard pass over the middle in the first quarter.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson was in man coverage when Rams tight end Tyler Higbee caught the Rams’ first touchdown, a 4-yard grab over the middle. He slashed into the backfield to tackle Williams for a loss on a third-down play in the second quarter.

Reed Blankenship finished with six tackles. He cleaned up a few Williams runs into the secondary.

Elliott missed an early extra point, but he rebounded and made some clutch kicks in the second half. Elliott snuck a 44-yard field goal through the snow and wind and just inside the right upright to give the Eagles a 16-13 lead in the third quarter. He followed up with a 23-yarder early in the fourth quarter for a 19-15 lead. And then Elliott nailed a 37-yarder that padded the margin to 22-15 with just over six minutes left in the game.

He did miss the extra point after the Eagles’ first and final touchdowns. But Elliott was great on kickoffs, booting five of eight for touchbacks.

Braden Mann averaged 44.5 net yards on five punts.

DeJean muffed a second-quarter punt but fell on it to retain possession. His longest return was five yards. Gainwell and Rodgers handled kickoffs and averaged 31 yards on three returns. Gainwell ran for a tough 44-yard return in the second quarter.

Nick Sirianni has the Eagles in the NFC championship game for a second time in three years. It was a sloppy game, partly due to the snowy conditions, but the Eagles will host the Washington Commanders in the conference title game next week with a chance to return to the Super Bowl.

The Eagles bungled their possession before the break and Sirianni’s use of timeouts was questionable. He used his first after an incomplete pass with just under a minute left. Was that necessary? It hurt him later when Hurts took a sack and nearly fumbled the ball away on second down. The Eagles were no longer in field-goal range and the half ended with another sack of the quarterback.

Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore had some dubious play-calling decisions, as well. He had a couple suspect third-down calls in the first half. The Eagles were in four-down territory on a third-and-8 midway through the second quarter, but Moore had Hurts take a five-step drop when a run or a quick pass might have made more sense. He did better a drive later when on third-and-14, he dialed up a screen to Barkley that worked vs. a Rams blitz.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s unit was shaky in the final period — and in spots in between. The Eagles defense sacked Stafford five times and forced two turnovers.