PHILADELPHIA − The Eagles faced the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night, hoping to improve to 2-0 for the first time since the 2016 season.
DeVonta Smith sighting
It didn’t take long for DeVonta Smith to catch his first pass. It came on the very first play of the game as Jalen Hurts threw to Smith over the middle. The play went for five yards.
Smith was shut out in the Eagles’ opener last week against the Detroit Lions. It was the first time that Smith was held without a catch both in college and the NFL. Smith had at least one catch in every game last season. And he had at least one catch in every game during his four seasons at Alabama.
The Eagles went down the field and scored, with Hurts running the ball in from the 3. On the drive, Hurts completed all five passes he attempted for 63 yards. He spread the ball around to Smith, Dallas Goedert, Zach Pascal and A.J. Brown.
Hurts connected for 53 yards to Quez Watkins to start the second quarter for a 14-0 Eagles’ lead. At that point, Hurts is 10-for-10 passing for 154 yards and a passer rating of 152.1, just short of a perfect score of 158.3.
A lot of penalties
The Eagles were called for three illegal receiver downfield penalties in the first quarter alone. Two were on left guard Landon Dickerson, the other on right guard Isaac Seumalo.
In all, the Eagles were flagged 4 times for 26 yards in the first quarter.
Reddick finally gets a homecoming
Haason Reddick has played in 81 games in his NFL career ever since the Arizona Cardinals made him their first-round pick in the 2017 draft.
But the Eagles’ game against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday night was only Reddick’s second career game at Lincoln Financial Field in the NFL, and the first since his rookie season.
Of course, Reddick, the South Jersey native is very familiar with the Linc, having played his home games there for four years while at Temple. But the atmosphere wasn’t nearly the same. The Linc was never packed for a Temple game the way it is for Eagles’ games.
“I’m not going to get caught up in that hype. I’m just focused right now on being better than I was Week 1, fixing the things I didn’t do right in Week 1. That’s all I’m going to focused on.
“It’s Philly man, that’s all I can say.”
Reagor’s return
For the Vikings, Jalen Reagor made his return to Philadelphia after the Eagles traded him on Aug. 31. The Eagles got back a conditional fourth-round pick in 2024 and a seventh-round pick in 2023. Reagor is serving as the Vikings’ punt returner.
Reagor was seen on the field before the game shaking hands with Eagles GM Howie Roseman, and hugging special teams coordinator Michael Clay. He also exchanged hugs with DeVonta Smith among other receivers.
Eagles inactives
For the Eagles, the inactives for the game were QB Ian Book, S Reed Blankenship, RB Trey Sermon, DE Janarius Robinson, G Josh Sills and TE Grant Calcaterra.
Numbers to watch
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts came into the game ranked fourth among NFL quarterbacks in total yards (passing and rushing) in his first 20 career starts. For Hurts, his 20th start came last week. Hurts has 5,422 yards, trailing only Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow. … Hurts is also ranked first in explosive plays (the Eagles define them as passes of at least 16 yards and runs of at least 10) per game since the start of the 2021 season. He averages 7.3, ahead of Lamar Jackson (6.8) and Herbert (6.5) …
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
