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Enigmatic Eagles Beat Down Vikings 21-10

By Joseph Santoliquito

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — There is an enigmatic quality that's possessed these Eagles. You simply don't know what you'll get from week-to-week, which has made them both delightful and maddening to watch. They started the season 3-0 dominating everyone. Then they went into a funk after their bye week and you had to wonder if they would ever win another game again.

Now this.

In what could be defined as a mild upset, the Eagles handed the Minnesota Vikings—the only undefeated team in the NFL entering this weekend—an 21-10 defeat to drive their record to 4-2 and openly question just how good this team is.

The Eagles became the first team this season to score more than 17 points on the NFL's second-best defense. They forced a team that rarely made a mistake into making four costly turnovers. The Vikings had only turned the ball over once entering the game. They lost three fumbles and an interception against the Eagles.

Carson Wentz threw two interceptions, yet was still efficient, completing 16 for 28 for 138 yards and a touchdown. Defensively, the Eagles greeted their former teammate, Sam Bradford, with steady pressure that forced mistakes. Bradford and the Vikings were exposed, gaining just 184 yards of total offense early in the fourth quarter when the game was still semi-competitive.

"We looked bad the previous two games, but you know we could have won those two games," Eagles' tackle Jason Peters said. "We lost by seven and we lost by one. We could have won those games if not for the errors on offense, going offsides, the holding, all of the little things.

"We had to clean up that up. We had to put our heads down and focus. Everyone was jumping on the Vikings bandwagon. We know we're a good team and we knew what we had to do to win. I think the biggest thing we had to learn from our two losses was just finish. We know we're a good team, we just have to finish better."

Connor Barwin re-emerged from his season slumber with his best game of the season, with four tackles and a sack.

After the Eagles turned the ball over a second time at their 17 in the first quarter, and still no score in the game, it was Barwin that forced a fumble which was recovered by Malcolm Jenkins.

The first half was highly unusual. The teams played a game of hot potato for a spell in the first quarter. First, Wentz threw an interception on a pass intended for Brent Celek that Andrew Sendejo stepped in front of and returned it to the Eagles' 2. Minnesota gave it right back, when Brandon Graham pressured Bradford into throwing an interception to Nolan Carroll in the end zone.

The Eagles then fumbled the ball away when a botched handoff to Darren Sproles rolled 12 yards and was picked up by the Vikings' Anthony Barr at the Philadelphia 17. The very next play, Barwin smacked the ball away from Bradford and Malcolm Jenkins jumped on the ball at the Eagles' 39.

But it wasn't over yet.

The Eagles had to continue playing along when Wentz threw his second pick of the game on a Xavier Rhodes interception. That marked two interceptions and a lost fumble on three of the Eagles' first four possessions—and the Vikings still managed nothing.

It's something that actually said more about the anemic Minnesota offense—and its turnstile tackles—than it did the Eagles' foibles.

Minnesota's third turnover, a Beau Allen fumble recovery caused by Rodney McLeod, resulted in a Caleb Sturgis' 35-yard field goal that finished a pretty pathetic half of offense for both teams.

The Eagles and Vikings combined to turn the ball over five times in a span of 4:13 in the first quarter. Pee-Wee football teams couldn't do that if they tried.

"There's nothing up with us, it's just consistency," Jordan Hicks said. "We have to continue to play consistent and as long as we're doing what we're supposed to do, we're doing our jobs, we play like this. We got back to the basics. The two games we lost—we lost. We put ourselves in those positions. We have a huge game ahead of us."

That's Dallas Sunday night—in Dallas.

What Eagles team will arrive?

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