The Eagles and Seahawks faced off on Monday Night Football with both teams vying for playoff positioning. Seattle’s defense has been their biggest weakness this year with most of their wins coming on the heels of MVP-caliber days from Russell Wilson. Both Seattle’s offense and defense looked ready for the playoffs on Monday night as Seattle handled Carson Wentz and the Eagles with a 23-17 final score. With eight wins on the year, the Seahawks are still in contention for a first-round bye to open the playoffs. The Eagles are now third in the lowly NFC East.
Where was Jalen Hurts?
The big news leading into this game was the impending usage of rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts. Reports from earlier in the week indicated that Hurts would see “increased playing time at quarterback.” Eagles coach Doug Pederson later stated that the Eagles did not make any changes to their usual practice regimen in regards to the quarterback rotation. Pederson’s sources were correct on this one as Hurts attempted one pass and did not record a rushing attempt. It’s not as if Wentz played his way out of the time split either. He averaged 4.7 yards per attempt and had a touchdown with an interception before a meaningless score by Richard Rodgers at the end of the game. The Eagles’ fumbling their quarterback situation was perfectly captured by a single series of events to open the second quarter. Hurts subs in. Hurts completes a six-yard pass. Wentz subs in. Wentz is sacked and the Eagles are forced to punt.
Wentz has been betrayed by an aging and injured offensive line but even when he is given a clean pocket, some of the mistakes he makes are back-breaking. Despite the diminished offensive line, Wentz has also shown a propensity to walk into sacks. He’s missing open throws and gifting defenders the ball at an alarming rate. The biggest problem for Philadelphia is his contract. Even if they suffer through one more year of Wentz, the Eagles would still be on the hook for $31 million if they want to get out of Wentz’s final three years of his current deal. Despite losing their tenuous lead over the weakest division in football, the Eagles chose not to try out their athletic rookie passer versus Seattle. Whether it’s a steadfast faith that Wentz can regain his accuracy or the sunk cost of millions of dollars, something has kept Pederson and company from making an obvious choice that could save the Eagles’ season. Their Week 13 game on the road against the Packers would be a less than ideal first start for Hurts but moving on from Wentz appears necessary at this point.[[ad:athena]]
Russell Wilson is Back on Track
The Seahawks’ success is built on an MVP performance from Wilson this year and their reliance solely on him began to show its fragility two weeks ago. Wilson threw four interceptions in two games from Week 9 to Week 10 and Seattle lost both of those contests. When he’s off, the whole house of cards comes crumbling down. Luckily for Seahawks fans, there aren’t many down games for Wilson. Because the Eagles struggled to mount much of an offense, Wilson wasn’t asked to do much this week. He scored once and only took two sacks without throwing an interception. He would have scored a second time but DK Metcalf dropped a touchdown pass in the second half. When Wilson is in rhythm, there are few teams in the league that have the firepower to compete with the Seattle offense.
Drops aside, Metcalf showed off why he was set to be one of the biggest stars at receiver on Monday night. Metcalf physically dominated Darius Slay throughout the night, getting the better of him on contested catches and by creating separation with his mind-boggling speed. He ended the day with 10 catches for 177 yards on 13 targets.
Fantasy Slant: Dallas Goedert is officially back after missing much of the season with an ankle injury. He has technically been back for a few weeks now but consecutive games with a touchdown and at least 75 yards put him firmly in the top half of TE1 territory moving forward. First-round rookie Jalen Reagor was targeted seven times but Wentz’s inaccuracy makes him a low-floor WR3 at best. Miles Sanders only saw six carries and three targets. He needs the Eagles to play in more competitive games to return RB1 fantasy days. Carlos Hyde out-carried Chris Carson 15-8 but much of that split came in the second half. Hyde rushed eight times in the second half while Carson only saw one rush in the final two frames. Carson was coming off a multi-week foot injury and the Eagles weren’t threatening the Seahawks much in the second half. Carson should be able to rebound as an RB2 versus the Giants next week.
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Daily Slants
Will Fuller received a six-game PED suspension, keeping him away from football for the remainder of the fantasy season. Randall Cobb was placed on injured reserve recently and the team also parted ways with Kenny Stills. That leaves Keke Coutee as the second receiver for an offense that is currently fourth in passing yards per game. He is one of the priority adds off the waiver wire this week.
Daniel Jones is expected to miss “some time” with a hamstring injury. He isn’t likely to play in Week 13 versus the Seahawks, which leaves Colt McCoy as the starting quarterback for the Giants in that game. Because the matchup versus Seattle has proven fruitful for most of their opponents, McCoy is worth a flyer in Superflex and 2QB leagues. All Giants pass-catchers get downgraded until Jones returns.
The Baltimore/Pittsburgh game was moved to Wednesday afternoon but all major fantasy sites are still counting their stats for Week 12. With every other game for Week 12 having concluded, there’s nothing more for fantasy managers to do but hope that the COVID-19 outbreak in Baltimore is contained and the fantasy players in this game accrue their expected fantasy points. The Pittsburgh/Washington matchup for Week 13 was moved to Monday to give the Steelers extra time between games.
