The Philadelphia Eagles capped off week 17 with a 34-26 victory over the New York Giants finishing the Eagles with a 10-6 record. Overall, the season had many highs and lows, especially when the Eagles played the Texans and lost both Nick Foles (QB) and DeMeco Ryans (MLB) but ended winning the road game. Everyone had their doubts against Mark Sanchez, who played in place of the injured Nick Foles, and up until the Seahawks game Sanchez was 4-1 only losing to the Packers in Green Bay. Unfortunately, the Birds lost their next 3 games and lost the division to the Dallas Cowboys. The season all around can be looked at from a lot of different ways, Eagles fans saw their secondary completely fall apart which was a main reason why the Eagles fell short when they had to play well.
"Offense sells tickets, Defense wins championships" -Bear Bryant. The Eagles defensive line was playing at it's peak throughout the season, getting to the quarterback on almost every occasion. Fletcher Cox, Bennie Logan, Cedric Thornton, and Vinny Curry all had an unbelievable season. Another great defensive aspect was OLB Connor Barwin who had 14.5 sacks and is going to the 2015 Pro Bowl. 1st round draft pick Marcus Smith was very disappointing the rookie rarely saw the field and was an overall waste of a pick. As previously stated, the Eagles secondary was just awful to look, against the Dallas Cowboys Dez Bryant torched Bradley Fletcher countless times single handedly beat the Eagles with some help from Mark Sanchez who threw 2 INT's. Altogether the Eagles defense wasn't very impressive and actually played very poor in key situations.
The Eagles offense was very impressive for most of the season, pro bowler LeSean McCoy had a very shaky start but finished the season with 1,000+ yards and WR Jeremy Maclin also finished with 1,000+ yards and 10 touchdowns. 2nd round draft pick Jordan Matthews was very impressive with 67 receptions for 872 yards and 8 touchdowns, Matthews had a slow start but really picked it up in crunch time. Offseason acquisition Darren Sproles had an excellent season as a backup running back and punt returner, Sproles had 6 touchdowns and as a punt returner had 2 TD's and averaged 13.0 yards per return, Darren Sproles was also selected to the Pro Bowl. Overall the Eagles 2014 season was a step forward and in the offseason the Eagles know what they have to improve. Chip Kelly had another great season as head coach and will return for 2015 season.