As excited as the Eagles fans were over the win against the Bucs, the Thursday Night Football loss to the Bengals brought everyone back down to Earth. What an awful game by the Eagles offense, who allowed the Bengals Defense to score a surprisingly 17 fantasy football points. If you played them, kudos to you. I was not expecting that type of output. There were a lot of other good, bad and very ugly things that went down besides the Bengals win in Philly.
THE GOOD
BenJarvus Green-Ellis - This guy just keeps on chugging away. Last night's 106 rushing yards was his 4th 100+ outing in the last 5 games. The touchdown he had was icing on the cake. And he has now eclipsed 100-total yards over the last 5 weeks. With 5 Eagles turnovers, the Bengals went run heavy over the course of the late 3rd and entire 4th quarter. Which, unfortunately, resulted in Andy Dalton not putting up QB1 numbers like we and others predicted. With BGE continuing to get the carries as the lead back, it will be hard to bench him against the Steelers in Week 16. I will likely rank him as a mid-tier RB2.
THE BAD
Nick Foles - I didn't advise playing Foles in my Thursday Night Football Preview, but I also didn't think he would look as bad as he did coming off a tremendous Week 15. He completed just 4 passes out of 9 thrown in the second half. He also heaved up a terribly under-thrown pass that was intended for Jeremy Maclin, but was intercepted by Leon Hall for a 44-yard gain. Not sure what happened in the locker room during half time, but the second-half Eagles looked beyond awful, turning the ball over 4 out of the 5 total they had for the entire game. With a Week 16 divisional matchup against the Redskins coming up, those fans who think Foles is the future of the franchise have to hope he can rebound. Foles showed his rookie colors Thursday night. He's nothing more than a dynasty keeper at this point.
THE UGLY
Bryce Brown - Brown's 34 yards off 16 carries were not only pitiful, but the write up I did on him "bouncing back" made me look like a joke. Instead of running up the middle, like he had done in Week 13 and Week 14, he tended to bounce outside on almost every run. The Bengals caught on quickly. If that wasn't bad enough, Brown lost yet another costly fumble that resulted in a touchdown. And he juggled it before even being hit. Foles made the exchange, Brown lost the handoff due to pressure and Cincinnati DL Wallace Gilberry took the ball 25 yards the other way for a score. Brown could be an excellent running back, but these costly fumbles aren't going to get him far. Running backs coach Duce Staley has to do a better job at showing this kid how to hang onto the ball. LeSean McCoy is pretty close to returning, possibly for Week 16. If so, we could see the last of Brown as a fantasy option for the near future. There could be a timeshare here for the rest of the year, but I've lost all faith in Brown as a fantasy option going forward even if he does get carries.