Unbeaten no more

Eagles beat up Bradford, down sloppy Vikings

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, who struggled early in Sunday’s game in Philadelphia, completed 16 of 28 passes for 138 yards and 1 touchdown with 2 interceptions.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, who struggled early in Sunday’s game in Philadelphia, completed 16 of 28 passes for 138 yards and 1 touchdown with 2 interceptions.

PHILADELPHIA -- Josh Huff returned a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, Carson Wentz outplayed Sam Bradford and the Philadelphia Eagles beat Minnesota 21-10 on Sunday, handing the Vikings their first loss of the season.

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Josh Huff

The Eagles (4-2) snapped a two-game losing streak while the rested Vikings (5-1) hardly looked like an unbeaten team after having a bye.

"I thought we played embarrassing in two phases," Vikings Coach Mike Zimmer said. "I'm very disappointed in the performance.

Bradford returned to Philadelphia for the first time since his trade to Minnesota eight days before the season opener paved the way for Wentz to start. Bradford was 7-7 in his only season with the Eagles and won his first four starts for the Vikings.

But the Eagles pressured and harassed their former quarterback all game, sacked him six times, and forced his first three turnovers this season.

"I thought he missed some throws that he normally makes, but he got hit a lot," Zimmer said. "It's probably hard to evaluate his performance when [the line] looks like a sieve."

Wentz also struggled early, tossing two interceptions. But he recovered to lead the Eagles on a couple of scoring drives, including a 5-yard TD pass to Dorial Green-Beckham in the third quarter for an 18-3 lead.

"That's a great defense we played," Wentz said. "I have to be smarter with the football. We found a way to win. That's huge for us."

Both teams had a sloppy start.

After combining for only three turnovers in 10 games, the teams traded giveaways on five consecutive series in the first quarter and totaled eight turnovers. The Vikings started two straight drives inside the red zone, but squandered both chances.

Blair Walsh hit a 48-yard field goal to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead before Huff broke loose for his second career touchdown return. Huff sprinted up the right side, ran through Walsh's attempted arm tackle at the 40, raced untouched to the end zone and capped it with a somersault. Wentz ran in from the 1 for the two-point conversion to give the Eagles an 8-3 lead.

"He's a kicker," Huff said. "I couldn't let a kicker tackle me or I'd be mad at myself."

The Vikings had the ball at the Eagles 2 after Andrew Sendejo intercepted Wentz's pass and returned it 16 yards. But Bradford tossed his first interception when Rodney McLeod caught a lofted pass in the end zone.

The Eagles gave it right back when Darren Sproles fumbled Wentz's handoff. But on the first play from the Philadelphia 17, Connor Barwin stripped Bradford and Malcolm Jenkins recovered. Jenkins returned it 76 yards for a score, but he was ruled down by contact after a video review.

Wentz threw another interception on the next series, a diving play by Xavier Rhodes, but Minnesota's offense didn't do anything again.

Sports on 10/24/2016

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