PHILADELPHIA — LeGarrette Blount sees some Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Carson Wentz and the Philadelphia Eagles.
After winning two Super Bowls with the Patriots, Blount came to Philadelphia and now is part of the team with the best record in the NFL. Winning seems to follow the bruising back.
“This team is special, man,” Blount said with a big smile. “Special.”
Blount ran 12 yards for a touchdown, Wentz tossed two TD passes and Jalen Mills had a pick-6 in Philadelphia’s 33-10 victory over the winless San Francisco 49ers on a rainy Sunday.
The Eagles (7-1) have won six straight games. The 49ers are 0-8 for the first time in franchise history.
“I’m having a lot of fun here,” Blount said. “I didn’t know how good this team would be.”
His new team is playing so well it can win going away despite a sloppy effort.
“The first half was ugly,” tight end Zach Ertz said. “It wasn’t a great performance by us.”
Wentz was 18 of 32 for 211 yards and one interception. He threw a 53-yard TD pass to Alshon Jeffery and 1-yard TD pass to Ertz. The second-year pro leads the NFL with 19 TD passes, most by an Eagles quarterback through eight games.
C.J. Beathard shoveled a 21-yard TD pass to Matt Breida and finished 17 of 36 for 167 yards with two interceptions in his second career start.
Some things we learned from Philadelphia’s win over San Francisco:
PROTECTING CARSON: Wentz is taking too many hits. He was sacked three times plus one that was negated by penalty, took shots on a couple of scrambles, and had guys in his face throughout the game. It was Philadelphia’s first game without nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters.
“It’s a good defense,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. “We didn’t execute the protection as well. We got it fixed and were able to kind of piece it together.”
NEED REINFORCEMENTS: The 49ers are banged-up in a big way. It was so bad after left tackle Joe Staley (eye) and right tackle Garry Gilliam (knee) went down that tight end Garrett Celek was next in line to play tackle. Defensive linemen Solomon Thomas (knee) and DL C.J. Jones (knee), safety Jimmie Ward (forearm) and wide receiver Pierre Garcon (neck) also didn’t finish the game. Shanahan said Staley injured his orbital and needed stitches in his eye. The team said he was staying overnight at a hospital.
“We can’t use it as an excuse,” Garcon said. “We just have to keep playing, regardless of who is in there.”
HAVING FUN: After he scored, Ertz flipped the ball to two-time American League MVP Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels. Trout, who grew up in nearby Millville, New Jersey, is a die-hard Eagles fan who sits in the first row on the field behind an end zone. Wentz gave him a football after a TD pass during a game last season.
Following Jeffery’s TD, Ertz pretended to start a brawl by hitting Jeffery with a pitch (football) as the players continued to celebrate certain TDs by playing baseball. Ertz was the pitcher, Jeffery was the batter and Wentz was the catcher.
“It’s a blast right now,” Ertz said. “We’re having a lot of fun, we’re playing extremely loose and we have a lot of confidence. We have a lot of unselfish guys.”
ONLY UP FROM HERE: The 49ers aren’t as bad as their record indicates. They’ve lost five games by a field goal or less and were competitive against the Eagles into the third quarter.
“This is where you find out a lot about guys when you’re 0-8. How do you act and how do you react?” Beathard said.
GOING DEEP: Wentz has already thrown five TD passes of at least 50 yards, one short of tying the team record. He only had one as a rookie last season and that was a 73-yard screen pass to Darren Sproles.
