The Philadelphia Eagles moved to 7-2 in their season with a dominating 45-21 victory over the Carolina Panthers in their NFL clash.
The Eagles were handed the opportunity to take the lead when DeAngelo Williams fumbled the ball inside his own 20-yard line, allowing the home side to gather. Mark Sanchez couldn't guide his offense to a touchdown, but Cody Parkey was on hand to kick a field goal.
On the Panthers' next possession, quarterback Cam Newton threw an interception into the hands of Cary Williams who made the catch ahead of Kelvin Benjamin. The Eagles extended their lead when Darren Sproles ran to the left behind a good block from Brent Celek for a touchdown.
Carolina responded as they managed to get seven points on the board when Newton drove them downfield and into the redzone. Jonathan Stewart completed the score when he powered through the line into the endzone.
However, following another failed series from the Panthers' offense, Sproles notched his second touchdown of the game when he returned a punt from Brad Nortman 65 yards for the score.
Matters got even better for the Eagles when Sanchez engineered a drive as he connected with wideout Jordan Matthews to move his team into the redzone. He and Matthews then combined for the touchdown with a 13-yard strike.
Carolina's and Newton's half ended badly when he threw a pick-six as Bradley Fletcher made the interception and ran the ball back to the endzone for a 34-yard score.
In the second half, the Eagles added to their sizeable lead when Sanchez lofted the ball downfield for Celek, who made the catch to take his team to the one-yard line. LeSean McCoy completed the touchdown when he ran in untouched for the score.
Sanchez got into a rhythm again in the fourth quarter as he sealed the Eagles' victory when he lofted the ball over defensive end Charles Johnson for Matthews, who shrugged off a tackle to notch his second score of the game.
The Panthers made the scoreline somewhat respectable towards the end of the match when Newton hit Benjamin for touchdown strikes of 21 and 40 yards, but the Eagles were able to kneel out for the victory.
Simon Sinclair
