Winners, losers from Thursday Night Football

We hope the rest of the Week 3 NFL preseason slate doesn’t come close to what we saw Thursday night between the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles.

For the defending champion Eagles, it was about as bad as one can imagine. Reigning Super Bowl MVP Nick Foles turned the ball over four times.

He was consistently threatened in the backfield by Myles Garrett, and couldn’t click with Philadelphia’s second-team offense.

On the other side of the ball, Browns quarterback Tyrod Taylor exited in the game with a hand injury in the first quarter. Seemingly done for the remainder of the preseason, Browns head coach Hue Jackson made the most Hue Jackson of calls by bringing Taylor back into a meaningless game.

These are among the winners and losers from Cleveland’s ugly 5-0 preseason win over Philadelphia Thursday evening.

Winner: Myles Garrett, defensive end, Cleveland Browns

a close up of a person wearing a helmet © Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Eagles left tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai had absolutely no answer for this second-year stud Thursday evening. Throughout the first half, it was apparent that Garrett could get to Nick Foles on a consistent basis.

Philadelphia even sent double teams in Garrett’s direction without much success.

It’s this type of domination that the Browns expected from the Texas A&M product when they made him the No. 1 overall pick back in 2017. It’s a game-changing ability, one that will help this defense improve leaps and bounds once the regular season starts.

Coming back from a minor injury, the reigning Super Bowl MVP struggled in his second consecutive preseason outing. This week against Cleveland, it was about both a lack of accuracy and an inability to get rid of the ball on time. Out of the gate, he threw the ball late on an out route. It was a pass that Browns cornerback Terrance Mitchell almost turned into a pick-six.

Then, later in the first half, this Foles pass was picked off by defensive back Briean Boddy-Calhoun.

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