Seahawks down Eagles to keep NFL lead

NEW YORK: Seattle’s Russell Wilson threw for 230 yards and a touchdown to spark the Seahawks over the Philadelphia Eagles 23-17 on Monday and keep them alone atop their NFL division. The Seahawks improved to 8-3, one game ahead of the Los Angeles Rams atop the NFC West, while the Eagles fell to 3-7 with one drawn, a half-game behind Washington and the New York Giants in the NFC East.

“Our team was prepared,” Wilson said. “We’re playing championship football. Our defense has picked it up the past few games. We had a lot of big plays. We kept battling. We did it together. That’s what championship teams do.”

Seattle’s attack, the top-scoring unit in the NFL, was denied twice on fourth-down plays by the Eagles in the first quarter, but struck early in the second. Wilson, who completed 22-of-31 attempts, threw a 52-yard pass to D.K. Metcalf to the Eagles’ 1-yard line and then flipped a touchdown pass to David Moore to open the scoring.

Metcalf made 10 catches for 177 yards in all to seize the NFL season receiving yardage lead with 1,039.

“D.K. Metcalf had a great night,” Wilson said.

Chris Carson broke tackles and battled into the end zone on a 16-yard run to give the Seahawks a 14-0 lead

with 5:27 remaining in the second quarter.

The Eagles needed 25 minutes to manage a first down and 26 to reach Seattle territory, but Carson Wentz made the march pay off.

Wentz drove Philadelphia 75 yards in 15 plays over 5:15, ending with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert just 17 seconds before the end of the quarter, but a missed conversion kick attempt left the Eagles down 14-6 at half-time.

Philadelphia’s Jake Elliott kicked a 42-yard field goal midway into the third quarter, but Seattle’s Jason Myers answered from 44 yards to give the Seahawks a 17-9 edge entering the fourth quarter.

Seattle added field goals by Myers from 33 and 39 yards for a 23-9 lead before Wentz threw a deflected 32-yard touchdown pass to Richard Rodgers with 12 seconds remaining, and Miles Sanders ran for a 2-point conversion to create the final margin.