Eagles bag Panthers

PHILADELPHIA – Mark Sanchez did his part for the Eagles while the defense dominated and special teams shined.

Darren Sproles had two touchdowns, Sanchez threw for two scores and the defense sacked Cam Newton nine times to help Philadelphia beat the Carolina Panthers 45-21 Monday night.

Filling in for an injured Nick Foles, Sanchez had 332 yards passing in his first start since Dec. 30, 2012.

Sproles returned a punt 65 yards for a score and had an 8-yard TD run. Bradley Fletcher returned an interception 34 yards for a TD and Jordan Matthews had 138 yards receiving and two TDs.

“Just an outstanding performance by all three phases,” Sanchez said.

The Eagles (7-2) stayed on top in the NFC East. They’re trying to repeat as division champions without Foles, who broke his collarbone in a win at Houston last week.

The Panthers (3-6-1) hardly look like the team that won the NFC South last year. They’ve lost four in a row and already have allowed more points in 10 games than they did in 2013. Making things worse, Panthers defensive tackle Star Lotulelei was carted off the field late in the third quarter.

“We’ve got to do things better,” Panthers coach Ron Rivera said. “I have to coach better, coaches have to coach better, we have to practice better and then go out and play better. And we’re going to do it together as a team.”

Newton threw the first of three interceptions and DeAngelo Williams lost a fumble on Carolina’s first three plays from scrimmage. The turnovers led to 10 points for the Eagles.

Conor Barwin had 3 1/2 sacks and Brandon Graham had 1 1/2. Newton had never been sacked more than seven times in his career.

“We wanted to keep Cam in the pocket and if we didn’t, we didn’t want him to go north, we just wanted him to go east and west and we did that,” Barwin said. “Nobody gave him a hole to rush through. Everyone stayed disciplined and he didn’t really know where to go when he tried to escape.”

The game was already in Philadelphia’s control when Newton threw a pair of fourth-quarter TDs to Kelvin Benjamin.

Sanchez, the former franchise quarterback for the New York Jets, signed a one-year deal to back up Foles after missing last season following shoulder surgery. Though he led the Jets to the AFC championship game his first two seasons, he didn’t live up to enormous expectations in New York after being picked fifth in the 2009 draft.

But one day before his 28th birthday, Sanchez had one of the best games of his career in his first start in Chip Kelly’s up-tempo, quarterback-friendly offense.

“After playing for a while, you learn a lot,” he said. “I’ve made plenty of mistakes and hurt the team. The most important thing was taking care of the football, communicating well and executing. If we do that, generally we’ll be successful. There are still plenty of things to clean up though. By no means was this perfect.”