Jan 12, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Darius Slay Jr. (2) reacts after an interception against the Green Bay Packers during the first half in an NFC wild card game at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images Bill Streicher
Saquon Barkley, the likely Offensive Player of the Year, was the best offseason acquisition made by Howie Roseman and the Eagles.
No. 2, though, was defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. That was on full display Sunday as the Eagles were able to win a playoff game against a banged up Green Bay Packers team despite a less-than-stellar offensive showing.
Here's five takeaways as the Eagles move onto the NFC Divisional Round by virtue of 22-10 victory over the Packers.
The Eagles won the opening kickoff and deferred, but it didn't take them long to get the ball back.
Oren Burks lit Green Bay return man Keisean Nixon up, jarring the ball loose. It was ruled a recovery by Jeremiah Trotter Jr. on the field, and upon further review there wasn't conclusive evidence to overturn that:
The Packers fumble the ball on the kickoff 👀 pic.twitter.com/M4ZAwWA5BA
The Eagles took over on Green Bay's 28-yard line, and it didn't take them long to cash in.
Barkley — he of the 2,005 rushing yards during the regular season — took his first carry in two weeks 16 yards. Then after a one-yard rush by Barkley, Hurts — returning from a concussion he suffered in Week 16 — bought time and found Jahan Dotson in the end zone for a touchdown. Just as we all predicted, the first touchdown of the postseason for the Eagles came from a Lehigh Valley native who played collegiately at Penn State:
Jalen Hurts to Jahan Dotson! ✅
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It's hard to imagine a better way to open the game than that for the Eagles.
It's weird, Hurts hit his first six passes on the day. There were no early signs of rust.
But as the game went on, Jeff Hafley's defense kept Hurts from having a major impact.
Outside of Hurts connecting with Dotson for the touchdown described above, the only other major play through the passing game was a third-quarter reception that Dallas Goedert willed into being a touchdown by virtue of a vicious stiffarm:
DALLAS GOEDERT TD ✅
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A.J. Brown did have a big block to help Goedert, but finished the day with just one catch for 10 yards. Hurts missed him on what would have been a significant gain off of a fake tush push early in the fourth quarter:
THE TUSH PUSH PLAY ACTION 👀
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At one point in the fourth, Brown was even seen reading a motivational book on the bench:
Some light reading for AJ Brown 📕 pic.twitter.com/TgZRgD9ADF
Hurts finished the day with two touchdown passes, completing 13 of 21 pass attempts for just 131 yards.
You can have a game like this in the postseason. But the offensive formula Sunday wasn't one that the Eagles will want to replicate if they want their season to continue beyond next weekend.
During the regular season, Fangio's defense allowed an NFL-low 278.4 yards per game. No other defense in the NFL allowed less than 311.2 yards per game. Sunday, the Eagles defense limited the Packers to 319 yards, picking off Jordan Love three times.
Baun was named a First-Team All-Pro at linebacker this week, and continued what's been one of the best stories of the NFL season with a second-quarter interception of Love:
Picked off by @zackbizzaun! 💪
pic.twitter.com/7KCXWpPj4k
Darius Slay, Quinyon Mitchell and Nolan Smith were among those who also had key defensive plays in the strong defensive showing Sunday:
Darius Slay picks it off 😤
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One unfortunate note — Nakobe Dean left in the first half and was quickly ruled out with a knee injury. The third-year linebacker has thrived in the Fangio system, and already had six total tackles and two tackles for a loss before exiting Sunday's game. Losing him for any period of time would be extremely unfortunate.
This isn't breaking news, but if you were hoping that Elliott would be able to flip a switch in the postseason, Sunday wasn't an encouraging day.
Just a year after he was a Second-Team All-Pro selection, Elliott had his worst campaign as a pro. Elliott hit 93.8% of his field goal attempts in 2023. In 2024, he converted on just 77.8%. Most troubling is that Elliott made just one of seven attempts from 50 or more yards during the regular season. Again, it was a precipitous dropoff after he hit seven of his eight attempts from 50 or longer last season.
So while it wasn't particularly shocking that Nick Sirianni elected to have the Eagles line up to go for a fourth-and-four at the Green Bay 39-yard line in the second quarter, it's a bit telling about where they are in the kicking game right now. Maybe Sirianni would have gone for things in the same scenario last year, and a false start that backed the Eagles up and led to a punt made it a moot point. But if you don't trust Elliott to hit 50+ yard field goals, it's probably going to come back to bite you at some point in the postseason.
To his credit, Elliott had already hit a 31-yard field goal in the first quarter, which extended the lead to 10-0. He hit two other field goals from 30+ in the fourth quarter. But following the aforementioned Goedert touchdown in the third quarter, Elliott missed the extra-point attempt.
It just doesn't feel like this storyline is going to end well for the Eagles.
The NFL reseeds after each round of the postseason, so it's not as simple as saying the Eagles will play the winner of tonight's game between the Washington Commanders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
If the No. 6 seed Commanders beat the Buccaneers, they will be the lowest remaining NFC seed and will go to No. 1 seed Detroit next week. That would leave the Eagles to host the winner of Monday night's matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings.
However, if the No. 3 seed Buccaneers defeat the Commanders, then the Eagles will host Tampa in the Divisional Round. The Lions, coming off of a first-round bye, would then host the Rams or Vikings.
There isn't a scenario where the Eagles and Commanders meet for a third time this season in the Divisional Round.
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