This one wasn't pretty, no questions there. How bad was it? Let's count the ways:
15 combined accepted penalties for 149 yards
four total turnover by the Packers
practically a bottomless injury list, especially on Green Bay's side but there were more than a few Eagles that got nicked
pretty crummy QB play by both teams, but much worse by Love
None of that matters for Philly tonight (with the probable exception of the loss of Nakobe Dean, I don't think he's coming back); the Birds led for all but the first 1:39 of game time and it rarely felt that the Packers were ever going to climb back into this matchup. Let's hit the talking points bullet-style:
The Week 1 game in Brazil was notable for the turnovers the Eagles struggled with (ended up losing the turnover battle 3-1); total reversal today with a 4-0 turnover ratio. The Birds have racked up an absurd 14-2 turnover ratio over the last four games.
Today represents just the second time all season that the Eagles have had their entire offense start and finish a game; the first was ironically the season opener against these Packers.
I mentioned that I didn't think Jalen played a great game, but the biggest takeaways here are the total lack of turnovers or turnover worthy plays, and the fact that he completely outplayed Jordan Love, who was awful today (not just the three picks but struggled with accuracy all day). My biggest complaint regarding Jalen was that he's back to holding the ball too long and taking dumb sacks and TFLs. Of course, Jalen holding the ball for a long time set up his first scoring pass to Dotson.
Big game (again) for Saquon, who "only" ended up with 119 yards but passed on another 59 yards and a touchdown to end the game by sliding.
Basically a dead heat statistically, although that's mostly due to what Green Bay gained on their meaningless final drive, and of course the yardage that Barkley passed on.
The tackling seemed to suffer once Dean went out with his injury; hopefully that won't be an issue going forward. The buzz certainly points to a long term injury, but Oren Burks looks like he can step in ably.
Love's struggles and the Packer injuries certainly had something to do with it, but on the whole I thought the defense played a solid game. They crushed the pocket all day long without blitzing and the fear that Green Bay would be able to hit them deep never fully materialized. Again, tackling was an issue at times but here's your bottom line: the 5.0 yards/play allowed is more than a yard less than the Packers' season long mark of 6.1 YPP.
Nolan Smith's elite speed was on display when he tracked down the athletic Love for one of his two sacks today. He may well be the most improved player on the defense.
Jake Elliott hit all three of his FGs (good!) but of course missed the one PAT (bad!). Still not sure what to make of all that but some of those field goals were high pressure, so I think it's safe to say that the sky isn't falling on Chicken Little just yet.
All told this was a rock solid win, and no matter what else you take a win in the playoffs. What a change from this same weekend last year, when this team had hit absolute rock bottom. If Tampa wins tonight, we'll get a rematch with them. Otherwise, we'll host the winner of tomorrow's Rams-Vikings game. Philly is moving on to the divisional round and we're all here for it.
FLY EAGLES FLY!
Comments