It was far from pretty, but the Eagles beat the Packers on Monday Night Football.
The Eagles took down the Packers, 10-7, at Lambeau Field.
Philadelphia, coming out of the bye, improved to 7-2 on the season, tying the Seahawks and Rams for the best record in the NFC. The Packers, meanwhile, fell to 5-3-1 overall.
It was an ugly win, but an important one for the Eagles as they start the back half of the season and eye a potential No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs.
Here are the winners and losers from the Eagles’ third win in a row.
Winner: Jaelan Phillips
Howie Roseman and the Eagles made a splashy move at the trade deadline, sending a third-round pick to the Dolphins for edge rusher Jaelan Phillips. Roseman called acquiring Phillips a “no-brainer.” We saw why in his first game with Philadelphia.
Phillips provided an immediate impact. He recorded six tackles, secured a fumble recovery and chased down Love relentlessly. Phillips helped create Jalyx Hunt’s sack, pushing his blocker back and making Love move off his spot. And then, of course, Phillips almost ended the game with a TFL on Josh Jacobs on fourth-and-1 with less than a minute to go.
So far, so good for the newest Eagle.
Winner: The entire defensive line
Phillips wasn’t the only member of the front four who impressed. Hunt had the 14-yard sack on the Packers’ opening drive, setting the tone for Philly’s defense and giving him sacks in back-to-back games. Jalen Carter batted down two passes. Moro Ojomo was integral in directing runs and applying pressure on Love. It was an all-out effort from the defensive line.
Loser: Conservative decision-making
It’s difficult to know sometimes who’s responsible for situational play-calls: the offensive coordinator or the head coach, one with an offensive background no less. So let’s just blame both Kevin Patullo and Nick Sirianni for those give-up Will Shipley runs on third-and-long.
Instead of being aggressive and trusting Jalen Hurts to connect with A.J. Brown or DeVonta Smith, the Eagles ran three coward’s draws: one on third-and-12, one on third-and-14 and another at the end of the first half for no reason whatsoever. They just gave up on drives early. The defense could be leaned on. But the Eagles are too talented to be that conservative.
Loser: Aggressive decision-making
After being risk-averse most of the game, the pendulum swung wildly in the other direction. On fourth-and-6 from Green Bay’s 35-yard line with 33 seconds left, the Eagles didn’t punt it. They could have pinned the Packers deep and made them go 50 or 60 yards for a game-tying field goal attempt. Instead, they went for it, and the deep shot landed incomplete. The Packers had a field goal try, but Brandon McManus’ 64-yard attempt was way off target. Still, the fact that Green Bay even had a chance to send that to overtime was baffling.
Loser: Late-game offense
Last year, if the Eagles had the ball with the lead with five minutes to go, it was basically a wrap. Barkley and a physically-imposing offensive line were going to take any suspense out of the game, killing the clock and securing a victory. But the Eagles haven’t had that same killer identity with the ground game this season, and it showed at Lambeau.
After Green Bay found the end zone with 5:49 to go, the Eagles led by three with a chance to end the game and couldn’t. They picked up a pair of first downs. But with less than three minutes left, the Eagles were a first down away from nearly icing it. Instead, a two-yard run and back-to-back incompletions gave Green Bay the ball back with a chance to win the game. Fortunately for the offense, Phillips and the defense had its back.
Winner: DeVonta Smith
This was far from a shootout. But when the offense is in a slog, giving your best players a chance to make a play is always a good idea — and DeVonta Smith made it count. After Saquon Barkley took a dump-off pass 41 yards, Jalen Hurts uncorked an end-zone shot for Smith. The ball was a little underthrown, but it didn’t matter. Smith, a contested catch machine, went up for it and beat one-on-one coverage for a crucial 36-yard touchdown grab.
Smith, who also had a key 16-yard catch on third-and-12 on the Eagles’ final drive, finished with four receptions for 69 yards. It wasn’t a prolific performance. But it was an important showing from Smith, who now has 336 receiving yards in the last three games.
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