It was a frustrating Sunday for the Eagles on many fronts, but they still got the result they needed when all was said and done.
Jalen Hurts threw two touchdowns in his return from a concussion and the Packers shot themselves in the foot time and again over the course of a 22-10 Eagles win on their home field. The win moves the Packers on to the divisional round and they will host a game next weekend, although they’ll need to wait for the final two games of the Wild Card round to play out before they will know their opponent.
Hurts opened the game with six straight completions as the Eagles jumped out to a 10-0 lead, but slowed down in the second quarter and finished the afternoon 13-of-21 for 131 yards. The biggest completion of the second half came when Hurts flipped a ball to tight end Dallas Goedert in the face of a heavy blitz in the third quarter and Goedert powered his way for a 24-yard touchdown.
The score made it 16-3 Eagles and ended a run of four straight possessions without punts for the home team. Injuries to wide receiver Romeo Doubs, left guard Elgton Jenkins, center Josh Myers, and wide receiver Jayden Reed on top of missing wideout Christian Watson limited the Packers’ ability to put together scoring drives, but they pulled back within six points thanks to running back Josh Jacobs.
An unnecessary roughness penalty by defensive back Keisean Nixon — who also lost a fumble on the opening kickoff — on the ensuing Eagles drive helped set up a Jake Elliott field goal and little-used wide receiver Malik Heath wasn’t able to come down in bounds with a fourth down pass from Jordan Love when the Packers got the ball back. Another personal foul by defensive lineman TJ Slaton helped set up another Elliott field goal and the deficit was too much for a depleted Packers team to overcome.
The penalties — eight for 85 yards overall — and three interceptions by Love joined Nixon’s fumble and a missed 38-yard field goal by Brandon McManus as errors that the short-handed Packers couldn’t afford. They’ll lament those mistakes for a little bit and then get to work on putting together a team that can make it deeper into the postseason next time around.
The Eagles will work to clean up some of their own sloppiness from Sunday as they had just 270 yards while going 2-of-11 on third downs. The offensive struggles left wide receiver A.J. Brown with time to catch up on some reading on the bench and the quest for “Inner Excellence” will need to be crisper the next time out if the Eagles are going to have any chance of making it to New Orleans in February.