By: Kylan Watson
After beating the New York Giants last week, the Philadelphia Eagles started their postseason facing the Green Bay Packers for Wildcard Weekend. Philly was able to take advantage of four Green Bay turnovers to win this game 22-12 and have assured themselves at least one more home playoff game next weekend.
The Eagles found their rhythm early in this contest as they took advantage of their special teams causing an early turnover on the kickoff return. As a result, Philly had perfect field position and Hurts found Jahan Dotson in the back of endzone to take an early lead in this contest. On their next possession the Eagles marched down the field again and capped that drive off with a Jake Elliott field goal. Philly dominated the first half of this game and looked like they would blow the Packers off the field, their offense stalled in the second quarter as the Packers defensive unit settled in and did not allow the Eagles to score any more points in the first half.
Philly’s offense stalled out, but when it mattered most, they were able to put it together and go right down the field. Hurts completed six of his passes in that drive with the final pass leading Dallas Goedert to the endzone for his second touchdown pass of the game to finish the drive and take the commanding lead over Green Bay.
The Eagles offense did not take advantage of multiple opportunities that they had to really end the Packers hopes of a comeback. In addition, they failed to really take advantage of the big plays in this game. They will have to be better if they want to make it back to the super bowl.
Jalen Hurts was clearly rusty throughout this contest and should be better with a full week of practice. They also must give Hurts easier passes to get him going to start a game. They can do this by using slant, crossing, and screen passes to help the offense find their rhythm. That should allow Philly to have a more balanced offense that is difficult for the opposing teams to scheme against. Doing this should open opportunities for Saquon Barkley, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert to have multiple chances to put points on the board and sustain possessions. They really failed to maintain their offensive drives in this contest but were saved by their defensive dominance over the Packers offense.
The Eagles defensive unit once again dominated the opposing team’s offensive unit. While they were only able to sack Jordan Love two times in this contest, they made it difficult for him to find his rhythm which led to three turnovers by Love. For example, on one possession Love threw a deep ball and Darius Slay Jr. recovered well to intercept the ball and keep the Packers off the board. Vic Fangio did a fantastic job disguising the defensive coverage and that confused Love enough to cause two more turnovers and set the Eagles offense up with more opportunities to drain the clock and put points on the board.
Since their bye week one thing the Eagles have done is play complimentary football in all phases of the game. That has been an enormous difference maker for Philly and is the reason they have been one of the best teams in the league over the past few months.
The Eagles will now prepare for the divisional round next weekend with the opponent yet to be determined. However, no matter who the opponent is next week the Eagles will need to figure out how to scheme up a multi-faceted balanced offensive scheme for a complete game. Doing this should help keep their defensive unit fresh and help Philly continue to play complimentary football.
Implementing these things into their game plan should put the Eagles in great position to win next week’s game and advance to the NFC Championship game.