Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Review – Playoffs – PHI 22, GB 10

Posted January 15th, 2025 | 2 Comments »

Buddy Ryan never won a playoff game as coach of the Eagles. If he had, this is the kind of win that would have made him happy. The Eagles played great defense. They ran the ball well and passed effectively enough to secure the win. This felt like old school football.

The game was short on style points, unless you love defense. Both teams teams had Top 5 defenses in the regular season and that showed in the game. Every yard was hard earned. The difference in the game was the Eagles coming up with 4 takeaways and a fourth down stop.

This game wasn’t a shootout like the season opener played by the same two teams. Still, it was an intense, compelling game. The Eagles were in control from start to finish, but they did struggle to get separation. Jordan Love will get a lot of criticism for his performance. He struggled. A lot of that was due to the Eagles. They were disruptive up front and covered well on the back end. Love never looked comfortable.

It is fun to have a great defense.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni seemed to go with a conservative approach in this game. The Eagles only went for it on one fourth down. They were conservative on several 3rd & long situations. Maybe he sensed the offense wasn’t at its best. Maybe he felt that confident in his defense. The strategy worked, even though it isn’t the style of Eagles football we are used to seeing.

Kellen Moore focused on the run game, calling 34 runs to 23 pass plays. RPOs may skew that a bit, but you still see that the Eagles focused on the run. Moore made a handful of really good calls in the game, but overall this was not his best game. The passing game felt too random and just didn’t have a good flow to it. Some calls made no sense. The Eagles threw out wide to Barkley on an early third down with a banged up DeVonta Smith as the lead blocker. Shockingly that play got stuffed.

Vic Fangio did a great job with the defense. He mixed man and zone to keep the Packers off balance. He moved Zack Baun around and used him creatively to give different looks to the offense.

OFFENSE

290 total yards
169 rushing
131 passing
2 of 11 on 3rd down
1 of 1 on 4th down
1 of 4 in the red zone
no turnovers

The offense struggled for a varitety of reasons. Moore didn’t have a strong gameplan. Jalen Hurts was rusty and didn’t play his best game. You also have to give some credit to the Packers defense. They were tough.

Hurts was 6-13-39 at halftime. He went 7-8-92 in the second half. That’s not anything special, but he proved to be clutch. The highlight moment was the TD to Goedert.

That is a smart audible and good, quick throw. Not an easy play at all. Hurts other TD was quite the opposite. He sat in the pocket for 6.75 seconds and waited for Dotson to come open over the middle. That play took patience. Hurts had a chance to hit AJ with a deep ball on a fake Brotherly Shove. The pass was just a bit long. He was off target a couple of times, which isn’t usually an issue for him.

Hurts was 6-36 as a runner. He was aggressive, but not reckless. He avoided big hits. Hurts took a dumb sack. He had a chance to simply throw the ball away, but went down for a short loss. He knows better than that.

Saquon Barkley was 25-119 on the ground. That was a career high for him in the postseason. It was also his first time having a home playoff game. Welcome to the good life, Saquon. The most effective runs went left and outside.

GB did a good job of controlling inside runs. Barkley had to fight for yards. He finally got loose on the final drive, but went down instead of running for the TD. He did that so the Eagles could kneel down and end the game. Smart.

Barkley was 2-4 as a receiver. The Eagles did not get him the ball in good situations. Barkley did a good job as a blocker. Kenny Gainwell was 3-14 as a runner and got a couple of first downs.

AJ Brown caught an early pass and that was it. He finished 1-10, which is crazy. The Eagles have to find a way to get him the ball. It is fair to wonder if his knee was more of an issue than we knew. You couldn’t see anything obvious when watching the game. DeVonta Smith was 4-55, including a 28-yard play that led to a TD. Jahan Dotson was 1-11 with a TD. He lost his DB and came wide open.

Dallas Goedert had a really good game. He was 4-47-1 as a receiver. Three of the catches came in the second half and helped the team to score points. Goedert also did a good job as a blocker in the run game. It was great to see him back in action in a real game. Grant Calcaterra went 1-4. It was a nice grab. His blocking was very up and down.

The Eagles OL mostly had a good game. There were some real highlight moments, but also some missed blocks. The highlight moment came on the TD to Dotson.

That is mind-blowing stuff. This block from Jordan Mailata also caught my eye when watching the tape.

Wow. That is some serious movement. The line definitely had some great moments, but the Packers have a good front and those guys won some battles. 55 and 90 each grabbed my attention multiple times. That said, GB generally had to blitz to get pressure on Hurts. And Barkley did run for 119 yards. The OL was solid overall.

DEFENSE

302 total yards
107 rushing
212 passing
7 of 13 on 3rd down
1 of 2 on 4th down
1 of 3 in the red zone
3 takeaways

I can’t stress enough how much I love watching this defense. They don’t blitz and attack like the Buddy Ryan days. The pass rush isn’t overwhelming like 2017 or 2022. This defense is physical. They are smart. They cover well. And they make big plays. I’m not used to an Eagles defense playing quite like this.

My only complaint from this game is missed tackles. The Eagles were sloppy. They missed on the QB, RB, TE and WR so this wasn’t one offensive player or just one part of the defense. That needs to be cleaned up.

Josh Jacobs did finish 18-81, but that included a 31-yard run. The rest of the game he was 17-50. The Packers struggled to sustain drives, in part because they didn’t have a consistent run game.

Jalen Carter led the way up front. The stat sheet shows 2 tackles, 2 QB hits and a PD. He was regularly disruptive.

Carter got into the backfield several times. He wasn’t always able to finish, but he affected the Packers all game long. Jordan Davis had a good game. He was credited with 1 tackle. He also got pressure on 2 pass plays, one of them leading to a holding call. Milton Williams had a tackle and a QB hit. The Packers had 3 different LGs and all of them struggled to block Williams. Moro Ojomo also flashed on some plays.

Nolan Smith had a terrific game. He set the tone on defense when he blew up the pulling LG and knocked him out of the game, despite being smaller by 80 pounds. Smith was the hammer and Elgton Jenkins was the nail.

Smith had 2 sacks and 7 tackles. He set the edge well. He played the run well. This was his best game in the NFL. You can see that he’s able to be physical and also athletic. He was great. A real difference-maker.

Josh Sweat had 1 tackle. He got pressure a couple of times, but not with any consistency. Jalyx Hunt had 2 tackles and flashed. He’s really coming on. Bryce Huff only played 1 snap, but he did pressure the QB. That was at the end of the game.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before…Zack Baun had an outstanding game. I can’t say great because he missed several tackles, but he made enough plays to forgive the misses. Baun had 7 tackles and an INT. Fangio moved him around. Baun would go up on the LOS at times. He might rush. He might set the edge. He might drop. When he stayed back, Fangio still had him do different things. Check out this pass coverage on a deep ball.

How was that guy just a STer last year???? Wow. He might have gotten away with PI at the end, but he speed and range are crazy. Baun just missed an INT on a ball that was deflected. On the next play he made a good read over the middle and did get his pick. Good hands catch on that play.

Nakobe Dean was having a great game prior to his injury. He finished with 6 tackles and 2 TFLs. It sucks that he got hurt. Watching him fly to the ball was a lot of fun. Oren Burks stepped in and was up and down. He finished with 4 tackles and was okay. He took bad angles a couple of times and missed a couple of tackles.

CJGJ didn’t have any tackles. He had a chance for an early INT, but couldn’t make the grab. Reed Blankenship led the team with 11 tackles. He also had a FF. Blankenship had multiple big hits on receivers over the middle. He made them pay, knocking one out of the game. These were clean  hits, but impactful. Avonte Maddox had to step in a safety for a few plays and looked good.

Quinyon Mitchell finally got his pick. He also had 6 tackles. Mitchell was good in run support. He did get called for a PI that put GB near the goal line. They were held to a FG on that series. Good game overall. Slay had a really impressive INT. He was also in on 3 tackles. He had to leave the game for a bit. Isaiah Rodgers filled in well.

ST

Michael Clay told his guys to set the tone on the opening KO. Oren Burks did just that.

What a great start to the game.

The Eagles won the STs battle. Keisean Nixon is a really good returner. His long KOR was 28 yards. Rodgers had a 32-yard KOR for the Eagles.

Jake Elliott did miss an XP. He was 3 for 3 on FGs. Still, it would have done us all good to see him have a perfect game.

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Test Time

Posted January 13th, 2025 | 1 Comment »

The Packers went 11-6 this season, with only one bad loss. They dropped the regular season finale to the Bears. Their other five losses were to Detroit, Minnesota and Philly. The Packers finished third in DVOA rankings, which judge teams on how they played statistically rather than just wins and losses. Green Bay was one of the best teams in the league. And now they’re done.

The NFL playoffs are the ultimate test. Pass or fail. There is no subjectivity. Teams find out how good they are in black and white. As good as the Packers season was, they went 2-5 against playoff teams, beating only the Rams and Texans. Going up against the Eagles gave them a chance to find out where they stood. They lost so they head to the offseason knowing they must get better. They can study the tape and their roster to find out where they need to improve.

The Eagles went 5-2 against playoff teams this year, showing how good they were during the regular season. The Eagles can add Sunday’s win over the Packers to that resume. Next Sunday the Eagles will get another test.

As flawed as the offense looked against Green Bay, the Eagles still won by 12. The Packers never got closer than six points after the initial TD. The Eagles didn’t dominate, but they did control the game. The defense was dominant. The offense was timely, and also protected the ball well. The Eagles also won the STs battle.

This is a good team. A damn good team.

You can’t ignore the sloppiness from Sunday, but also can’t obsess on it. Last year the Texans had the biggest margin of victory in the wild card round and the biggest margin of defeat in the divisional round. We all remember the Eagles struggling to beat the Falcons 15-10 in 2017 and then destroying the Vikings 38-7.

Jalen Hurts didn’t put up big numbers. The offense didn’t look great. But let’s also keep things in context. The Eagles ran for 169 yards and played great defense. Hurts threw for 2 TDs and made plays when they were needed. That formula has basically worked all year long. The Eagles don’t need Hurts to throw for 300 yards until they need him to. If the offense had clicked on Sunday, the game would have been a blowout. You don’t want to let teams hang around, but winning big is more of a luxury than a necessity.

The other key that we have to mention is the Packers defense. They were 6th in scoring defense and 5th in yards allowed. In 6 of the previous 7 games, Green Bay held teams to 83 or fewer rushing yards. The Packers had the youngest defense in the NFL so they were more vulnerable in the opener than on Sunday. That defense got better and better as the season wore on. They played well in Philly.

I would expect the Eagles offense to be better next week. If things go well, there could be a showdown with Detroit and the offense will need to have a big day.

*****

Remember when the Eagles knocked out the Niners QBs in the NFC championship game? Lots of Niners players and some in the media talked about how unfair it was for them not to have their QBs in the game. They seemed to gloss over the fact that the Eagles knocked those guys out. If they had weird injuries, I would have gotten their point. That isn’t close to what happened.

I bring this up because a few people are talking about the Packers injuries from Sunday as something to detract from the Eagles win. What if they didn’t lose their LG? What if they didn’t lose a couple of receivers? What if Josh Jacobs didn’t get banged up? So on and so forth.

The Eagles did that.

Nolan Smith took out Elgton Jenkins. Smith is about 235 pounds. He took out a 315-pound OL.

DBs took out the receivers. Jacobs was tackled hard. None of this was dirty. The Eagles were just a physical, violent team. That started with Oren Burks hit on the opening kickoff and lasted all game long.

It was great to see that after watching the Eagles performance in Tampa in the wild card round last year. That was embarrassing. That was soft. That team was ready for the season to be over.

The Packers would have been better if their players didn’t get hurt. The Eagles would have loved for Nakobe Dean to stay healthy for the whole game. Injuries are part of the game (the worst part).

Any unbiased observer could see the Eagles were the better team on Sunday. They were also more physical. That’s part of who they are this season.

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