Eagles Survive The Cold, Defeat Packers In Defensive Battle On Monday Night Football
Drew Hallowell / Philadelphia Eagles
Whether you call it a defensive battle or a sloppy offensive performance, it didn’t matter; the Eagles found a way to pick up a huge road win at Lambeau Field.
Heading north to the freezing cold state of Wisconsin, the Philadelphia Eagles had quite the task on their hands coming out of the bye week. It was a matchup against a team they faced twice last season and one of the best teams in the NFC in the Green Bay Packers.
Despite both teams not scoring a single point for the first 36 minutes of action, the fourth quarter saw touchdowns from both teams, and the Eagles’ extra field goal drive proved to be the difference maker. DeVonta Smith had the only great nice on offense, grabbing four balls for 69 yards and the Eagles’ sole touchdown. On defense, new addition Jaelan Phillips made his impact known, recording six tackles, a tackle for loss, two QB hits, recovering one fumble, and helping force another one.
After winning the coin toss, the Eagles elected to defer to the second half, throwing their defense and their newly acquired players out there to start the night. The Packers offense, without Tucker Kraft and Matthew Golden due to injuries, decided to ride their best offensive player on their opening drive in Josh Jacobs.
Jacobs was involved in six of the Packers’ first nine offensive plays, but a huge sack from Jaylx Hunt pushed Green Bay out of field goal range and forced them to punt.
On the Eagles’ first offensive possession of the night, the offense hummed down the field on a 16-play, 77-yard drive. Whether it was a rush from Saquon Barkley or a great find to A.J. Brown or Smith from Jalen Hurts, the Eagles offense went right down the field just outside the red zone.
On a 3rd and 8 at the 24-yard line, Hurts stormed past the first down marker on a designed quarterback run, but as he was falling to the ground, the ball was punched out, and the Packers recovered it, ending the long Eagles drive.
However, the Packers didn’t do much with the turnover, going three-and-out on the following drive, and the Eagles did the same after getting the ball back. Well into the second quarter, with the game still scoreless, the Packers got a few nice runs by Jacobs for one first down, but once again their offense stalled out, forcing another punt
The sloppy offense from both teams continued as the Eagles and the Packers both once again went three and out as the second quarter continued to tick down. The Eagles got momentum going on their next drive, but costly penalties from Jordan Mailata and Brett Toth forced the Eagles to punt for the third time on the night.
With two minutes to go until the half, Green Bay began driving, looking for the first points of the half. Jordan Love connected on four straight passes to set the Packers up in field goal range as the final minute ticked down. After a sack from Nolan Smith, Love dropped back and lost the football, and the Eagles recovered it, stopping Green Bay from scoring and going into the half with the game tied at zero.
Out of the break, the Eagles got going on offense and finally got points on the board. Hurts hooked up with Dallas Goedert multiple times throughout the opening drive, and Barkley ran for multiple small yardage plays to get the Eagles down into the red zone for the first time all night. However, a loss of three from Tank Bigsby and a delay of game penalty stalled out the drive, forcing a 39-yard field goal from Jake Elliott to break the tie, putting the Eagles up 3-0.
Now the Packers got their first shot in the second half, but despite getting a big catch from Christian Watson across midfield, the Eagles held on to force a fourth and long in the middle of the field, and the Packers decided to go for it. Unfortunately for them, wide receiver Bo Metlton picked a bad time for a drop as Green Bay turned it over on downs
The Eagles, unfortunately, did nothing with that great field position, gaining just one yard and punting once again. With the ball back again, Jacobs got the Packers’ drive going with an 11-yard run, and Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a 20-yard catch to get near midfield. However, once again, the Eagles’ defense pulled through, stalling the Packers’ offense and forcing them to punt.
With the fourth quarter getting underway, the Eagles’ offense finally got the big plays it needed. After two nothing plays, Hurts found Barkley open on a checkdown route, and he took it 41 yards downfield for the largest gain of the night. One play later, Hurts dropped back and found Smith open on a jump ball in the end zone, and he came down with the catch for a 36-yard touchdown, making it 10-0 Philadelphia.
Now up 10-0, the Packers needed points and quickly. Well, the Eagles decided to play soft coverage, and that allowed Love to dink and dunk his way down the field, and a huge pass interference call on Jihaad Campbell set Green Bay up in the red zone for the first time all night. Needing just two plays, Jacobs pounded his way through the middle, finding the endzone for a touchdown and the first points on the night for Green Bay.
Up by three with just over six minutes to play, the Eagles needed a long drive to ice the game. Hurts hooked up with Smith for a huge first down early in the drive and then got big runs out of Barkley to get the ball over midfield. With just over two minutes to play, the Packers were able to stop two straight pass plays from the Eagles, forcing them to punt back to Green Bay with a chance to win or tie the game.
On that drive, the Packers began their drive getting 25 yards from Watson, but incompletions forced a 4th and 1. The Packers decided to run the ball with Jacobs, and the Eagles stuffed him and forced him to fumble, getting the ball back. Needing a first down, the Eagles ran three straight plays, bringing up 4th and 6 with 30 seconds.
Instead of punting and giving Green Bay the ball back inside the 20 with no timeouts, Hurts tossed up a ball to Brown in the endzone, but it was dropped, giving the Packers the ball back with 27 seconds left and only needing 30 yards for a manageable field goal.
Love found Melton over the middle for a huge pickup down to the 46-yard line, setting up a 64-yard field goal for Brandon McManus. On the kick, McManus shanked it wide left, giving the Eagles the 10-7 slopfest victory.
Matt Brown
Matt has been a Philadelphia sports fan all his life and spent four years at Penn State University majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in Sports Studies. He previously covered Penn State’s field hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, and baseball teams while writing for a Penn State blog called Onward State. He has now covered the Phillies, Eagles, and Sixers for Philly Sports Reports since October 2024 and wants to pursue a career in Sports Journalism.
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