Eagles stats: Turnover edge, poor tackling, and Jalen Hurts’ inefficiency under pressure highlight an ugly Eagles win
The Eagles won easily because they dominated the turnover battle, but there were a few issues during their wild-card win over the Packers.
They don’t award any extra points for style, and so on to the next round the Eagles go after their 22-10 wild-card win over the Green Bay Packers.
The offense, especially the passing attack, was at times stuck in the new sod at Lincoln Financial Field. But the defense did more than enough to propel the Eagles to the divisional round, where they were awaiting a result from Monday night’s Los Angeles Rams-Minnesota Vikings game to learn their opponent.
Here are four numbers that help tell the story of Sunday’s win.
4-0
Nick Sirianni talks a lot about holding on to the football and winning the turnover battle. There are banners hanging high above the front of an auditorium at the NovaCare Complex where the team frequently meets to drive home different ways of protecting the ball and taking it away.
The Eagles weren’t perfect Sunday during their win over Green Bay, but they won pretty easily in part because of their 4-0 advantage in takeaways. Oren Burks forced a fumble that Jeremiah Trotter Jr. recovered on the opening kickoff to set the tone. Then the Eagles picked off Jordan Love three times.
The Eagles were especially stingy vs. Love and the Green Bay offense on deep balls. Love, according to Next Gen Stats, was 3-for-11 for 58 yards and had all three of his interceptions — to Zack Baun, Darius Slay, and Quinyon Mitchell — on passes that traveled 10-plus yards in the air.
» READ MORE: Zack Baun and the Eagles defense save the day as Jalen Hurts struggles
7
The potential loss of Nakobe Dean for a significant time is a big deal for the Eagles. The linebacker had a resurgence after injuries slowed his NFL start during his first two seasons. Two of Dean’s six tackles before he exited in the first half with a knee injury were for losses.
After he left, the Packers went after Burks whenever they could. Josh Jacobs is a tough running back to tackle, but he was a menace on Sunday. Ninety-eight of his 121 total yards came after contact, and Jacobs forced seven missed tackles, according to Next Gen Stats.
Tackling was a big problem for the Eagles at the beginning of the 2024 season, and they will need to bounce back in the next round.
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33%
Give any NFL quarterback a clean pocket and they’re bound to make something happen. Give them 6.75 seconds, like what Jalen Hurts had on the third Eagles play from scrimmage, and he might even find a little-used receiving target for his first touchdown catch of the season.
Behind one of the NFL’s best offensive lines, Hurts had a good day when he had time. According to Next Gen Stats, Hurts was 10-for-12 for 108 yards Sunday when he wasn’t pressured. But the Packers often pressured him, and when they did, he struggled. Hurts completed just 33% of his passes (3-for-9) when under pressure Sunday while taking two sacks.
Hurts had the 10th-lowest completion percentage this season while under pressure, but the 4th-highest completion percentage with a clean pocket. Luckily for him and the Eagles, Todd Bowles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers bowed out of the playoffs and won’t be coming to Philadelphia next weekend to blitz Hurts at will.
2,124
It took until the final Eagles drive, but Saquon Barkley topped Eric Dickerson’s record in his 17th game. Oh, it doesn’t count? Well, on to the next one.
Barkley’s 119 rushing yards upped his season total (playoffs included, obviously) to 2,124 yards.
» READ MORE: Eagles’ Saquon Barkley had a blast in his first NFL home playoff game
Next on the list of made-up records — the number of games keeps changing — is chasing Terrell Davis’ combined regular season and postseason rushing record of 2,476 yards.
The Eagles will need to at least get to the NFC Championship for that to be in range.