Eagles fly past Packers, advance to divisional round
Jalen Hurts passed for 131 yards and two touchdowns and the Philadelphia Eagles beat the visiting Green Bay Packers 22-10 in a wild-card playoff game on Sunday.
Jahan Dotson and Dallas Goedert each caught a touchdown for Philadelphia, which is the No. 2 seed in the NFC and will host a divisional round game next weekend. Saquon Barkley had 25 carries for 119 yards.
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“We struggled a little bit as an offense,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said about his squad, which was actually outgained 302-290 by Green Bay. “I don’t think we had the game that we wanted to have on offense, but Jalen did a lot of good things.
“Jalen is a winner. He wins. No one can argue that.”
Josh Jacobs scored the only touchdown for seventh-seeded Green Bay, which ended the season with three straight losses. He had 121 yards from scrimmage. Jordan Love completed 20 of 33 passes for 212 yards and three interceptions.
The Eagles collected a takeaway before the game’s first snap. On the opening kickoff, special-teams contributor Oren Burks drilled Packers returner Keisean Nixon and popped the ball loose, and Philadelphia’s Jeremiah Trotter Jr. pounced on the fumble at the Green Bay 28-yard line.
“It was a tone-setter,” Sirianni said. “Oren has been a really good player here for us the entire season. … He’s always been a spark for us on special teams.”
The Eagles quickly took advantage of the short field, with Hurts finding Dotson open in the back of the end zone for an 11-yard touchdown to cap a three-play drive.
Philadelphia increased its advantage to 10-0 in the final minute of the first quarter on Jake Elliott’s 31-yard field goal. The score held until Brandon McManus kicked a 26-yarder to get Green Bay on the board with 5:46 left in the third.
Goedert replenished the Eagles’ two-score lead on the ensuing drive. He caught a short pass and outmuscled a Packers defender with a shove and a pair of stiff-arms as he lumbered down the left sideline for a 24-yard touchdown.
“Nobody in this league is as violent and as physical as Dallas Goedert with the ball in his hands,” Sirianni said. “Our toughness and our physicality were on display in that play. Dallas is a physical player, and that was a big-time play.”
The lead stayed at 16-3 after Elliott’s extra-point attempt failed.
Jacobs answered for Green Bay to trim the deficit to 16-10. He had a 31-yard run on the final play of the third quarter before punching in a 1-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth.
Elliott added a 30-yard field goal to put Philadelphia on top 19-10 with 7:33 remaining. Another field goal by Elliott, this time from 32 yards, made it 22-10 with 3:12 to go. That effectively ended things against the mistake-prone Packers (four turnovers, eight penalties).
“I hurt for our guys, because there’s a lot of energy and work that goes into this thing,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “And it should hurt. Hopefully, we can use this as fuel to have a great offseason and come back next season ready to rock.”
Packers wide receiver Romeo Doubs left in the third quarter and did not return after he landed on the back of his helmet in the end zone. Fellow Packers wideout Jayden Reed sustained a shoulder injury later in the third quarter and did not return.
