Bleeding Green Nation
Highlights and lowlights from Philadelphia’s playoff win.
Nick Sirianni exhaled in relief walking through the tunnel at Lincoln Financial Field. Sirianni had a lot to be relieved about. Two missed extra points, very bad penalties in crucial moments, dropped interceptions, yielding big plays, dropped passes, and Matt Stafford fortunately overthrowing a receiver on the Los Angeles Rams’ final play of the game.
Yep, that was a lot to emit.
The Eagles made the Rams melt in the snow, 28-22, in the Divisional Round of the NFC playoffs on Sunday in the winter wonderland known as Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles will now host the Washington Commanders next Sunday at 3 p.m. in the NFC Championship at the Linc.
Saquon Barkley rolled over the Rams again, finishing with an Eagles’ single-game playoff record 205 yards rushing on 25 carries, with touchdown runs of 62 and 78 yards. Jalen Hurts was not great, though an efficient 15 of 20 for 128 yards, although he was sacked seven times for 63 yards. Hurts is 4-0 in home playoff games, and in each home playoff victory his passing yards were under 200.
Defensively, the Eagles sacked Matt Stafford five times for 33 yards, the key sack coming in the waning moments of the game when Jalen Carter got his second sack during the most pivotal moment in the game.
There was a lot of good, some bad, and some dangerous ugly that could still bite the in the Eagles in the future after their 28-22 Divisional round victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
Jalen Carter’s nine-yard sack on third-and-two at the Eagles’ 13 with less than a minute to play. It was the play of the game. The following play Stafford overthrew Puka Nacua after being pressured by Carter up the middle, guaranteeing an NFC Championship game berth for the Eagles. Earlier, Carter punched the ball free from Kyren Williams on a second-and-two at the Rams’ 43 for the first turnover of the game on the first play of the fourth quarter. Isaiah Rodgers, who was having a rather tough game to that point, picked up the fumble and returned it to the Rams’ 10. The Eagles had to settle for a field goal and a 19-15 lead.
Saquon Barkley’s 78-yard, fourth-quarter touchdown run with 4:36 to play that sealed the victory. Center Cam Jurgens, making up for a missed block on the Rams’ safety earlier, picked up Rams’ nose tackle Tyler Davis. Left tackle Jordan Mailata gave Barkley an outside running back by steering the Rams’ Bobby Brown III left, and left guard Landon Dickerson helped with Brown, and pushed out Jared Verse on the back end.
Middle linebacker Oren Burks’ deflected pass with 4:54 to play on a third-and-10 at the Rams’ 30. It forced the Rams to punt and gave the Eagles possession with 4:47 left at the Eagles’ 23 with a chance to run out the remaining time. Burks later pulled down Kyren Williams for a two-yard...
