“Philadelphia Eagles need to fix this tape” after sloppy playoff win

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Eagles won on Sunday. They have no plans to hold any celebrations afterwards.

“Not a winning Monday for us,” head coach Nick Sirianni said after the NFC East champions won their playoff opener 22-10, largely by overhauling a Green Bay Packers squad reeling from injuries, both self-inflicted and others too – was affected.

“We’ll get back to work because we still have a lot of cleaning to do.”

Philly’s first wild-card win at Lincoln Financial Field in 11 years was hardly a strong performance from a team that rested most of its key starters in Week 18 and had quarterback Jalen Hurts in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 22. when he suffered a concussion in Washington.

The Eagles finished the game with 290 yards of offense, their third-worst total of the season. They were 2-for-11 on third down. Philadelphia committed seven penalties and scored a touchdown on just one of its four forays into the red zone.

NFL STATISTICS CENTER: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

“At the end of the day, statistics don’t matter. “The only stat that matters is the win column,” said All-Pro running back Saquon Barkley, who rushed for a playoff career-best 119 yards on 25 carries. “If you don’t get through this, you’re going home.

“We got the job done – and I don’t like to say we got the job done. We came out here, we survived, we won a football game against a really good team. … At the end of the day, we did what we had to do.”

Hurts managed two touchdowns in his return, but only 131 yards. But perhaps more importantly, neither he nor his team turned the ball over. But the Packers, weakened by injuries and dogged by their own penalty problems (eight for 85 yards), gave up the ball four times and missed a field goal – chances that the Eagles had converted into a total of seven points. Despite a dominant first half, they only led 10-0.

“We have to correct this tape, we have things we need to improve from this tape,” said Sirianni, who planned to practice the Eagles on Monday — unless they play next Saturday, which would trigger a mandatory rest day.

“But when we play on Sunday we get back to work, we will prevail. … We’ve made mistakes as coaches, and we’ve made mistakes as players, and we’re going to go back and get them fixed.” . Because all that matters is the next game, and all that matters for the next game is that we get better from the things that happened in that game and repeat the things that we did well in that game have.”

And aside from Barkley’s performance and the defense getting four takeaways in a postseason game for the first time in 23 years, there was enough to like. Philadelphia held the Pack to a season-low score. Linebacker Oren Burks forced a fumble on the game’s opening kickoff – a play his teammates said set the tone – and led to Hurts’ first touchdown pass three plays later.

Citing a “dog mentality,” Sirianni pointed to kicker Jake Elliott’s two field goals in the fourth quarter after a missed extra point. Rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell’s play was also crucial, including the game-winning interception after the two-minute warning, although his pass interference penalty resulted in a Packers field goal in the second half.

“The defense put us in a great position all night long. The defense, man, played a heck of a game today – all the credit goes there,” said Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata, who said the offense needs to clean up its execution, communication and approach.

“There’s a lot to learn… I know our coaches will want to go into a lot more detail over the next few days about how we can get better.”

The team will also likely have to move forward without starting linebacker Nakobe Dean, who was sidelined with what appeared to be a serious knee injury. He left the stadium on crutches.

Philadelphia can’t control injuries. The Eagles can’t worry about style points when they matter least. But the NFC East champs, given their next opponent – and Barkley and his teammates were pretty relieved to win another home game in the divisional round – will have to be better – and likely not be as weakened as the Packers, who appeared to lose a player have to violate every other snap in addition to their other problems. Surviving the divisional round could most likely mean a trip to Detroit to face the powerful Lions and an even smaller margin of error.

“I hate this quote, but ‘practice makes perfect.'” You’ll never be perfect. But at the end of the day – I know we have all these stars and all these weapons – but the only thing that matters is winning the game,” Barkley said. “I’ll say that until I’m blue in the face. I really believe that. Stat lines (are) over. It doesn’t matter. What you did in the regular season doesn’t transfer. The only statistic that matters is wins and that is our mindset.

Breaking News

Dellupodisabato

“Philadelphia Eagles need to fix this tape” after sloppy playoff win

Leave a Reply Cancel reply