The Eagles are off to the NFC Championship Game for the third time in eight seasons after an angina-causing victory against the LA Rams that was not for the faint of heart.

Deep breath…

What a game! It had a little bit of everything. Missed opportunities, weather-induced fumbles and drops, injury scares, two Saquon Barkley house calls, a near-collapse, and clutch defensive plays. The Eagles started well enough, and scored on their opening drive, but had chances to open the game up and extend their lead and couldn’t do it. Promising drives ended in sacks, near-touchdowns turned into field goals, and only when it became a fourth-quarter blizzard were they able to make more plays than a Los Angeles team that was totally up for it.

It’s hard to say how much of this one you take into next week, be it positives or negatives, since you assume they won’t be playing the upstart Commies in the driving snow. Maybe. But Jalen Hurts underwhelmed and too many plays were left on the field, even before the snow started coming down harder. Then the defense totally turned off and allowed the Rams back into the game, when it should have been done and dusted. If we’re doing the pre-mortem, is that their downfall? The wasted offensive possessions and inability to put a game away? Whatever the case, tell the coroner to back off, because the Eagles are still alive and two wins away from a title.

1) The Eagles came out throwing the ball. Two short completions to get Hurts going. No issue with that, especially when the forecast suggested that the snow was supposed to come  in the second half. Then Saquon 2x and bam, Hurts to the house for a score. Look at Jordan Mailata looking for someone to block:


2) Whenever you get the big boys pulling, good things happen. This was one of those looks where they’re leaving two guys completely unblocked, Saquon forces one to hold, and Hurts beats the other into the gap with Landon Dickerson and Mailata both leading the way:

3) Jake Elliott – misses two extra points, hits field goals in the snow. The dude is a total rollercoaster right now. As clutch as a couple of those kicks were, he’s the reason why this game was 28-22 late, when it should have been 30-22.

4) Omar Speights once attended Northeast Philadelphia high school. No relation to legendary Philadelphia 76er Marreese Speights.

5) Jared Verse’s day: four tackles, two sacks, three TFL. He played well and backed up his talk after stirring up some shit during the week:

6) Defense was disappointing to start. Couldn’t get off the field. Rams scored on 3rd and goal after converting a 3rd and 7 and 4th and 1 on the opening drive, which included non-scrambler Matthew Stafford doing enough with this legs to make 7 points possible.

7) The A.J. Brown drop killed the second Eagles drive. It sure looked like he heard some footsteps, if you know what I’m getting at.

8) Quinyon Mitchell leaving the game with a shoulder injury was not ideal. Isaiah Rodgers came in and almost picked off Stafford, but had the ball ripped away at the last second. He had another one in the third quarter against Cooper Kupp where it looked like he was in position to make a play. Does Mitchell force either one of those incomplete? We’ll never know.

9) How much restraint do you think it took for Jalen Carter to lift Stafford into the air instead of suplexing him? The latter would have been a penalty, so good job holding off.

10) Mekhi Becton obliterated Christian Rozeboom on Barkley’s touchdown run. That’s 6’7″, 364 pounds vs. 6’2″, 237 pounds. Once Saquon is 1v1 with the single-high safety, he’s taking it to the house more often than not:

11) By the way – all of the Howie talk this year has been about Zack Baun and Barkley, but signing Becton and moving him inside was just as shrewd as anything he’s done in recent years. Still, it might be even be a top-five move, right? There’s Baun and Barkley, then bringing back CJGJ and drafting Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. So it’s maybe the 6th-best move he made? Depends how you look at it. (Becton had a couple of iffy moments later, but his block set up a touchdown)

12) CJGJ and Josh Sweat with two huge 3rd down TFLs to force a field try and a punt, respectively, in the first half. Those were massive plays considering how each of those Rams drives began.

13) The Eagles should have had points on that second quarter drive, but Hurts missing Brown on 2nd and 8 and then taking a bad sack ended the drive. They ended up flipping the field with a good punt, but should have come out of that with a field goal try at least.

14) If you like it when your heart jumps out of your chest and/or up into your throat, then the 5th Eagles drive was your drive. First, DeJean muffed the punt, then fell on it to recover. Then LA blitzed on 3rd and 14 and Hurts threw a little swing pass/screen inside his own end zone, which went for 15 yards. Then they came out of the two-minute warning with a bubble screen, for whatever reason, before Hurts scrambled for a first down. That was followed by A.J. Brown bobbling a deep bomb that probably would have set up a touchdown, then Hurts was sacked twice to end the drive.

15) Not sure what Nick Sirianni was doing with his timeouts before halftime. They could have gotten one more play in to try to get some yards back and try a long field goal, but he seemed content to let the clock tick and try a Hail Mary instead.

16) If A.J. catches that deep ball, its 1st and goal with three timeouts and a minute left. They likely go into the locker room with a 10-point lead.

17) The Birds only had a six-point halftime lead back in November, against this same team, in their house. Not sure if that helped your agita at all going into the third quarter, but the books certainly weren’t fazed, because the Eagles were listed at -400 on the moneyline coming out of half.

18) Eagles’ first drive of the second half – Hurts was throwing where, exactly on third down? Brown wasn’t even close to being open and he threw it well behind him anyway.

19) How big was that fumbled exchange with Stafford and Kyren Williams? The ball totally slipped out of his hand and they lost seven yards on it. After a second-down stop, the Eagles were able to drop eight and rush three on 3rd and goal and force a field goal.

20) Great pursuit by Jalyx Hunt, great move off the edge, but that was a coverage sack. Maybe give half of that to Hunt, half to the secondary.

21) Terrible throw from Hurts to Brown in the end zone. Terrible effort from Brown. Did he know there was a game taking place?

22) That illegal man downfield penalty on Becton was tough. The screen was a little slow to develop and Hurts had to throw a bit of a lollipop over the top, but because Becton engaged before the ball was released, the refs were correct in throwing that flag.

23) Two drops for the Rams on their 7th drive. How much the elements had to do with it, we’ll never know, but it was nice to see Nacua fumble that ball out of bounds on 3rd and 2.

24) No excuse for the safety. Hurts had a check down to his left and a tight end leaking out right in front of him. If he’s not gonna use either one of these options, then throw the god damn ball at someone’s feet or into the 2nd row. Are you telling me he can’t process this quickly enough? –

25) Carter and Rodgers saved Hurts’ bacon after the safety. He should buy both them a steak dinner and a copy of Inner Excellence.

26) They’ve run the tush push how many times over the years? How in the world do you false start on it? The game was begging to be put away and Lane Johnson of all people commits a backbreaker of a penalty. He also robbed us a picturesque snow shove that would have ended up on a wall at the Philly Art Museum.

27) Baun had three brilliant plays on that fourth quarter Rams drive. First he shoots the gap for a TFL, then he comes off the edge to bat down a ball, and on the ensuing play recovers a Stafford fumble. What a player. What a signing.

28) Big play after big play from the defense in the fourth quarter, before the almost-collapse. Carter, Baun, Nolan Smith, Moro Ojomo, Oren Burks. If the Eagles win it all, it’s going to be because of Vic Fangio’s unit.

29) House call #2 –

30) As good as the defense was in the second half, what was that Rams drive? 10 plays, 70 yards, 1:48 off the clock? And then the offense runs the ball on 1st down, gives up a sack on 2nd, and can only play it safe on 3rd down? Good God. At least Braden Mann was able to boot that punt down to the 18 with a dumb play by their returner.

31) Carter saved everyone’s asses on the final drive. 3rd down sack, 4th down pressure, and Stafford throws out of bounds.

32) The Washington Commanders can go straight to hell. These bums aren’t coming in here next week and putting up 45 points.