AFC Wild-Card Takeaways: Ravens run over Steelers, Texans’ defence dominates
The opening day of NFL playoff action saw two teams do what they do best, embracing their greatest strengths to advance to the divisional round.
Here’s what Emily Sadler learned from an eventful Wild Card Saturday.
PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts tossed two touchdown passes in his first game since a late-season concussion, Dallas Goedert threw three stiff arms on a rugged TD catch and the Philadelphia Eagles rode their NFL-best defence to a 22-10 wild-card playoff win over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night.
Hurts threw for a modest 131 yards, but played with no hesitation in his return from a three-week layoff after a concussion in December. He started strong — six straight completions to open the game — and held off the Packers with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Goedert in the third quarter that will be forever stamped on the franchise’s postseason highlight reel.
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Philadelphia’s defence handled the rest.
The Eagles turned a recovered fumble on the opening kickoff into Hurts’ first TD pass three plays later and the defense picked off Jordan Love twice in the first half. Holding a 19-10 lead in the fourth, the Eagles forced a turnover on downs when Green Bay had a fourth-and-3 on its own 41 with five minutes left in the game.
Quinyon Mitchell had one final interception of Love with 1:51 left in the game that sealed the win for the NFC East champions, who’ll host a division game next week at the Linc.
“It’s playoff football,” running back Saquon Barkley said. “That team is really well coached and they’ve got a lot of really great players. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“At the end of the day, no matter how it looks, just want to get the win.”
Barkley, who led the NFL in rushing with 2,005 yards, had 119 yards in his Eagles’ postseason debut.
“A year ago, I put out a tweet when I was on my couch watching playoff football that I gotta find a way to get back in it,” said Barkley, who spent his first six NFL seasons with the New York Giants. “So I’m just happy to be here.
“And shoutout to my teammates and, most importantly, we move on. And we get another home game, so that’s good.”
The Eagles had the book on the Packers — and had time for some light reading as wide receiver A.J. Brown flipped through the pages of “Inner Excellence” by Jim Murphy while on the bench. Brown had one catch for 10 yards.
Love threw for 212 yards and was intercepted three times and sacked twice as he nursed a sore right elbow that was hurt in the regular-season finale against Chicago.
“That was their goal to take away the run, and they did a good job of that,” Love said. “It just comes down to executing and making plays out there, and it just wasn’t good enough.”
Josh Jacobs ran for 81 yards and a score — and popped Green Bay’s offence with a 31-yard run in the third where he shook off one tackle, had his jersey stretched to his heel by one defender, plowed one more and dragged two more hapless Eagles to the 1-yard line. Jacobs punched it in for the score on the next play and cut it to 16-10.
Aided by an unnecessary roughness flag on Green Bay, Hurts got the Eagles close enough for Jake Elliott to kick a 30-yard field goal for a 19-10 lead. Elliott needed the short kick for a confidence boost after he missed an extra point on Goedert’s touchdown.
Elliott, who struggled with kicks from 50-plus yards this season, added a 32-yarder in the fourth and a 31-yarder in the first quarter.
The Eagles had the Linc thumping, from the time the public address announcer put a little relish on his command to, “Welcome back to the Eagles lineup, Jalen Huuurts,” to the recovered fumble moments later.
Green Bay’s Keisean Nixon had the ball knocked loose by Oren Burks and it was recovered by Jeremiah Trotter Jr. at the Green Bay 28. Hurts needed only three plays to find Jahan Dotson for an 11-yard touchdown.
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Darius Slay went over his shoulder for the cornerback to haul in the ball like an elite receiver for an interception and All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun made it two for the Eagles. The Eagles didn’t score off those picks, but did keep the Packers off the board.
“They got good players,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said of the Eagles’ defence. “Even when we were running the quick game, they were triggering and coming downhill and smacking us in the back too many times. They played better than us, bottom line.”
Brandon McManus, who missed a 38-yard earlier, hit one from 26 yards to make it 10-3 at halftime.
Hurts put all immediate questions about his health to rest when he completed his first six passes for 39 yards, including the TD to Dotson. He then missed his next seven going into the half. He didn’t complete another pass until late in the third quarter, then hit seven of his final eight overall, that included the Goedert TD catch.
“I don’t think we had the game we wanted to have on offence,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “Jalen did a lot of good things. Jalen is a winner. He wins. No one can argue that.”
Certainly not in Philadelphia on Sunday night.
Injuries
Packers: Lost receivers Romeo Doubs (concussion) and Jayden Reed (shoulder), offensive linemen Elgton Jenkins (stinger) and Josh Myers (left leg) and several defenders to injury.
Eagles: LB Nakobe Dean was ruled out quickly after leaving with a knee injury in the second quarter.
Up next
Packers: Season over.
Eagles: Wait to find out if they play Tampa Bay, the Vikings or the Rams.
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