Eagles Grind Out a 10–7 Win Over the Green Bay Packers

The Philadelphia Eagles improved their record to 7-2 after beating the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field in a game that didn’t feel firmly in control until the clock struck zero. 

To go into Lambeau Field and hold the Packers to only one scoring drive and seven points is impressive. Even though Green Bay was missing rookie WR Matthew Golden and TE Tucker Kraft, they still had RB Josh Jacobs, QB Jordan Love, and most importantly, head coach and play-caller Matt LaFleur.

It didn’t matter. Outside of the one scoring drive (where the Eagles and Vic Fangio became entirely too conservative after going up 10–0), the defense dominated the Packers all night long. 

New addition Jaelan Phillips played extremely well in his Eagles debut — finishing with six tackles, a tackle for loss, two QB hits, a fumble recovery, and a key stop late in the fourth quarter on a 4th-down play. If he continues to play like this along that defensive line, Howie Roseman and the Eagles won’t miss the third-round pick they gave up to acquire him. 

As good as Phillips was, so were the rest of the defenders — especially the Georgia Bulldogs duo of Nakobe Dean and Nolan Smith. In Smith’s first game back from injured reserve, he recorded a big sack of Jordan Love, while his former Georgia teammate Nakobe Dean added a sack and forced fumble of his own.

Coming into the game, it was unclear how Fangio would use his linebackers with both Dean and Jihaad Campbell vying for one spot. Fangio opted to use a lot more of Dean while mixing Campbell in at edge and off-ball linebacker. One thing is clear — Nakobe Dean is the heartbeat of this Eagles defense and needs to be on the field. 

It was a very frustrating performance coming out of a bye week and 15 days between games, and there was plenty of blame to go around. 

Let’s start with Kevin Patullo and Nick Sirianni. Their conservative play-calling is nothing new. In fact, Sirianni has coached this way for two years now — extremely risk-averse, sometimes to a fault, because he’s so focused on winning the turnover battle. The Eagles conceded several third-and-long plays tonight with runs or short throws. But it was Sirianni’s clock management at the end of the game that was most puzzling. 

On a 4th-and-6 with a little over 30 seconds left in the game from the Green Bay 35-yard line, the Eagles chose to go for it with a deep shot to A.J. Brown. The pass fell incomplete, giving the Packers an opportunity to get into field goal range. Fortunately, the 64-yard field goal attempt was just a bit too far for Brandon McManus, and the Eagles held on to win. Still — a questionable decision, to say the least. 

But the offensive struggles can’t be pinned solely on Patullo and Sirianni. Jalen Hurts did not have a great game tonight. He missed a lot of throws early — some of which could have been intercepted, and fortunately were not. He also fumbled deep in Packers territory in the first quarter, ending a beautiful 16-play drive. 

What makes Hurts special, though, is his ability to shake off mistakes and rise to the occasion. Late in the game, Hurts pump-faked and delivered a deep ball to DeVonta Smith for a 36-yard touchdown to make it 10–0. It was a decent throw — and an even better contested catch by DeVonta. 

Philadelphia improves to 7-2 on the season. Nick Sirianni is now 5-0 after regular-season byes, 10-0 against the NFC North, 4-0 against the Packers, and 28-11 on the road since 2021 — the best mark in the NFL. Sirianni also now sits alone with the third-most wins in franchise history, passing the great Dick Vermeil. 

We may not always love the way it looks. But this team just keeps on winning games — and at the end of the day, that’s what matters most.