On Monday, November 10th, the 6-2 Philadelphia Eagles took on the 5-2-1 Green Bay Packers. The game was a pure defensive battle, with a final score of only 10-7.
This was the first game the Eagles played since their bye week, and there was hope that there would be improvement shown. After a couple of trade deadline moves, including picking up OLB Jaelan Phillips from the Dolphins and CB Jaire Alexander from the Ravens, there was hope that the defense would get stronger. After the bye week last year, the Eagles flipped a switch and won 10 games in a row, so Philly fans are anticipating that this may happen again, so this game was super important to watch and see growth.
In the first half, nothing truly exciting happened. In the first drive for Philly, they drove down the field and took a lot of time off the clock. The drive unfortunately ended in a Jalen Hurts fumble, and Green Bay recovered.
This was just the beginning, as both defenses were shutting down the opponent’s offense. Towards the end of the half, the Packers were driving down the field, and their quarterback Jordan Love fumbled the ball as a result of a tackle by Nakobe Dean. The game was completely scoreless at halftime, which was the first time a MNF game had a score of 0-0 at the half since 2009.
In the third quarter, hardly anything happened besides a Jake Elliott field goal to put the Eagles on the board and in the lead 3-0. The first touchdown came in the fourth quarter, where Jalen Hurts threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith.
With five minutes left in the game, Green Bay managed to score a rushing touchdown to cut the Eagles lead by three, and then with two seconds left, they attempted to hit a 64-yard field goal to tie the game. Brandon McManus, the Packer’s kicker, missed the long field goal and the game came to a close. The Eagles won 10-7.
Even though we got the win, the offensive struggles are still very alarming, as they’ve been all season. Sam Letter, a senior at BASH, expressed his opinions on the team thus far: “Our defense has looked really solid when Jalen Carter is playing, Vic Fangio is also doing a good job. We need to work on getting a new playbook and start running different plays. Nick Sirianni needs to take over the playcalling.”
There has also been continued frustration from WR A.J Brown, as he isn’t contributing as much to the games as he would like, which Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo would be to blame. Brown vented his frustrations to reporters after the game, saying, “I see that the offense is struggling and…You know, I want to help contribute. You know, and I didn’t get those opportunities.”
He also was asked about his situation despite the Eagles being 7-2, and with that he said, “It’s not just solely about my situation. I mean guys like obviously I want to win too, you know? And I think if we’re really focusing on winning and doing our job, like…We can’t just keep slapping the Band-Aid over the defense doing their job and getting us out of trouble.”
These are reasonable claims made by Brown, as the team does need to get stronger on the offensive side of the ball, and it starts with getting Brown more touches. Letter says, “He’s 100 percent justified, every team needs someone who will stand up and address issues, as if no one does, nothing will change”. After Brown venting his frustration and the upcoming tough schedule the Eagles have, maybe the team will realize that they need their star players to play like stars, and get them more involved in the offense.
The next game for the Eagles is a home matchup with the Detroit Lions Sunday night, which could possibly be a playoff matchup down the line. Eagles fans are looking forward to the end of the season, and have huge optimism on the team down the line. Letter states, “I do have confidence, and I think a Super Bowl win is in the realm of possibility. If we win out, and we don’t figure things out, we will get eliminated in the playoffs. We do have the potential to turn things around”. Hopefully the next game won’t be a slumberfest like Monday’s game, and Philadelphia will soar to a victory.
