If it wasn’t for a missed extra point, the Eagles would have beaten the Packers, 41-33, on Sunday night, which, of course, was their winning score in Super Bowl LII.
While it may be a reach to connect the two games in many ways, the Eagles’ offensive performance against Green Bay brought back memories of the 2017 team that could produce yards and points at will, no more impressive than in that victory over the Patriots nearly five years ago.
The Eagles weren’t particularly balanced against Green Bay. They did not need to be as Jalen Hurts, Miles Sanders, and a dominating offensive line pounded a sievelike run defense for 363 yards on the ground — the most for the franchise in 74 years. But on the whole this season, coach Nick Sirianni’s offense is as multifaceted as any in recent team history.
Even maybe that Super Bowl-winning unit.
“Probably. Yeah,” center Eagles Jason Kelce said. “I mean, we’ve had great offenses here before. But, obviously, what Jalen can do as a running threat takes it to another level.”
The Eagles have had mobile quarterbacks in Kelce’s 12-year tenure. Michael Vick was at first a plus-one threat in Chip Kelly’s spread offense from 2013. But Hurts has been the next-generation version of Vick — a great runner who can pass as well, but mostly a quarterback who rarely makes mistakes.
A “triple-threat” is what he called himself a month ago. And it’s hard to argue the point as Hurts continued to build upon his MVP candidacy. He set a career high and an Eagles record with 157 yards rushing on 17 carries, becoming only the third NFL quarterback to run for as many in a regular-season game.
But Hurts was also efficient as a thrower, completing 16 of 28 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns. Most importantly, he never turned over the ball.
Individual accolades aren’t the objective, however. Postseason success is the end goal. And even Sirianni and wide receiver A.J. Brown allowed themselves to look that far ahead when asked why having a versatile offense is pivotal.
“I’d be lying if I said, ‘Hey, we said earlier this week that Jalen was going to rush for 150 yards,’ ” Sirianni said. “So you get the flow of the game. You never want to be one-dimensional, so I think we’ve shown that we can win throwing the ball, I think we’ve shown we can win running the ball offensively.
“And that’s important because in the playoffs you have to do both.”
Especially if your defense is going to allow as many points. Sirianni was correct to point out that the offense — with a turnover on downs and a fumble in the first half — and the special teams, with leaky kick return coverage — didn’t help defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s group.
The Eagles’ defense, though, didn’t have one of its better days, just a week after it accounted for Sirianni’s dubious decision making and the offense’s sloppiness. Overall, Gannon’s scheme and his play calling haven’t been great concerns.
But if the Super Bowl is reachable — and with a 10-1 record it most certainly is — then it’s fair to focus on the areas in which the Eagles could falter and cost themselves a No. 1 seed or a playoff game or even a championship.
And special teams, particularly the cover units, are at the top of the list, and the defense, particularly in stopping the run, is not far behind.
Luckily, the Eagles appear to have an offense that can cover for those faults — like Doug Pederson’s offense did for Jim Schwartz’s defense in Minneapolis — and need only a week to figure out how to move the ball without a key piece such as tight end Dallas Goedert.
The Packers entered the game with, at least statistically, one of the worst run defenses in the league. The Eagles might have been prepared to exploit those weaknesses, but the approach to the game plan is always to avoid getting pigeonholed into doing too much of one thing.
Unless, of course, it’s working. And on Sunday night, the run game worked like gangbusters. But it was Hurts’ scrambling that initially opened the floodgates. He took off on 24- and 42-yard jaunts on third downs that led to two touchdown-scoring drives early on.
“I don’t know how to answer that question, to be honest,” Hurts said when asked why he had so much green grass. “I ran and they couldn’t get me.”
If the Packers were spying on him, it was hard to tell. But with the threat of Hurts’ legs established, Sanders got the rock and broke off long runs. He had space on some, but he also broke his share of tackles, too, on the way to rushing for a career high of 143 yards on 21 totes.
Sanders’ two touchdown runs also gave him a career best of eight on the season, and his 900 yards on the ground through 11 games are already his highest total in four seasons.
“He opened it up today, yes he did,” Sanders said of Hurts. “I appreciate him for that. It’s good to have a quarterback like him and you can just drop back and if you don’t see nothing and it looks cloudy, you can just take off and get about … 20 yards a gain.
“And that’s going to kill a defense and make them change their play calling.”
Even when the Packers had good defenses called on several third downs that called for passes, Hurts checked to runs, according to Kelce, that led to conversions. But the quarterback also flashed his arm talent when necessary with precise passes: a 30-yard touchdown strike to receiver Quez Watkins before the half and a 14-yarder to receiver DeVonta Smith on a red zone third-and-12.
The Eagles struggled to remove the Packers from their rearview mirror, even after quarterback Aaron Rodgers left with a rib injury. Gannon was defending passively up two scores, for obvious reasons, but when receiver Christian Watson got matched up vs. Marcus Epps, the safety was at a disadvantage.
Watson went 63 yards for a touchdown, which made the final moments more tense than they should have been. But Sirianni rolled the dice with a 54-yard field goal try, Jake Elliott delivered, and the Eagles hung on.
It wasn’t quite as dramatic as Super Bowl LII, or a playoff game, but the Eagles have an offense equipped to win in the postseason.
“I’m not getting ahead,” Brown said, “but that’s playoff football.”
The jury is still out on the other units.
