Eagles Postgame Report: Birds Survive Bills For 11th Win

The Eagles offense came into a game against the worst rushing defense throwing the ball. They could have connected on a deep ball to Dotson, but the ball was just a bit too far to connect and a three-and-out it was followed by a great 64-yard punt from Mann.

The defense got it to third down and came up with a sack, but a hold on Epps brought the Bills a new set of downs. They came up with another third down sack to get the ball back for the offense following that, however.

The Eagles offense got one first down from Barkley, but then quickly punted the ball back. A 50-yard deep ball burned DeJean with Epps slow for to the deep support, but they were bailed out by a Josh Allen fumble that got the Eagles the ball at the Buffalo 45-yard line.

Behind a 27-yard pass to AJ Brown, the Eagles were able to run seven plays to punch the ball in and get the scoring started. The defense wavered, but ultimately was able to get the ball back for the offense after a nearly five-minute drive from the Bills that featured several conversions that should have been stopped.

Riding the edge of a punt, the Eagles had Hurts complete an 11-yard pass to Smith on 3rd and 4, a 19-yarder to Brown on 3rd and 10, and then, on 3rd and 12 the Bills took a holding penalty to extend the drive. AJ Brown dropped a touchdown pass that he had in his hands and even had pulled down and that forced the Birds to settle for a 47-yard field goal attempt, which Elliott made this week to extend the lead to 10.

The defense was energized as the Eagles landed three big hits in a row to slam Bills players down and ultimately gain two yards of field position forcing the punt. With time running short, the Eagles kept the ball on the ground and Barkley picked up 25 yards on two xarries to bring it to the two-minute timeout. AJ Brown caught a floater to move the chains on a throw away and then a screen to Bigsby and pass to Smith moved the ball to the 15-yard line with 40 seconds left. They managed just a few yards on the next three plays and settled for a field goal to end the half with a 13-point lead.

Three punts started the second half before the Eagles were forced to punt on a three-and-out following the refs overturning the call on the field of a DeVonta Smith 15-yard catch with no evidence to the contrary. Then the Eagles forced a 4th and 10 but the refs decided to throw a flag for DPI on Quinyon Mitchell for less than any other play that wasn’t flagged the whole night to gift them 26 yards and new downs. Ultimately, a ridiculously lucky 32-yard completion that saw the ball just not roll off the receiver’s chest (or perhaps it did and the refs just decided not to overturn that one) and those gifted downs resulted in the Bills turning the ball over on downs at the half yard line.

The Eagles were conservative to avoid a safety and then punted the ball back on the worst punt of the game to hand the ball back to the Bills in Eagles territory. They seemed primed for at least getting some points on the board before Josh Allen did the dumbest thing possible and ran around for 20-30 seconds before heading backwards for a 19-yard loss on the sack. It was an incredibly asinine play that I can’t think of any other starting QB ever making. That forced a punt.

The Eagles went conservative with two runs before Hurts stood in the pocket forever on a blitz before throwing it away after escaping to force a quick three-and-out. Poor coverage gave the Bills a big return to essentially midfield where they moved the chains a few times to build some momentum. As the Eagles seemed able to get off the field, they just left a receiver open and gave up an easy 13 yards on 3rd and five before they gave up a nine yard run to put the ball at the two. A tush push that might have crippled Allen but they do it anyway put the ball in before Jalen Carter blocked the extra point to move the game to 13-6.

The Eagles did the same thing with two handoffs the Bills were waiting on until they handed it to Hurts on third and long to throw another incompletion for another quick punt to put the defense right back out on the field. On 3rd and 4, the defense gave up an easy six-yard reception. They forced 3rd and 9 and stopped that for a small loss to bring up fourth down with 1:51 left and the Bills burning their first timeout. The Eagles covered no one, allowing a lateral to get 25 yards on a short pass to convert. Another total BS catch that just didn’t fall to the ground gave the Bills another 36 yards. They gave up six yards on a scramble that should have been a sack and that gave the Bills just enough yardage for a fourth-down and the ability to run another tush push for the touchdown. That was an easy few inches to gain.

The Bills then went for two and Josh Allen simply threw a bad pass to leave the Eagles lead at one point with five seconds left in the game. The onside kick was recovered by Goedert and that sealed a win that the defense earned in the first half and the offense tried to hand away in the second half.

The Eagles are now at 11 wins and still have an outside shot at the second seed. If that’s out of play based on the Bears game later, they will have nothing to play for next week when they host the Commanders.

Offensive MVP: Saquon Barkley

It almost has to go to Barkley. He had the most yardage of any skill player with 68 rush yards in this one. The defense was keyed to him the entire second half as the passing game and Hurts were entirely non-factors to the point there was no defense that would have needed to worry about it. I give Barkley the nod for going out there and taking the hits he knew were coming for an entire half of abysmal offense.

Defensive MVP: Jihaad Campbell

Jihaad played once again as the Eagles were cautions with Nakobe Dean’s health. Campbell had seven tackles and was pretty strong in coverage, but his hustle to recover that early fumble that he really wasn’t anywhere near is what gets him the MVP honors for the game. That set the game in motion and should have setup an easy win for any team that had an offense capable of gaining a first down over the course of an entire half of football.

Game Notes

• Sam Franklin trying to defend himself by saying he knocked over someone else by grabbing their facemask so he should be allowed to trip over them to cripple opposing players should be grounds for suspension.
• Coming out throwing in heavy rain, in the cold, against a top passing defense? What a gameplan against the league’s worst run defense.
• Phillips’ injury and his history would suggest that the Eagles probably shouldn’t have returned him in this game even if he was healthy and he’s someone that they have no reason to play next week. The extent of this new injury may be a huge factor as it could impact both the willingness of Philadelphia to offer him an extension as well as the amount of money that other teams might be willing to throw at him (which will affect the compensatory pick they’d plan to get if he were to leave).
• Overturning the DeVonta Smith catch was egregious. There was no replay that showed him losing control to overturn the call on the field. Then to grant the Bills 26 yards on a 3rd and 10 on the next drive for non-existent interference – that combination is absolutely biased officiating on back-to-back drives. Especially with the no-call on the AJ Brown dropped TD pass that had 15x the contact from two different DBs. And that doesn’t even acknowledge the late hit on Hurts on the same play as the catch they overturned.
• Smael Mondon came in and absolutely wiped out Kelee Ringo on a fourth-quarter return to give the Bills an extra 10+ yards of room on a punt by not affecting the runner at all and taking out the only pursuer.
• Cam Latu also had a huge error on a punt – he should have downed the ball at the half yard line for the Eagles, but stepped on the line to the endzone for literally no reason as he touched a ball that had stopped moving and had no one else coming to the ball to touch or recover it.
• Jalen Hurts literally did nothing positive for the Eagles the entire second half. The Bills just honed in on the run because Hurts couldn’t complete a single pass and never ran the ball for anything for than 2 or 3 yards on third-down plays.
• Related to Hurts, the offensive play calling in the second half was a fireable offense. That second half play calling was about as predictable on first or second down as it could have possibly been short of just sending the calls via text message to the Bills coaching staff.
• McDermott, after a year of campaigning about how the Tush Push must be banned because it is dangerous and will injure players, scored twice only off of that exact play he says should be banned. He’s a douche.

Injury Notes

• Jaelan Phillips limped off early in the second quarter. It didn’t look good for his return, but he was able to come back later in the quarter.
• Britain Covey was speared in his knee by a penalty on a fair catch in a play that looked like it could be a career ender in the second quarter. He did come back out, however, at the next punt.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Buffalo Bills – December 28, 2025