Eagles Postgame Report: Eagles Defense Stifles Lions On Sunday Night Football

The Eagles were looking to get another win in the NFC North against another rival team at the top of the NFC. They had a chance to get the ball moving, but two drops left the Eagles forced to punt the ball. Jordan Davis didn’t let that stop him as he tipped a pass from Goff and it landed in the lap of Cooper DeJean. The offense again had drops and wildly off target passes, so the Eagles settled for a field goal.

The defense forced a quick three and out, but the Eagles offense stalled again with a terrible run call instead of a tush push on third and one. The play lost yardage and forced another punt. The Eagles defense bent, but they didn’t break and, with the wind howling, the Lions really didn’t have a choice other than to punt. 

Unfortunately, the Eagles threw away their next possession with another stupid play call to lose three yards and punted again after three plays. The defense stood tall, however, with a turnover on downs on four plays from the Lions – stonewalling them on 3rd and 1 and then 4th and 1. Hurts came out and couldn’t connect with his targets, blatantly missing a wide-open Dallas Goedert to move the chains and then having Smith drop another pass leading to another punt.

The Eagles defense once again forced a three and out and were ready for the fake punt, forcing another turnover on downs. It was an ugly offensive drive, but the 25 yards they gained was enough to put them in field goal position and put the points on the board.

That’s when the defense broke down and allowed a 34-yard pass followed by a 15-yard pass for a touchdown. Luckily for the Eagles, Jameson Williams is as dumb as they come, so he took a penalty and made the extra point a miss to keep the game tied.

The Eagles offense finally responded with clean runs and some nice slants to keep the ball and clock moving. They ultimately ran out the clock and basically ended the half with a tush push touchdown.

The Lions came out after the half with some short passes that hit for YAC to move the chains, but the defense was able to force another 4th and 5 where Williams dropped the pass, resulting in the defenses getting their third turnover on downs of the game. The Eagles seemed to have a good drive going, but it was ended when the refs called a false start when the neutral zone infraction by the defense was ignored to call the response to the actual penalty and the ensuing deep shot missed, forcing another punt.

The Eagles defense bent once again, allowing 69 yards to the Lions. They held up at the 3-yard line, where the aggressive Lions wound up with their fourth turnover on downs due to the pass rush getting in Goff’s face.

Pinned deep in their own end zone, the Hurts was able to escape the pocket and send the ball over the top to Jahan Dotson for a 34-yard reception. Branch took a 15-yard penalty for a helmet-to-helmet hit to add to the ball getting to midfield quickly. Hurts stood there on an obvious blitz and just took an 11-yard sack for seemingly no reason at all, ending another promising drive.

The defense should have had a three-and-out, but they allowed 33 yards on a screen on 3rd and 10. They did, however, wind up with another turnover on downs at midfield after making another stand. AJ Brown took a 15-yard personal foul to negate an 8-yard run, but a defensive hold kept the drive alive for another first down. Malaita took a 10-yard penalty, but the Eagles converted once again. Hurts sailed the easy touchdown pass to Barkley and the Birds had to settle for a field goal.

Adoree’ Jackson broke up the pass to Amon Ra St. Brown to force a quick punt. The Eagles seemed destined to convert on fourth down, but Darius Cooper couldn’t hold his water on the tush push and got his name in the box score for taking a penalty and making the Eagles punt on what was otherwise a promising drive that was chewing clock effectively.

The defense forced a punt but the Eagles failed to gain a yard on two tush pushes and handed the ball over at their own 29-yard line with 2:57 on the clock. Nakobe Dean came up with the big sack to put the Lions behind the chains and limit them to the field goal attempt with the Eagles getting the ball back with just 1:58 left on the clock.

The Eagles burned two Lions timeouts, but Fred Johnson took a false start penalty that was alleviated by the pass interference call on the Lions granting the Eagles a first down. They burned the last timeout for Detroit and then the Saquon Barkley broke through for a first-down run that officially sealed the game for the Eagles.

The Birds advance to 8-2 to keep the top seed in the NFC with head-to-head tie breakers against most other top teams (only teams they do not have that for in the NFC race are the Seahawks, who they don’t play, and the Bears, who they play in two weeks).

The team will head to Dallas last week as they look to maintain that top seed in the conference and sweep the Cowboys. It’s officially Dallas week.

Offensive MVP: Jahan Dotson

It was the AJ Brown show tonight as anything that wasn’t a run seemed like it was being forced to Brown. It was Dotson, though, who put up nearly as many yards on two targets with 43-yards compared to Brown’s team-leading 49 yards on 11 targets. Frankly, this game served as a reminder of how effective Dotson could be if the team gives him the chance on scrambles or giving him a target every once in a while.

Defensive MVP: Jalen Carter

Carter was second on the team in tackles with five in this game. He also had two of his own passes tipped, playing a huge role in keeping this Lions offense in check.

Game Notes

• It seemed like a terribly poor start for the passing game. Hurts was accurate early on and dealt with at least three drops, but then there were drives following that where Hurts was 5-10 yards off on his throws, leaving an anemic passing game.
• The offensive play calling had 2 or 3 plays in the first half where no one blocked any Lions and the intention was to get the ball out on a screen, but that went for a loss of five with no one blocking anyone and the person making the catch needing to avoid two tacklers just to get to the line of scrimmage.
• Kaylen Granson got multiple targets in this game. I can get one as a sort of “caught them napping” sort of thing, but well-covered downfield shots to your TE3 on this offense? What are the Eagles even thinking?
• Further, Granson got two targets and they used Calcaterra (who had 0 targets) as a lead blocker multiple times? The guy who can only catch and can’t block was only used as a blocker while the depth tight ends were targeted and didn’t block as frequently.
• Cam Jurgens did not seem like he was up to snuff in his first half back – he missed more blocks than Brett Toth had over the previous two games at center, so his return wasn’t necessarily an upgrade.
• Jerimiah Trotter taking a facemask penalty to make the punt only be worth 13 yards is unacceptable from a player who is supposedly good enough and smart enough to play on other teams.
• Jake Elliott seemed unbothered by the wind in this one, which was a major factor in this game considering he scored 7 of the Eagles first 13 points and the Lions kicker missed his only attempt on a long extra point.
• Jordan Davis was a big factor in this one. He only gets credit for one tackle, but he had three passes that he tipped at the line and was a consistent pressure presence for a line that got in Goff’s head.
• The PI against AJ Brown was a BS call, similar to the false start on Tyler Steen and the low block on Brown that went against the Eagles, so at least it was somewhat fair bad calls in this one.
• Nakobe Dean was VERY strong in coverage in this one. It’s very impressive and that’s the exact role where Campbell had been falling short earlier in the year. His presence has been huge.

Injury Notes

• Lane Johnson was shaken up in the first quarter and exited the game.
• Cam Jurgens left in the fourth quarter and was replaced by Brett Toth.

Detroit Lions @ Philadelphia Eagles – November 16, 2025