Eagles
Eagles Postgame Report: Birds Cruise Through NFC Championship, Earn Super Bowl Bid

The Commanders and Eagles met up for the third time this season as only one NFC East team would be headed to the Super Bowl and be crowned NFC Champions.
It started pretty poorly for the defense as they were on their heels right away on an 18-play drive where they allowed conversions on 3rd and 6, 4th and 5 (assisted by an uncalled blatant hold), and 4th and 2 before the defense forced a field goal attempt to end a drive that took over 7 minutes and put Washington on the board first.
The offense responded quickly – in 18 seconds, actually. A 60-yard touchdown run by Saquon Barkley to put them up four points. The defense, back on the field quickly after a long drive, made their own rest by forcing a fumble (Zack Baun) on a crosser and Reed Blankenship recovered it to bring the offense back out. Three easy completions by Hurt setup Barkley for a second touchdown run that put the Eagles up multiple scores.
The teams nearly swapped field goals (the Commanders getting theirs off a successful fake punt), but the Eagles missed their half of that trade following Landon Dickerson failing to pick up his blitzer and leaving Hurts to get blasted for a 9-yard loss that made the kick a 54-yard attempt. With a short field, the Commanders were able to dink and dunk down the filed before Terry McLaurin took a slant to the house. Attempting to tie it up, the Commanders went for two but the Eagles defense sniffed it out with relative ease to maintain the lead.
With a dwindling lead, the Eagles needed to answer and they did just that with a 72-yard touchdown drive that included a 4th-and-5 conversion for 31 yards to AJ Brown. A penalty following the touchdown left the Eagles with one-yard for a two-point conversion and so they went with the tush push but failed to convert.
That momentum wasn’t gone long, however, as Will Shipley came up on the kick return and slammed the returner to force a fumble that Kenny Gainwell recovered. With a short field and about 1:40 left on the clock, the Eagles focused on burning time. They were able to make Washington use all their timeouts and take just under a minute off the clock before hitting Brown for a touchdown reception to open up the largest lead of the game.
The Commanders were able to move the ball quickly without timeouts and nab a field goal back before the half.
The second half started with the two teams trading three-and-outs, the first two punts of the entire game. The Eagles then pushed the ball down the field to extend their lead following a long Hurts touchdown run. The Commanders were able to answer with poor tackling by the defense and then scored a two-point conversion on a pass where the entire Washington OL was in the endzone, but that wasn’t called for some reason.
The Eagles managed just 29 yards before two blown-up plays forced them to punt again. The defense picked them with a forced fumble by Oren Burks to get the ball back again. Barkley broke off a 22-yard run to setup the team at the goal line and then the team was able to use the tush push to get three straight encroachment calls and get the ball essentially on the goal line while also burning an extra minute of clock.
The Commanders offense began to falter, needing everything to break their way to make up the 18-point deficit. The defense forced them to a 4th and six, but they converted. A 4th and 12 three plays later resulted in an incredible sack from Nolan Smith, who had lined up outside the receiver and came across the field for a turnover on downs. Four plays and 2:21 off the clock later, the Eagles put the game away with a Saquon Barkley touchdown to push the lead to 25.
With the game all but over, Washington forced the ball downfield and Quinyon Mitchell picked it off to keep the Commanders from scoring. The backups came in and handed it off to Will Shipley every play. Behind a 57-yard run, the backups punched another touchdown to extend the lead to 32 points. The Commanders backups came in to run out the clock.
Offensive MVP: Saquon Barkley
Three touchdowns in this one and 118 yards toward breaking that record rushing for yards in the season+postseason. He had a reception for four yards, but was perhaps even more instrumental in his blocking.
Defensive MVP: Zack Baun
Baun was once again the leader for this defense, all over the field with 12 tackles in this match and a recovered fumble. Really, there’s a lot of guys you could pick for this role, but Baun was a leader for this team from start to finish tonight.
Game Notes
- This was perhaps Hurts’ quickest start of the year. He had a really fantastic first half of the game, going 12/18 with a few drops and most of his incompletions coming on smart plays where he wisely threw the ball away. There really wasn’t much more you could ask from him and his lone sack (which knocked them out of field goal range) was on the protection allowing an unblocked blitzer instead of on the QB.
- If Hurts plays this well in two weeks, he’ll have his team in great position for a championship.
- Oren Burks also had a strong first half with seven tackles and a sack. He wasn’t fantastic in coverage, but he proved to be a good depth pickup. The forced fumble, of course, cannot be overlooked either as the game was still anyone’s at that point.
- Jahan Dotson wasn’t targeted in the first half, but otherwise the Eagles and Hurts did a good job of spreading targets out amongst their playmakers.
- The fake punt was egregious. It took them what seemed like a minute to snap the ball for a punt with a stopped clock and that made it blatant there was a trick coming but somehow the Eagles weren’t ready.
- Saquon Barkley was an excellent blocker in this game when he didn’t have the ball. It may go unnoticed, but he was almost like a sixth OL at times picking up the blitz or pushing to the second level.
- The backups getting playoff experience could be huge, especially for guys like Shipley or Trotter who they figure to have play larger roles in the future. Even if it was in garbage time.
- Quinyon Mitchell getting another interception that didn’t matter too much except the optics is a great thing for him and will better represent how he’s played this year.
- Milton Williams batted two more passes in this one. The team reportedly was working on an extension with him during camp that it would have been excellent to have gotten done. Nothing happened and after a slow start to the season, the Eagles are now going to be left in a tough position as they’ll have to sign him as a free agent or attempt to replace one of the league’s top DT’s again.
- Jalyx Hunt had five tackles in this one and his breaking out for the DL is some big news for a team that may need to replace Brandon Graham and Josh Sweat come the end of the season.
- Reed Blankenship did his job in this one, but it was tough watching him give up so many catches – it’d be great to see him get in front of one of those passes instead of just making the tackle but that’s really the only major gripe for the defense tonight beside one-off issues.
Injury Notes
- Landon Dickerson, filling in at center, was injured quite early in the game and was having obvious knee issues. He put on a brace and did not leave the game. Jurgens replaced him after the half.
- Kenny Gainwell was shaken up on the opening kickoff of the second half. He was concussed and did not return to the game.
- Jalen Carter was shaken up on the second drive of the second half and exited the game. He returned one play later.
- Darius Slay left in the fourth quarter and was replaced again by Isaiah Rodgers. At that point, it didn’t make sense to have him come in again.
Los Angeles Rams @ Philadelphia Eagles – January 25, 2025
Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
Commanders |
3 | 12 | 8 | 0 |
Eagles |
14 | 13 | 7 | 21 |