Eagles edge to victory over Packers as defenses dominate Monday Night Football

Jalen Hurts threw a 36-yard pass to DeVonta Smith for Philadelphia’s only touchdown of the game as the Eagles’ defense led the way to a 10-7 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Monday night.

Brandon McManus’s attempt at a game-tying, 64-yard field goal as time expired fell several yards short.

Green Bay’s second straight loss dropped the Packers (5-3-1) to third place in the NFC North, behind Detroit and Chicago. The Packers, who owned the NFC’s best record before their 16-13 loss to Carolina on 2 November, would have the conference’s seventh and final playoff seed if the regular season ended now.

A defensive struggle that was tied at 0-0 at halftime had a serious lack of big plays until the Eagles (7-2) delivered a one-two punch early in the fourth quarter.

Philadelphia led 3-0 and faced third-and-seven from their own 23 when Saquon Barkley caught a pass five yards behind the line of scrimmage, made a spin move past cornerback Carrington Valentine and burst up-field for a 41-yard gain. On the next play, Smith made a leaping catch in the end zone over safety Evan Williams, giving the Eagles a 10-0 lead with 10:35 remaining.

Green Bay cut Philadelphia’s advantage to 10-7 on Josh Jacobs’ six-yard touchdown run with 5:49 left. The Packers then had a couple more opportunities in the closing minutes.

They got the ball back at their own 10 with 2:18 and two timeouts remaining, but that drive ended when Josh Jacobs fumbled while getting stopped for a four-yard loss on fourth-and-one from Green Bay’s 44. Green Bay had one last chance with 27 seconds left from their own 36 after the Eagles threw a long incompletion on fourth-and-six rather than punting. An 18-yard completion from Jordan Love to Bo Melton got the Packers beyond midfield, but McManus couldn’t convert what would have been the longest field goal in team history.

The Packers couldn’t get a measure of revenge against the defending Super Bowl champions. Philadelphia had beaten the Packers twice last season, knocking them off 34-29 in Brazil on the season’s opening week and then beating them 22-10 at Philadelphia in the wild-card round of the NFC playoffs.

During the offseason, the Packers proposed banning the tush push that Philadelphia has used so effectively in short-yardage situations over the last few years. The measure was supported by 22 of the NFL’s 32 teams, two votes shy of the three-quarters majority needed for passage.

The Packers actually executed the first quarterback sneak of the game, and Love didn’t need a push to convert a fourth-and-one on the game’s opening series. During their first drive, Philadelphia answered with a tush push that gave Hurts a three-yard gain on third-and-one from the Eagles’ 18-yard line.

There weren’t many other successful plays by either offense for much of the night.

This was the first NFL game to be scoreless at halftime since December 2023, when both the Minnesota Vikings’ 3-0 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders and the New York Jets’ 30-6 triumph over the Houston Texans had no first-half points. Philadelphia finally broke through when Jake Elliott’s 39-yard field goal capped the Eagles’ opening series of the second half.

Each quarterback fumbled away his team’s best first-half scoring opportunity.

Green Bay’s Edgerrin Cooper knocked the ball away from Hurts at the end of an 11-yard run that would have put the Eagles inside Green Bay’s 15-yard line on Philadelphia’s opening series. Keisean Nixon recovered the fumble and returned it 22 yards.

Click here to read article