Eagles News: “Over their past six games, the Commanders have a bottom-six run defense”

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NFL Conference Championship Betting: Best early bet before lines move – PFFOn the other side of the ball, there is no reason to believe that the Commanders’ defense will be able to stop an Eagles offense led by running back Saquon Barkley. Over their past six games, the Commanders have a bottom-six run defense, which should be exposed in a major way by Barkley and Philadelphia’s elite offensive line. Once again, this profiles as a shootout involving the Commanders, making this total too low at 48.5.

Eagles vs. Rams: 17 winners, 3 losers, and 6 IDKs – BGNSAQUON BARKLEY. Just a very special football player. 26 carries for 205 yards (7.9 average) and two rushing touchdowns. Add in four catches for 27 receiving yards and Barkley had 232 total yards from scrimmage. Barkley’s 62-yard touchdown run erased the Rams’ only lead of the game. And he made it extra awesome by slowing down a little to taunt Jared Verse as he entered the end zone. Barkley’s 78-yard touchdown run really should’ve been the close out moment. The Eagles’ defense ruined that by allowing a quick Rams touchdown drive. But the Eagles won and now Barkley gets a chance to work his magic for at least one more week and potentially all the way to a Super Bowl win. He’s unstoppable.

Full Super Bowl 59 odds heading into AFC, NFC Championship round – SB NationThe 2025 NFL Playoff bracket is set for the AFC Championship and NFC Championship. The Philadelphia Eagles will host the Washington Commanders and the Kansas City Chiefs will host the Buffalo Bills. The Chiefs have been favored to win the Super Bowl for much of the year, but the Championship weekend bracket has boosted the Eagles into favored status. If the Chiefs and Eagles face off in Super Bowl 59, Kansas City will likely be favored. However, given the conference title matchups, the Eagles have the theoretically easier road.

The Eagles are young, potentially still ascending, and should remain mostly intact for years to come – PhillyVoiceAt 53-man cutdowns this season, the Philadelphia Eagles had the sixth-youngest roster in the NFL, at an average age of 25.6 years. They are young, they are talented, and they still have some room to grow. And yet, they’re in the NFC Championship Game with a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Their core players are also mostly under contract for years to come. Let’s go position-by-position.

Battle Tested – Iggles BlitzWatching the Eagles win that game 38-15 would have been a lot more fun that going through a nail-biter that went down to the final seconds. Just hope that games like that will have them prepared for the NFC championship and possibly the SB. If you remember 2017, the Eagles had to survive Atlanta in the divisional round, winning just 15-10. The Falcons were at the PHI 2 with 1:05 left. They tried to get the ball to Julio Jones, but good coverage forced an incompletion. Teams that can come up key plays in tight games have a chance to win a championship. You need the playmaking ability of course, but also the mental and emotional toughness to handle the pressure of the moment and stay focused. This team is showing us that they have that toughness. We’ll see if that translates to another win or two. It certainly should give you some confidence that this team can keep winning.

Eagles move to 6-point favorites over Commanders – PFTThe Eagles opened on Sunday night as 4.5-point favorites over the Commanders in the NFC Championship. The line has moved to 6 points, in less than two days. Does it mean anything to the looming showdown, a rubber match between division rivals? No. But it’s interesting to see how much of the early money has landed on Philly, to the point where the line has moved to nearly a touchdown. Meanwhile, the AFC Championship hasn’t moved at all, from the Chiefs giving the Bills 1.5 points.

First bets: Early picks for AFC, NFC championship games – ESPNTyler Fulghum’s first bet: Commanders +5.5. I feel like this line is overvaluing the Eagles by a point or two. The Commanders have already beaten the Eagles once this season. Jayden Daniels is playing better football than Jalen Hurts. In the divisional round, the Eagles got another 200-plus rushing yard performance and were +2 in turnover margin against the Rams and still didn’t cover. They almost lost the game in regulation. I picked Philly to win the NFC and I’ll stand by that, but I feel like this line should respect the Commanders a bit more than it does.

‘We need that for the Hall of Fame!’: Jalen Carter shows why he’s the Eagles’ next great defensive player with Brian Dawkins, Fletcher Cox watching – PHLYHowie Roseman walked by Jalen Carter’s locker and called toward the best player on the NFL’s best defense describing his best game: “Do you need me to take a picture of how you look right now?” Carter, with a wide smile, answered: “We need that for the Hall of Fame!” A few steps away was Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, the Eagles’ best defensive player of the 2000s. Not far away was Fletcher Cox, the Eagles’ best defensive player of the 2010s. Carter might become the Eagles’ best defensive player of the 2020s. He looked like it on Sunday, when he finished with five tackles, two sacks, three quarterback hits, a forced fumble, and a pass defended in the 28-22 win over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC divisional round. When the Rams threatened to score a go-ahead touchdown in the final minute of the game, Carter pummeled Matthew Stafford for a critical third-down sack and then bullied through the Rams offensive line to pressure Stafford on the fourth-down pass attempt. “It was only a matter of time before he was going to kill that right guard — no disrespect to the right guard,” Josh Sweat said.

Eagles’ 1st thoughts on facing Jayden Daniels and Commanders again – NBCSPThe Eagles will jump into their preparation this week to face Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders, but they already know what’s coming. They’ve seen Daniels twice this already season. “Oh, you know the challenge,” All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun said on Sunday. “He’s dynamic, he can throw the ball, he makes all his reads. He doesn’t play like a rookie quarterback and we’re not going to treat him like one.” The Eagles will host the Commanders on Sunday at 3 p.m. in the NFC Championship Game at the Linc. They get a home conference championship game after the Commanders shocked the No. 1-seeded Lions on Saturday.

NFL Power Rankings: Commanders leapfrog Eagles ahead of Championship Sunday; Chiefs still No. 1 – NFL.com4) Jalen Hurts’ left knee will be the story of the week after he was bent backward in the win over the Rams. The quarterback stayed in the game, but his mobility was significantly compromised. That was evident both on the safety he took and in terms of the Eagles’ play-calling, with Nick Sirianni and Kellen Moore appearing hesitant to deploy the “Tush Push” when they approached the end zone. Instead, Hurts gamely hit A.J. Brown for a massive first down on fourth-and-4 (when it appeared the play clock hit zero briefly), and Saquon Barkley’s late TD gave the Eagles just enough cushion to survive. Surviving also required sweating out two missed extra-point attempts by Jake Elliott, who also hit two clutch fourth-quarter field goals (with two great holds from Braden Mann). The biggest plays on defense came from the singular Jalen Carter, who absolutely wrecked the Rams’ offensive plans Sunday. He had a big first-half sack and forced a massive fourth-quarter fumble of Kyren Williams. Carter called game on his final two snaps, sacking Matthew Stafford, then getting pressure on the fourth-down incompletion to end it. Want to shut down Jayden Daniels? Carter is going to have to lead a dominant showing up front, even if Hurts’ knee obviously looms largest.

The Winners and Losers of the Divisional Round – The RingerEventually, the Eagles will have to pass (and do it well) to win a game in these playoffs. Hurts will have to be better in the pocket for Philadelphia to finish this run with a Super Bowl title. But Sunday’s win did show how he’s able to raise the floor for the Eagles offense as a runner even when he’s not able to raise its ceiling as a passer. He had a 66 percent success rate on three scrambles and racked up 70 yards on three designed rushes. He took seven sacks that derailed the Eagles offense at times, and he was lucky to finish the game without a turnover after fumbling and throwing a pass into double coverage, but he also helped extend—or finish off—scoring drives with his legs. On a snowy day at Lincoln Financial Field, that helped make the difference. We’ll need to review the all-22 footage from Sunday’s game to determine the issue holding back the Eagles’ passing game against the Rams. From the replays we got on the live NBC broadcast, it looks like there weren’t a lot of open receivers running downfield for Hurts to target. Philadelphia’s passing game is rather simple, which certainly is part of the problem, but a more complicated scheme wouldn’t necessarily fit Hurts’s skill set. And thanks to the pressure that the Eagles’ unstoppable run game and its star receiving duo put on opposing defenses, a simple passing scheme is all that’s required. The NFL’s final four is packed with teams whose offenses are built around star quarterbacks. The Eagles are the outlier. Instead, Philadelphia has designed its attack around the NFL’s best offensive line to the point that the passing game almost doesn’t matter.

This missing part of Eagles’ offense is ‘inexcusable,’ ex-NFL QB says – NJ.com“Ever since the layoff with the concussion … the pass offense has not clicked at all. It’s inexcusable,” Simms said on a Pro Football Talk podcast. “And again, I’m not one that’s like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to get the ball to A.J. Brown,’ but to go through a game the last two weeks and as little as he’s touched the ball, and [the Eagles] can’t even finagle a pass or a screen or a reverse or some of that to him, they’ve got to find ways to make that happen as well.” “But hopefully this week, through a good week of practice, and the fact that Hurts has gotten a few weeks of practice under his belt here, he can kind of shake off the cobwebs and some of the negative play he’s had. [He had] missed throws, turning down open receivers a few times, definitely watching the pocket a little bit, and I just felt like he played a little too safe overall in a game like this.”

Brandon Graham continues to leave door open on Super Bowl return: ‘Let’s get there’ – AudacyBrandon Graham continues to leave the door open for a potential return for the Super Bowl. “Let’s get there,” Graham told Joe DeCamara and Jon Ritchie when asked once again about a potential Super Bowl return.

Spadaro: How did we get here? A look back at the first two Eagles-Commanders matchups – PE.comStatistics to remember: The Eagles had five takeaways and turned the ball over twice (including the last giveaway on the kickoff). Daniels was incredible – 24-of-39, 258 yards, 5 touchdowns, 81 rushing yards on 9 carries. Washington was just 3-of-16 on third down, but converted all 3 of its fourth-down attempts. Barkley ran for 150 of the team’s 211 yards on the ground.

10 takeaways from Rams heartbreaking playoff loss to Eagles – Turf Show Times2. Defense needed to contain Saquon Barkley and didn’t. All week it was said how the Rams needed to contain Saquon Barkley. They didn’t necessarily need to avoid the explosive runs, but the devastating ones. Barkley had two of them. For the most part, the Rams did contain Barkley. Outside of his two touchdown runs, Barkley had 24 carries for 65 yards. That’s 2.7 yards per carry to go with a 40 percent success rate. However, it was the devastating runs that were the difference. On the opening drive, Jalen Hurts had a 44-yard tuck and run on a read option. Barkley then took a run 62 yards for a score on a 3rd-and-4 in the first quarter. The touchdown in the fourth quarter was the nail in the coffin. With the Rams trailing by seven, Barkley went 78 yards on the first play. Both of Barkley’s touchdowns came against eight and nine man boxes. Bad angles and missed tackles in the secondary led to big touchdown runs.

Commanders Vs. Lions (Playoff Game Two) – Studs and Duds – Hogs HavenZach Ertz continues to show his value for the rookie Daniels in this offense. He had five receptions for 28 yards and a score.

Former Cowboys special teams coordinator John Fassel headed for same role with Titans – Blogging The BoysWhen Mike McCarthy took over the Dallas Cowboys five years ago among the most pressing needs he was facing was to fix the special teams group. McCarthy hired John Fassel away from the Los Angeles Rams to do so, and for the most part (that first season was a bit of a ride), Fassel did just that. He identified advantages on special teams that Dallas benefited from and helped assemble a group that featured the best season of Brett Maher’s career (which was great before it wasn’t), and discovered Brandon Aubrey. Obviously he has been vital in KaVontae Turpin’s growth as well. He will not be back with the Cowboys, who are still looking for a replacement for McCarthy. It was reported on Monday afternoon that Fassel is headed to become the special teams coordinator of the Tennessee Titans.

New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka gets second head-coaching interview with New Orleans Saints – Big Blue ViewThe New York Giants could be on the verge of losing offensive coordinator/assistant head coach MIke Kafka. The New Orleans Saints are reportedly flying Kafka in on Monday for a second interview for the vacant head-coaching job, per NFL insider Tom Pelissero. Kafka, offensive coordinator for the Giants since 2022, interviewed virtually with the Saints and Chicago Bears last week.

Report: Bears are hiring Ben Johnson as head coach – Windy City GridironWell, that didn’t take long. As reported by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Chicago Bears are set to hire Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as the franchise’s 19th head coach.