Jaelan Phillips could sense the different mentality that a defending champion exudes as soon as the Philadelphia Eagles added him at the trade deadline.
Phillips wasted no time doing his part to contribute to the Eagles’ title defense.
In his first game with the Eagles since they acquired him from the Miami Dolphins, Phillips made two of the biggest plays of the game to help Philadelphia outlast the Green Bay Packers 10-7 on Monday night.
“The biggest thing I noticed was just no panic,” Phillips said. “The whole entire time, there was just utmost confidence on both sides of the ball. It felt really good to be in that environment.”
Phillips recovered a fumble by Jordan Love to thwart a Green Bay scoring opportunity in the final minute of the first half and helped make a fourth-and-1 stop late in the fourth quarter.
“He loves football,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “He loves working. You could just see it, the way he was running around in practice. His motor is constantly, constantly running.”
Jalen Hurts threw a 36-yard pass to DeVonta Smith with 10:35 remaining for Philadelphia’s only touchdown, giving the Eagles a 10-0 lead. Green Bay’s lone touchdown came on Josh Jacobs’ 6-yard run with 5:49 left.
Brandon McManus’ attempt at a game-tying, 64-yard field goal as time expired fell several yards short.
“We knew it was going to be a four-quarter fistfight,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “I thought our defense was outstanding, and unfortunately, just too many mistakes offensively to overcome it.”
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 had the NFC’s best record before their 16-13 loss to Carolina on Nov. 2, would have the conference’s seventh and final playoff seed if the regular season ended now.
A defensive struggle that featured the first halftime tie of the season 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-7 from its own 23 when Saquon Barkley caught a pass 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, made a spin move past cornerback Carrington Valentine and burst upfield for a 41-yard gain.
On the next play, Smith made a leaping catch in the end zone over safety Evan Williams.
“We have huge sparks,” said Barkley, who was limited to 60 yards on 22 carries. “With the type of talent we have on this offense and on this team, two to three plays, it’s just crazy. (In) two to three plays, we can go downfield and score.”
After cutting the lead to 10-7, the Packers had a couple more opportunities in the closing minutes.
One drive ended when Jacobs fumbled while getting stuffed on fourth-and-1 from Green Bay’s 44 with 1 1/2 minutes remaining. Phillips and Reed Blankenship teamed up on the stop.
Green Bay had one last chance with 27 seconds left from its own 36 after the Eagles threw a long incompletion on fourth-and-6 rather than punting or attempting a long field goal into the wind.
An 18-yard completion from 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.
“We’re just kind of shooting ourselves in the foot right now, getting in a funk of having some good plays and then not building off them properly and having a play that might hurt the drive and we can’t overcome it,” Love said.
The Packers couldn’t get a measure of revenge against the defending Super Bowl champions.
Philadelphia had beaten the Packers twice last season, including a 22-10 victory 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-1. Philadelphia answered with a tush push that gave Hurts a 3-yard gain on third-and-1.
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 Dec. 10, 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.
