Villanova was starting to look unbeatable. The Wildcats had turned a shaky beginning of the 2025-26 season into a 10-game winning streak that stretched into Big East play.
They’d won five straight conference games, including a crucial New Year’s Day matchup vs. Creighton. However, Marquette ended Villanova’s hot streak, exposing its flaws in an 85-69 win on Sunday in Milwaukee.
Villanova (12-3, 5-1 Big East) entered the matchup at No. 28 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. Despite Sunday’s disappointment, coach Denise Dillon’s Wildcats have piled up wins and seem poised to contend with the top women’s teams in the Big East.
Defense falters vs. Marquette
Villanova entered the game with the second-best defense in the Big East. Opponents were averaging just 58.8 points and shooting 37.2% from the field against the Wildcats.
However, the Golden Eagles (10-5, 4-2) were unfazed. Villanova gave up the most points it had this season, and, although it tied the score twice, Marquette led for the majority of the game and shot 51.75% from the field.
Marquette’s Halle Vice was unstoppable. The junior guard scored 14 points in the first quarter alone and made each of her first nine shots from the field en route to a 32-point outing. Guard Jaidynn Mason and forward Skylar Forbes also scored 20 points each.
Villanova especially struggled to defend Marquette’s three-point shooting. The Golden Eagles knocked down 61.1% of their shots from long range, going 11-for-18. The Wildcats’ full-court press didn’t slow them down, and they led by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore guard Jasmine Bascoe has been Villanova’s dependable backcourt leader. She held up the offense against Marquette with 20 points and four assists. Bascoe is averaging a team-best 17.3 points, which also is good for third in the Big East.
While Bascoe remains a crucial presence for the Wildcats, the team’s depth on offense has helped it thrive this season. Bascoe, also the team’s assists leader, has plenty of reliable options around her.
Those options were tested on Dec. 29 at DePaul, as Bascoe went down with a leg injury in the first quarter and missed the rest of the game. Junior forward Brynn McCurry filled the gap, scoring 18 points as four Wildcats finished in double figures in an 81-48 win.
Bascoe was back on the court in the Wildcats’ 74-64 win over Creighton. Freshman forward Kennedy Henry led the scoring with a career-high 19 points in that win, while Bascoe added 15.
Brynn McCurry is among Villanova players who stepped up when leading scorer Jasmine Bascoe was sidelined vs. DePaul.
Big East competition
Villanova sits in second place in the conference standings behind No. 1 UConn (15-0, 6-0). The Wildcats have defied expectations early in conference play, after being picked to finish fourth in the Big East preseason poll.
With the loss to Marquette behind them, the Wildcats will look to bounce back on their home court. Villanova next hosts Xavier (9-6, 2-4) on Thursday (11:30 a.m., ESPN+).
Philly sports talkers are likely to debate the decision all week, but what’s done is done. The Eagles will enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, a position that has produced surprisingly few Super Bowl teams.
Wharton professor Deniz Selman crunched the numbers. Since 1975, when the current playoff seeding began, just five No. 3 seeds have made it through the playoffs and ended up in the Super Bowl. By comparison, 55 No. 1 seeds, 24 No. 2 seeds, and 11 No. 4 seeds have made it to the big game.
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The most recent No. 3 seed to advance to the Super Bowl was the Kansas City Chiefs, who made it to Super Bowl LVIII in the 2023 season and defeated the No. 1 San Francisco 49ers.
The Eagles’ four Super Bowl appearances have all come as either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed, including last year’s victory against the Chiefs.
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The Eagles were the No. 3 seed in 2013, but they lost to the New Orleans Saints in the wild-card round at Lincoln Financial Field. They also didn’t advance past the wild-card round as a No. 3 seed in 2010, while in 2006 their postseason run ended in the divisional round.
The Birds made it to the NFC championship game as the No. 3 seed during the 2001 playoffs, but lost to the then-St. Louis Rams, 29-24 when Aeneas Williams intercepted Donovan McNabb with less than two minutes remaining.
Here are the five NFL teams that entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed and advanced to the Super Bowl:
BEREA, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns have fired coach Kevin Stefanski after six seasons.
Stefanski, a Wayne native who played quarterback at St. Joseph’s Prep and got his start coaching at his alma mater, Penn, is the fourth NFL coach fired this season. He joins Tennessee’s Brian Callahan, the New York Giants’ Brian Daboll and Atlanta’s Raheem Morris.
The Browns won their final two games to finish 5-12, including a 20-18 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
The 43-year-old Stefanski is a two-time AP NFL Coach of the Year. He led Cleveland to playoff appearances in 2020 and 2023. The Browns’ 48-37 victory over Pittsburgh in an AFC wild-card round game was the franchise’s first since 1993.
Ironically, Stefanski was not on the Browns’ sideline for that game after he tested positive for COVID-19. He watched the game from the basement at his house.
Stefanski is the sixth coach fired since owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam bought the franchise in 2012. The five coaches hired by the Haslams have a 73-139-1 regular-season record since 2013, the second-worst mark in the NFL.
There was a point last season when Don Mattingly was planning on calling it a career.
He went into 2025, his third year as the bench coach with the Blue Jays, expecting it to be his last in the sport. Mattingly, now 64, thought he had accomplished what he had set out to do in Toronto, helping a younger manager in John Schneider become established.
But it was his 11-year-old son, Louis, who helped change his mind.
“Dad, you can’t stop,” Louis told him. “You’ve got to keep going.”
And after Toronto fell to the Dodgers in Game 7 of the World Series — marking Mattingly’s first World Series appearance in more than 40 years in baseball as a player, manager, and coach — he was approached by the Phillies for their open bench coach job.
The position had been vacated after Mike Calitiri was moved to the role of major league field coordinator at the end of the season. The fit was natural on both sides. The Phillies wanted a veteran voice to add to manager Rob Thomson’s staff. Mattingly managed the Dodgers from 2011-15 and the Marlins from 2016-22.
He had also previously worked alongside Thomson and hitting coach Kevin Long in the Yankees organization, as well as assistant hitting coach Edwar Gonzalez with the Marlins.
And he will reunite with another of his sons, Preston Mattingly, who is the Phillies’ 38-year-old general manager.
“When it came to me that there was a possibility that Donny was going to be available, I said, ‘This is the perfect guy,’” Thomson said Monday after the Phillies announced that Mattingly’s hiring was official. “Because I know the integrity, I know the knowledge. I know how detailed he is. And plus, I think he’s a great sounding board for our players and our stars. He’s been there, and he’s done all these things, and the rest of us really can’t answer that.”
Thomson’s contract was recently extended through 2027, and Mattingly said Monday he had committed to “a couple of years” with the Phillies’ manager.
He also said he has no further aspirations to be a manager again. His approach as a bench coach is to be another set of eyes and ears for Thomson.
A six-time All-Star, Don Mattingly was a career .307 hitter over 14 seasons with the Yankees.
“I know it gets busy and fast at times when you’re thinking about your pitching, and then you got a pitch-hit situation, and all those things get fast,” Mattingly said. “ … Try to stay ahead of him and just lighten the load for him.”
Mattingly’s playing career, during which he was a six-time All-Star, nine-time Gold Glove winner at first base, and 1985 American League MVP, also influences how he coaches.
“The one thing I’ve tried to always do is never forget how hard the game is,” Mattingly said. “Guys make a lot of money, and we expect them to come through all the time, and that’s just not that way. … I’m always going to try to be myself [in] any role that I’ve played, as a coach or a hitting coach or manager, I feel like I’m here to help players. I’m here to serve, help them get the best out of their ability.”
Mattingly managed Phillies pitcher Jesús Luzardo on the Marlins, and is looking forward to developing relationships with the other Phillies players. He met Bryce Harper at the 2017 All-Star Game in Miami.
“He’s always been a guy for me who’s been really interesting, just because of how young he was when he came [up], how good he was when he broke into the league, watching his development over the years,” Mattingly said of Harper. “This cat can go, for me. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer, hands down. So I love being around guys like that.”
It’s a bit of an unusual arrangement to have his son in the front office, but Mattingly said his priority is preserving trust with the players.
Don Mattingly, then the Marlins manager, talks with Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski before a game in 2022.
“I’m not a voice that’s just running upstairs and talking about anything and everything,” he said. “That’s just not the way I operate. I came from a different era where that is not something that happens. I’m going to have to build that trust with players so they will trust me that that’s not going to happen.”
But there is also the possibility for a storybook ending for Mattingly’s career. He had hoped last season that Toronto would meet the Phillies in the World Series to go head-to-head with Preston. Now, they’re on the same side.
“To be able to do it with him would be incredible,” Mattingly said.
I don’t vote on the Associated Press version of NFL postseason awards, which are the NFL’s official awards. That voting is done by an eclectic panel of 50 semi-rotating media members — and I use the term “media members” extremely loosely, partly because last year the panel included Fox analyst Tom Brady, who also is an NFL owner.
Maybe this year, too. Voters can out themselves, as Mike Florio at ProFootball Talk.com did to himself and his colleague Chris Simms, but we won’t know who all of this year’s voters are until the AP publishes the list during Super Bowl week.
While I’m not an AP voter, I have written a weekly NFL column for years, and I have covered the NFL extensively for 35 years. Therefore, it’s not entirely inappropriate to offer my insight, if only to inform the judgment of any actual voters, who have to vote by 3 p.m. Monday.
Read fast, Tom.
MVP
Brady said Sunday that his choice was Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford over Patriots QB Drake Maye. This, after Stafford rebounded from a three-interception game against the gritty Falcons with a four-touchdown home game against the pathetic Cardinals. Part of Brady’s rationale: Stafford, 37 and MVP-less, won’t have as many chances as Maye, who is 23 and in his second season.
This is the dumbest reason ever. Football is violent, tomorrow is promised to no one, and the only criteria should be the 2025 season. Unfortunately, I don’t think Brady will be the only voter who considers this year’s competition a lifetime achievement award.
Maye secured the No. 2 seed in the AFC with the highest passer rating among regulars, at 113.5, and did so with a new coaching staff in just his second season. Still, Stafford led the league with 4,707 passing yards and 46 touchdowns passes, and secured the No. 5 seed against the NFL’s toughest schedule.
I actually agree with TB12.
Stafford it is.
But not because he’s old.
Mike Macdonald is 24-10 in two seasons as Seahawks coach.
Coach of the Year
This, by far, is the toughest call, because there are so many worthy Coach of the Year candidates, and some fresh faces.
Sean Payton and the Broncos have the No. 1 seed, but he’s done it for 24 years and he’s had three years to build in Denver, two of them with his current quarterback, Bo Nix. Should having experience and tenure count against him?
Mike Vrabel is in his seventh season but his first in New England, where the pressure as a Patriots legend was immense and where the Patriots were the last-place team in the AFC East. They won the division and got the No. 2 seed, but Vrabel inherited Maye, who already was a Pro Bowl quarterback. Should that count against him?
In his second season as a head coach, Mike Macdonald added Pro Bowl QB Sam Darnold to a solid, 10-win Seattle roster, won 14 games, and took the NFC West from the Rams and the 49ers. Irrelevant fact: He’s only ever really worked for Harbaughs — John with the Ravens and Jim at Michigan. Anyway, the Seahawks led the NFL in point differential, at plus-191, three touchdowns better than the No. 2 team.
Liam Coen, the first of the rookies, was an NFL offensive coordinator for only two years — one of them a stormy season as OC with the Rams — before a bizarre courtship tore him away from being OC at Tampa Bay. He succeeded Doug Pederson in Jacksonville, won 13 games against some really good teams, and finished on an eight-game heater … but he inherited a franchise QB in Trevor Lawrence.
Ben Johnson, the second of the rookies, flipped the Bears from worst-to-first in the NFC North and refined second-year QB Caleb Williams. He was my slam-dunk pick two weeks ago, but the Bears have faded. Seventh seed Green Bay certainly isn’t scared to travel to the No. 2 seed now; the Bears lost to the Packers earlier this season and they needed overtime to beat them three weeks ago.
Who’s my choice now?
It’s Macdonald, but only by a meticulously groomed hair.
Falcons running back Bijan Robinson led the NFL in yards from scrimmage with 2,298.
Offensive Player of the Year
Player of the Year usually is the category reserved for the best running back or receiver, since only quarterbacks have been allowed to win MVP since Adrian Peterson in 2012.
My favorite offensive player this year: Falcons back Bijan Robinson, who led the NFL in yards from scrimmage with 2,298, the best by 172 yards, on a team so bad it fired its head coach and GM on Sunday night.
Unlike Robinson, both Jaxon Smith-Njigba of Seattle and Puka Nacua of the Rams will be catching passes in the playoffs. But what Robinson did, and with such little support, reminds you of Christian McCaffrey with the 5-11 Panthers in 2019.
McCaffrey was second in yards from scrimmage this year.
Browns defensive end Myles Garrett celebrates on Sunday after breaking the NFL record for sacks in a season with 23.
Defensive Player of the Year
Browns lineman Myles Garrett sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the fourth quarter Sunday to break the sack record of 22½ shared by Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt.
However, Garrett’s 23rd sack came in the 17th of his 17 games. Watt played in just 15 of 17 games in 2021, which is remarkable. Strahan played in just 16 games of the 2001 season, which is all they played back then, but Packers quarterback Brett Favre essentially surrendered to the last “sack,” in the last game.
I know there’s a few people out there that say Myles Garrett had an extra game which he did, but let’s not forget Brett Favre literally dropped like a corpse to give Michael Strahan the record! S/O Myles Garrett on setting the new sack record! pic.twitter.com/lEcqX1pMHl
Saints quarterback Tyler Shough had a worse passer-rating season than Jacoby Brissett.
Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan caught 70 passes for 1,014 yards, better than either A.J. Brown or DeVonta Smith, and seven touchdowns. No contest.
Linebacker Carson Schwesinger had 156 tackles in 16 games as a rookie for the Browns this season.
Defensive Rookie of the Year
Carson Schwesinger, the Browns’ tackling machine, is really the only choice this season. He’s a second-round pick who looks exactly like what you’d think a linebacker from UCLA would look like.
Assistant Coach of the Year
In his first season of his second return to New England, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels turned Maye into an MVP favorite in his second NFL season, running the top yardage and scoring offense in the AFC. McDaniels had as much to do with the Patriots’ turnaround as Vrabel.
Comeback Player of the Year
McCaffrey missed most of 2024 with a knee injury and might win OPOY this year. Sorry, Dak.
The Eagles (11-6) will face the San Francisco 49ers (12-5) Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on Fox in the wild-card round of the playoffs. Here’s the full wild-card schedule.
Eagles running back Tank Bigsby started Sunday’s game against the Commanders.
Resting the regulars meant Tank Bigsby got the start at running back with Saquon Barkley on the sideline.
Bigsby has flashed in his limited role as a backup, and he showed Sunday why some are clamoring for more of him.
Bigsby rushed 16 times for 75 yards and a touchdown. He also turned a check-down completion into a 31-yard gain, making Washington’s Jordan Magee miss with a nifty cut in the process. Bigsby, however, played just two snaps in the fourth quarter and did not have a touch after the third quarter during the 24-17 loss.
“He runs hard,” Nick Sirianni said. “He’s got extremely good ability to make you miss while also being able to put his shoulder down and finish runs through contact.
“The way he walks through, the way he practices, it really does show up in the game with how hard he runs and how hard he plays.”
Perhaps the Eagles will feature more of him, especially if they find success on the ground vs. a weakened San Francisco front seven.
49ers are paying the price for not resting their starters
San Francisco 49ers linebacker Tatum Bethune (48) will miss the entire postseason with a groin injury.
One team had a meaningful game with a lot on the line and a lot of things in their control. The other had a meaningful game with a lot on the line and only some things in their control.
The Eagles, the latter team mentioned above, elected to go the conservative route and rest most of their regulars. The San Francisco 49ers, meanwhile, played a big game in prime time Saturday and lost at least one starter for the playoffs in the process.
Of course, had the Eagles been in situation where a win guaranteed them the No. 2 seed in the NFC, Nick Sirianni would have made a different decision than the one he made for Week 18 vs. Washington.
As it happens, the decision may have cost the Eagles a chance at a second home playoff game, but what it did guarantee was the Eagles entering the wild-card weekend with the healthiest roster they could have. It was an extra week for right tackle Lane Johnson and linebacker Nakobe Dean to continue working toward their returns from foot and hamstring injuries, respectively. It was a day off for Jalen Carter to give his ailing shoulders a break. Jaelan Phillips got to rest his ankle injury. Dallas Goedert got to stay off his knee.
The 49ers, meanwhile, lost starting linebacker Tatum Bethune to a season-ending groin injury during their loss to Seattle. San Francisco remains without star linebacker Fred Warner, who is unlikely to be ready until at least the NFC championship game. Two other linebackers, Dee Winters (ankle) and Luke Gifford (quad), will be evaluated this week for their injuries.
San Francisco was also without star left tackle Trent Williams for their game Saturday. He is dealing with a hamstring injury, and the 49ers really struggled offensively without him, though the Seahawks have one of the best defenses in the NFL.
Johnson, the Eagles’ star tackle, seems to be trending toward returning for the postseason. Dean’s status remains unclear. But the Eagles could start their postseason run Sunday with all of their active-roster regulars ready for action.
“I think it’s always a fine line of there’s two things that need to happen,” Sirianni said Monday. “You got to have your players available, and you do different things to make sure that happens throughout the year. But it is so important that you continue to get better as the season goes on.
“Our guys know how to practice. They know how to practice efficiently. So we’ve had a tendency of getting better while also having guys healthy.”
LBs Tatum Bethune (groin) is out for the rest of the season. The other two LBs, Dee Winters (ankle) and Luke Gifford (quad) will be evaluated later this week.
Eagles early favorites vs. 49ers in wild-card round
The Eagles will face Brock Purdy and the 49ers Sunday in the first round of the playoffs.
The Eagles will host the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round of the playoffs after they missed out on the No. 2 seed.
The Birds ended the regular season with with a loss to the Commanders, settling for an 11-6 record to go with their NFC East title. Meanwhile, the 49ers finished with a 12-5 record after their recent loss to the Seattle Seahawks, but had to settle for a wild-card spot.
Now, both teams will meet at Lincoln Financial Field as they try to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive, and the Eagles are early favorites over the Niners in their first-round matchup.
Jonathan Gannon has been fired by the Cardinals after three seasons.
Jonathan Gannon is the fourth head coach to lose their job on Black Monday
The Arizona Cardinals announced they have parted ways with Gannon, who they hired away from the Eagles in 2023 under a five-year deal that ran through the 2027 season and drew allegations of tampering resolved by swapping draft picks.
The former Birds defensive coordinator went just 15-36 (.294) in three seasons with the Cardinals, and his team was completely uncompetitive in the NFC West (0-6). In fact, the Cardinals lost more games last season (14) than the rest of the NFC West combined (13).
As Peter King put it in his weekly newsletter, “He’s a defensive coach, and they gave up 37 points a game in their last five games. Is that a team playing hard for the coach?”
To add insult to injury, the team wished Gannon a happy birthday on social media Sunday.
The Dolphins also requested interviews with 49ers VP of Player Personnel Tariq Ahmad and director of scouting and football operations Josh Williams for their GM job, per sources.
The Raiders have fired head coach Pete Carroll after just one season.
Three NFL coaches have been fired on Black Monday, and it isn’t even noon yet.
Pete Carroll joined the ranks of the unemployed Monday, with the Las Vegas Raiders announcing they parted ways with their 74-year old coach.
“We appreciate and wish him and his family all the best,” Raiders owner Mark Davis said in a statement.
Carroll’s team tied for the NFL’s worst record (3-14), and the Raiders had already fired offensive coordinator (and former Eagles coach) Chip Kelly during the season.
The move also means Davis will be paying three former coaches who are no longer with the team — Carroll, Antonio Pierce, and Josh McDaniels. The team was also forced to pay Jon Gruden an undisclosed lump-sum after he resigned in 2021 due to an email scandal.
Notably, Tom Brady — who will be called the Eagles’ wild-card game on Fox Sunday — will be part of the Raiders’ search for a new head coach.
Peter King calls Eagles’ decision to rest starters a ‘missed opportunity’
Nick Sirianni decision to rest his starters is being second-guessed across the league.
Add longtime NFL writer Peter King to the list of pundits who think Nick Sirianni made a mistake by resting his starters with the No. 2 seed on the line.
King, in a weekend newsletter, called the decision a “missed opportunity” for the Eagles and pointed out why the No. 2 seed offers a much easier path to the Super Bowl than the No. 3 seed.
“If you’re the 2 seed and you win the Wild Card game, you’re home for two playoff games,” King wrote. “If you’re the 3 seed and the 2 seed wins the Wild Card game, you’re home for only one playoff game.”
94.1 WIP morning show co-host and former Eagles fullback Jon Ritchie was more blunt Monday morning.
“It was a mistake,” Ritchie said. “The fact you could have had the easy path, and instead you completely forfeited that opportunity… this team has the players to win a Super Bowl if the path is the right path, and we forfeited that possibility.”
Sirianni defended his decision to reporters following Sunday’s loss, saying it came down to what he felt was best for the team and his players.
“The one thing I could guarantee was giving them rest,” Sirianni said. “I couldn’t guarantee anything else.”
“Going into the playoffs healthy is a big deal for us,” Sirianni added.
Inquirer columnist Mike Sielski agreed, writing the Eagles got some rest and “eliminated any risk they’d be shorthanded to a significant degree” against the San Francisco 49ers.
“Do the Eagles have a harder road back to the Super Bowl now? Maybe, but not necessarily,” Sielski wrote. “The defending champs let everything play out, and now they really get to take their chances, to show that being healthy and healed up is a bigger advantage than anything they might have gained from treating Sunday’s game like their season depended on it.”
Jalyx Hunt pulled off a first in the Eagles’ 93-year history
Jalyx Hunt made the Eagles’ history books Sunday.
If Jalyx Hunt looked like a defensive back breaking on Josh Johnson’s sideline throw intended for Deebo Samuel on Sunday evening, you can thank his background as a safety, the position he originally played in college at Cornell before transitioning to the defensive line at Houston Christian.
Hunt’s interception was his third of the season and separated him from what was a four-way tie for the team lead with two interceptions.
It also put him in the Eagles’ history book. For the first time since the Eagles were established in 1933, the same player led the team in interceptions and sacks. Hunt’s two sacks in Buffalo last week gave him a team-high 6½ sacks on the season.
Hunt, a third-round pick in 2024, also became the second player in franchise history to post 6-plus sacks and 3-plus interceptions in the same season. Seth Joyner did it twice, in 1991 and 1992.
“He’s living good,” Zack Baun said of Hunt. “He’s doing something in his life that karma is just treating him right.
“He’s super impressive. Thinking about his transition in positions in college and high school, it’s insane. Got to give credit to guys like that that work really hard to put themselves in good positions and then, at the end of the day, it pays off for them.”
Brandon Graham played a lot more snaps Sunday than he did in Week 17.
There were varying reasons for who played Sunday and who didn’t, who played sparingly and who played more.
The Eagles, for example, decided to let DeVonta Smith play nine snaps and catch three passes on four targets for 52 yards so he could get the 44 yards he needed to reach 1,000 yards on the season. Nick Sirianni said the Eagles were “safe with him as far as what kind of routes we were running and what he was doing.”
Smith exited the game after his third catch.
Some Eagles got the entire night off. Safety Reed Blankenship said he was looking back with no regrets after the Eagles rested their starters and squandered a chance at the No. 2 seed in the NFC.
“I’d rather have a week of rest and let my body recover than go out there and be in a dog fight and then feel bad going into a playoff game,” he said.
For some other Eagles regulars, Sunday was almost a normal day.
Jalyx Hunt played 52% of the 69 defensive snaps, Moro Ojomo played 51%, and Jordan Davis 49%. There was a healthy dose of Byron Young (78%) and Ty Robinson (74%) on the interior, but defensive line isn’t a position where the Eagles could rest everyone. Even 37-year-old Brandon Graham played 28 snaps, 21 more than he played a week earlier.
“The plan was that you rotate on the defensive line,” Sirianni said. “To keep somebody in there and just make them go the whole time, that’s not how D-line play works. You always want to have fresh bodies in there and so we knew they would play into the fourth and we tried to limit their reps as best as we possibly could by giving the other guys some more reps, but we knew that we would have to play them the whole time through because just the way the nature of that position works.”
The other regulars who played Sunday were right guard Tyler Steen and tight end Grant Calcaterra, both of whom played 28 snaps. Backup tackle Fred Johnson, who has been filling in as a starter for Lane Johnson, played all 64 offensive snaps.
NFL playoff schedule: Birds playing Sunday afternoon
The Eagles are making their fifth-straight playoff appearance under head coach Nick Sirianni.
The first round of the NFL playoffs begins this weekend, with the No. 3 Eagles hosting the No. 6 San Francisco 49ers Sunday afternoon at the Linc at 4:30 p.m. on Fox.
Kevin Burkhardt will be in the booth alongside Tom Brady, who will be calling his sixth Eagles game this season. It will also be his fourth Birds playoff game, which included last year’s Super Bowl victory against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Fox is broadcasting two wild-card games this weekend, while CBS, NBC, and ESPN each get one.
One game will also stream exclusively on Amazon’s Prime Video, which just finished up its fourth season as the home of Thursday Night Football.
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The No. 1 Seattle Seahawks will face the lowest-remaining NFC seed in the divisional round. Same goes for the No. 1 Denver Broncos in the AFC.
Full 2025-26 NFL playoff schedule
Wild-card round: Saturday, Jan. 10, to Monday, Jan. 12
Divisional round: Saturday, Jan. 17, to Sunday, Jan. 18
Super Bowl LX (or 60, for those who don’t like Roman numerals) is being held at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., home of the San Francisco 49ers.
NBC will broadcast this year’s Super Bowl, with Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth on the call.
Here are the sites announced for future Super Bowls:
Surprisingly few No. 3 seeds have made it to the Super Bowl
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are hoping to overcome history during their playoff run.
There are a lot of opinions about Nick Sirianni’s decision to rest the Eagles starters in Sunday’s loss, especially after the Chicago Bears’ loss opened the door for the Birds to land the No. 2 seed.
But that’s all academic now. The Eagles will enter the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, a position that’s produced a surprisingly small amount of Super Bowl teams.
Wharton professor Deniz Selman crunched the numbers. Since 1975, when the current playoff seeding began, just five No. 3 seeds have made it through the playoffs and ended up in the Super Bowl. By comparison, 55 No. 1 seeds, 24 No. 2 seeds, and 11 No. 4 seeds have made it to the big game.
The most recent No. 3 seed to advance to the Super Bowl was the Kansas City Chiefs, who made it to Super Bowl LVIII in the 2023 season and defeated the No. 1 San Francisco 49ers.
The last time a No. 3 seed in the NFC made it all the way to the Super Bowl was the Carolina Panthers in 2003, when they went on to lose to the New England Patriots.
The Eagles were the No. 3 seed in 2013, but lost to the New Orleans Saints in the wild-card round at the Linc. They also didn’t advance past the wild-card round as a No. 3 seed in 2010, while in 2006 their postseason run ended in the divisional round.
The Birds made it to the NFC Championship game as the No. 3 seed during the 2001 playoffs, but lost to the then-St. Louis Rams 29-24 when Aeneas Williams intercepted Donovan McNabb with less than two minutes remaining.
Here are the five NFL teams that entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed and advanced to the Super Bowl:
Kevin Stefanski is the fourth head coach to be fired this season.
The Cleveland Browns fired Kevin Stefanski Monday morning, becoming the fourth NFL team this season to part ways with their head coach.
The former NFL Coach of the Year (an award he won twice) and a Philadelphia native, Stefanski’s sixth season with the Browns was a disappointment. While the Browns have a history of burning through head coaches (12 since 2000), Stefanski’s three playoff games was the most for the franchise since Marty Schottenheimer’s tenure during the mid-1980s.
Overall, Stefanski went 45-56 (.446) with the Browns, the franchise’s best winning percentage since Bill Belichick’s short tenure in Cleveland in the early 1990s (not counting the eight games Gregg Williams served as the team’s interim coach in 2018).
Expect most teams with a head coaching vacancy, including the New York Giants, to have interest in Stefanski, who is just 43.
They will open the playoffs at home against a 49ers team that is coming off a sloppy loss on Saturday in its third game in 13 days. San Fran’s offense scored just three points.
The Eagles and 49ers have met twice previously in the postseason. San Fran shut out the Birds, 14-0, in a muddy wild-card game at the old Candlestick Park after the 1996 season. Three years ago, the Eagles thumped San Fran, 31-7, in the conference championship game.
Niners quarterback Brock Purdy was a rookie that season. He got hurt on the first possession, and the 49ers had an uphill climb.
Coincidentally, he was replaced that day by Josh Johnson, who on Sunday led Washington to a win over the Eagles, which knocked the Eagles out of the conference’s No. 2 seed and set up the meeting next weekend with the 49ers. Small world.
Purdy had been red-hot until Seattle shut him down in a 13-3 Seahawks win on Saturday. In the three games prior, he had 11 TD passes and two interceptions.
This will be his seventh postseason start. He’s thrown one interception in 171 playoff passes, and San Fran is 4-2 with losses to the Eagles and the Chiefs.
Lane Johnson, seen here arriving for Sunday’s game.
Offensive tackle Lane Johnson hasn’t played since suffering a Lisfranc sprain in his foot back in Week 11. He’s expected to return to the team for Sunday’s wild-card game, per the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Safety Brandon Johnson, who started alongside Sydney Brown, injured his ankle while attempting to pick off a deflected pass in the second quarter.
Tight end Grant Calcaterra hurt his ankle and knee on a hip-drop tackle from Reaves in the third quarter.
Offensive lineman Brett Toth was evaluated for a concussion in the fourth quarter and did not return to action.
Other players dealing with injuries include defensive tackle Jalen Carter (hip), linebacker Nakobe Dean (hamstring), linebacker Jaelan Phillips (ankle), tight end Dallas Goedert (knee), and safety Marcus Epps (concussion).
If Aaron Rodgers is back next season, he’ll face the Eagles at the Linc next season.
While the 2025 season is still going on for the Eagles, we now know all the Birds’ opponents for the 2026 season.
Their final opponent was decided Sunday night. Not only did the Pittsburgh Steelers win the AFC North and punch the final ticket to the playoffs, they’ll now face the Eagles at the Linc in 2026.
The Eagles also face the first-place teams in the NFC South (Carolina Panthers) and AFC North (Pittsburgh Steelers), and will play every team in both the AFC South and the NFC West, which sent three teams to the playoffs this season.
The Birds are scheduled to play nine home games next season, which increases the likelihood we’ll see the Eagles in an international game. That could include a return to Brazil or hosting a game in Munich, Mexico City, or London.
Home games: Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, New York Giants, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Carolina Panthers, Pittsburgh Steelers
Away games: Dallas Cowboys, Washington Commanders, New York Giants, San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears
Falcons kick off Black Monday on Sunday by firing Raheem Morris
Jonathan Gannon is just 15-36 (.294) in three seasons with the Cardinals.
Black Monday, the NFL’s annual send off of underperforming head coaches, kicked off Sunday night in Atlanta.
The Falcons fired both general manager Terry Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris, despite Atlanta finishing the season on a four-game winning streak and tied for first place in the NFC South with an 8-9 record.
“I have great personal affinity for both Raheem and Terry and appreciate their hard work and dedication to the Falcons, but I believe we need new leadership in these roles moving forward,” Falcons owner Arthur Blank said in a statement.
Two NFL coaches were fired during the regular season: Brian Daboll with the New York Giants and Brian Callahan with the Tennessee Titans.
Nick Sirianni made his decision and the Eagles will live with it as they begin their playoff quest. The coach decided to rest his starters against the lousy Washington Commanders, which seemed like an OK move until the Bears coughed up a game to the Lions. Then all the Eagles needed was to find a way to beat Washington on Sunday and move up to the No. 2 seed in the NFC.
They couldn’t do it. The subs in the secondary were especially bad in a 24-17 loss to the lowly Commanders that made the Birds’ path to another Super Bowl appearance more treacherous. Barring upsets, there is no easy road for the Eagles, David Murphy writes.
The first test will be a home game against the injury-wracked San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round of the playoffs on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. (Fox29). When the Birds let the No. 2 seed slip away, though, they lost the guaranteed second home playoff game that comes with it.
Sirianni defended his decision. “One thing I could guarantee them was giving them rest. I couldn’t guarantee anything else,” he said. “And us being healthy and going into the playoffs healthy is a big deal for us. And you know, that’s served us well in the past.”
Eagles cornerback Kelee Ringo is called for pass interference against Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin.
Part of the problem for the Eagles came at cornerback, where Kelee Ringo and Jakorian Bennett started on the outside with Quinyon Mitchell and Adoree’ Jackson getting a rest. Ringo and Bennett committed several penalties in coverage that even a third-string quarterback like Josh Johnson could cash in on. Jeff McLane has his grades on the game, and the cornerbacks are far from the head of the class.
One bright spot for the Eagles: DeVonta Smith surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in receiving before he was quickly pulled from the action. CBS marked the milestone in its television coverage of the game.
The 49ers will come to the Linc as a depleted group, especially on defense. The Eagles respect them nonetheless. “It’s a big game,” linebacker Zack Baun said. “It’s the postseason. It’s the playoffs, and this team definitely turns it on in the playoffs.”
More coverage from Sunday’s game and the aftermath can be found here.
Paul George appears to be healthy again after an injury-plagued first season with the Sixers.
Nick Nurse and the Sixers survived the injury purgatory that was last season and now the team is looking as if it might be for real after Saturday’s 130-119 victory over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
The 19-14 Sixers are five games over .500 for the first time this season, perhaps providing a glimpse of what this team can become. Paul George, for one, is a believer.
“It’s safe to say everybody in this locker room is starting to enjoy the game,” George says. “We’re starting to enjoy being out on that floor, playing on both ends. And I think we’re just jelling. It’s translating. Everything that we’ve been trying to connect with is translating on the court.”
Bryce Harper saw the fewest pitches in the strike zone of any hitter in baseball who qualified for the batting title last season.
Dave Dombrowski has famously challenged Bryce Harper to become “elite” again, but it would help Harper’s cause if the Phillies protected him better in the batting order.
Two-thirds of the way through the offseason, it’s fair to wonder whether Dombrowski has provided Rob Thomson with better lineup alternatives than he had last season. With five weeks until spring training, let’s look at the options for protecting Harper.
Defenseman Egor Zamula in action for the Flyers against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Oct. 28.
The Flyers traded defenseman Egor Zamula to the Penguins on New Year’s Eve, and as of Sunday, he had not reported to Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate. The Penguins have suspended the former Flyer.
Buddy Ryan was the Eagles’ head coach from 1986-90.
Jan. 5, 1991: Washington bounced Buddy Ryan’s Eagles from the playoffs with a 20-6 victory in a wild-card game at Veterans Stadium. Ryan famously benched quarterback Randall Cunningham during the game for Jim McMahon, then went back to his starter after three McMahon incompletions. The Eagles fired Ryan three days later.
Eagles quarterback Tanner McKee passed for 241 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the loss to the Commanders.
There is a faction among Eagles fans and NFL cognoscenti that hoped Tanner McKee would provide a quarterback controversy on which they could feed during the cold winter months. They hoped McKee, a sixth-round pick in 2023, might sufficiently shine in a meaningless game against a moribund team so that he might be considered a viable threat to Jalen Hurts, a two-time Pro Bowl player and the reigning Super Bowl MVP.
That didn’t happen. That was never going to happen.
Still, McKee looked good enough to win a game or two, maybe even in the playoffs. This, for the Eagles, is excellent news: They have a competent backup quarterback on whom they have expended almost no draft or salary-cap capital. More from Marcus Hayes.
We compiled today’s newsletter using reporting from Jeff McLane, Olivia Reiner, Jeff Neiburg, Marcus Hayes, David Murphy, Scott Lauber, Keith Pompey, Gina Mizell, Gabriela Carroll, Jackie Spiegel, Jonathan Tannenwald, Devin Jackson, Ryan Mack, and Dylan Johnson.
By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirer’s Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10.
Thanks for reading Sports Daily as we get the new year underway. I’ll see you in Tuesday’s newsletter. — Jim
They will open the playoffs at home against a 49ers team that is coming off a sloppy loss on Saturday in its third game in 13 days. San Fran’s offense scored just three points.
The Birds will have home-field advantage and an edge in playoff experience — at least defensively. Here are 25 things to know about the 49ers:
1. The Eagles and 49ers have met twice previously in the postseason. San Fran shut out the Birds, 14-0, in a muddy wild-card game at the old Candlestick Park after the 1996 season. Three years ago, the Eagles thumped San Fran, 31-7, in the conference championship game.
2. Niners quarterback Brock Purdy was a rookie that season. He got hurt on the first possession, and the 49ers had an uphill climb.
Brock Purdy (13) threw 20 TD passes and 10 interceptions in nine games played this season.
3. Coincidentally, he was replaced that day by Josh Johnson, who on Sunday led Washington to a win over the Eagles, which knocked the Eagles out of the conference’s No. 2 seed and set up the meeting next weekend with the 49ers. Small world.
4. The Birds opened as three-point favorites.
5. The 49ers entered Sunday 10th in the league in scoring offense, 12th in points allowed. The Eagles were 18th in scoring offense, third in points allowed.
6. Left tackle Trent Williams missed Saturday’s game against the Seahawks. He injured his hamstring on the first snap in Week 17 against Chicago. Williams, 37, spent his first nine seasons with Washington. He’s played 20 games against the Eagles. His teams are 9-11. He’s 5-5 at Lincoln Financial Field.
7. Williams is one of six Niners selected to the Pro Bowl. Running back Christian McCaffrey, tight end George Kittle, fullback Kyle Juszczyk, special teams ace Luke Gifford, and long snapper Jon Weeks are the others.
8. Juszczyk’s 10 Pro Bowl selections are the most ever for a fullback. Williams’ 12 Pro Bowls tie him with Will Shields and Randall McDaniel for second-most ever by an offensive lineman. Only Bruce Matthews (14) had more.
Kyle Juszczyk is no stranger to the Pro Bowl.
9. San Francisco’s top two reception leaders were McCaffrey (102) and Kittle (57). Their leader among wide receivers was Jauan Jennings (55). Jennings (in 2020) and Purdy (2022) were seventh-round draft picks of the 49ers.
10. Jennings apparently is a prolific trash talker who straddles the line of what’s acceptable. In Week 12, he was punched below the belt by Carolina defensive back Tre’von Moehrig. The following game, he got into a heated scuffle with some Cleveland Browns players.
11. “I see why he got punched in the nuts,” Cleveland defensive tackle Shelby Harris said. “He said some things that you should not say to another man, ever. … I’m surprised nobody punched him in the jaw yet.”
12. Purdy had been red-hot until Seattle shut him down in a 13-3 Seahawks win on Saturday. In the three games prior, he had 11 TD passes and two interceptions.
13. This will be Purdy’s seventh postseason start. He’s thrown one interception in 171 playoff passes, and San Fran is 4-2 with losses to the Eagles and the Chiefs.
14. Of the 49ers’ defensive group that started the season finale in Seattle, only linebacker Eric Kendricks, cornerback Deommodore Lenoir, and safety Ji’Ayir Brown have ever started a playoff game.
Matt Hennessy is a Temple grad who spent preseason time with the Eagles in 2024.
15. Backup center Matt Hennessy played at Temple. He also plays special teams and has seen action in all 17 games this season. Hennessy, born in Nyack, N.Y., was a third-round pick of the Falcons in 2020. This will be his first playoff game.
16. The 49ers were 12-5 straight-up, 10-7 against the closing point spread. The Eagles were 11-6 straight-up, 10-7 against the number.
17. Wide receiver Ricky Pearsall (knee) also missed Saturday’s game. Pearsall, who survived a harrowing robbery attempt in 2024 when he was shot in the chest, had 36 catches in nine games this season.
18. San Fran went 4-4 against playoff teams this season. They split with Seattle and the Rams, beat Carolina and Chicago, and lost to Jacksonville and Houston.
18a. The Eagles were 3-3. They beat the Rams, Green Bay, and Buffalo; lost to the Chargers, Denver, and Chicago.
19. The Eagles entered Week 18 with the NFL’s best red-zone offense, converting 70.73% of their trips inside the 20 into touchdowns. San Fran’s defense was 10th in the league in red-zone efficiency at 53.85%.
20. Conversely, the Eagles defense was eighth at 51.11% while San Fran’s offense was fourth at 65.15%.
21. Linebacker Curtis Robinson is the 49ers’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. Robinson, in his fifth year out of Stanford, played in 14 games this season but has been deactivated after having a rough game against Tennessee in Week 15.
Robert Saleh (center) is part of the brain trust for coach Kyle Shanahan and general manager John Lynch.
22. Renowned coordinator Robert Saleh runs San Francisco’s defense. He didn’t do so well as the Jets head coach, going 20-36 from 2020 to 2024.
23. The Niners were 12th in points allowed despite being dead last in the league with just 20 sacks and tied for 29th with six interceptions. They lost All-Pro pass rusher Nick Bosa to a torn ACL in Week 3.
24. Saleh’s brother, David, was in the south tower when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. David escaped but wasn’t able to reach his family for several hours.
25. Robert Saleh said the tragedy of that day made him reassess life’s frailty and get into coaching football. He played at Division II Northern Michigan and took his first job as an offensive assistant at Michigan State in 2002.
OK, let’s play this out. Let’s go back to the third quarter of the Eagles’ 24-17 loss Sunday to the Washington Commanders, to a first-down completion for 6 yards from backup quarterback Tanner McKee to Grant Calcaterra, the team’s second tight end — an innocent enough play. Let’s go back to Washington safety Jeremy Reaves grabbing Calcaterra from behind and dragging him down in an illegal (and yet unpenalized) hip-drop tackle. Let’s go back to Calcaterra limping off the field then into the locker room, his right knee and ankle injured so badly that he couldn’t return to the game.
Now, let’s pretend that coach Nick Sirianni had made a different decision ahead of Sunday’s results: the Eagles’ loss, the Chicago Bears’ loss to the Detroit Lions, the Eagles’ ending up with the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoffs when they could have had the No. 2 seed. Let’s pretend Sirianni had played all the team’s starters instead. Hell, let’s pretend that, because all their starters played, the Eagles beat the Commanders.
And let’s pretend that it wasn’t Calcaterra who suffered those injuries. Let’s pretend it was Dallas Goedert.
Would the victory have been worth it? Would it?
Let’s pretend some more. Let’s pretend that it wasn’t Brett Toth who started at left guard Sunday … and who suffered a concussion in the second half and, like Calcaterra, left the game. Let’s pretend it was the Eagles’ usual starting left guard. Let’s pretend it was Landon Dickerson.
Perhaps no Goedert. Perhaps no Dickerson. Perhaps another vital player who might have ended up unavailable, or at least damaged, for next Sunday’s wild-card game against the 49ers.
Would the victory and the No. 2 seed have been worth it then? Would it?
On the crucial question ahead of Sunday for the Eagles, the easiest position to take was, Play the starters. It required no calibration of whether a theoretically weaker opponent in the first round (the Green Bay Packers) and a potential extra home game in the divisional round was better for the Eagles than a week of rest for their top guys. It required none of the responsibility that Sirianni bore: to take the pulse of the locker room, to understand where his players stood on the matter, and act accordingly. It required nothing other than the simplest of calculations, one that could be drawn without any context. You play to get the higher seed. End of story.
But that context matters, and it includes some relevant recent history. It’s no coincidence that each of the two teams that have repeated as Super Bowl winners in the last quarter-century — Tom Brady and the 2003-04 New England Patriots, Patrick Mahomes and the 2022-23 Kansas City Chiefs — had an all-time great at quarterback. That measure of greatness at the most important position in sports is the closest thing that an NFL team can have to a shortcut to a Super Bowl. Remember: The Eagles played four playoff games last season in reaching and winning Super Bowl LIX, and a team attempting to win back-to-back championships needs every hour of rest and recovery it can get. It’s the price of success, sure, but an NFL season that’s 24% longer than a regular 17-game campaign — and an offseason that’s 24% shorter — does exact a toll.
“I don’t know whether people think about it, but it does, a hundred percent,” defensive tackle Moro Ojomo said. “You think about the Niners when they went to the Bowl in ’23 — they just completely dropped [the following season]. The Eagles went to the Bowl [in 2022]; after that year, they had a slump at the end of the season. It’s insanely hard, what the Chiefs have done and what we’re trying to get done. You play a lot of football, and you want to keep on going.
“You get this late in a season, and you get bruised up and banged up, and you don’t know how much it helps a guy who’s been dealing with a shoulder [injury] to have a week off. That goes a long way. Now that guy’s coming into the playoffs a little fresher. So if you’re a running back, maybe instead of going for 85 yards you go for 115. That’s the goal, to give yourself any advantage you can get.”
The Eagles cost themselves that advantage as recently as 2023, when Sirianni suited up his starters for the season finale in East Rutherford, N.J., just for the sake of trying to snap the team out of a terrible slump. What happened was the true worst-case scenario in such situations: A.J. Brown injured his knee and missed the following week’s wild-card game against Tampa Bay. Jalen Hurts dislocated his finger. And the Eagles lost to the Giants.
The Eagles decided not to rest starters in the 2023 season finale and lost A.J. Brown for the playoffs that year.
So Sirianni went the other way Sunday, effectively manufacturing a bye week for his best players. They had one in 2022-23, when they were the conference’s No. 1 seed, and they had one last year, when Sirianni played his backups against the Giants in Week 18.
“Every year is different,” Sirianni said. “Every year that you go through it, you’re judging this team. Of course you think back to that. My mindset was more all the good things that have happened as we’ve rested guys. I didn’t really think too much about the negatives of it.”
The positives outweighed them anyway. Do the Eagles have a harder road back to the Super Bowl now? Maybe, but not necessarily. They got some rest and eliminated any risk that they’d be shorthanded to a significant degree next Sunday. The defending champs let everything play out, and now they really get to take their chances, to show that being healthy and healed up is a bigger advantage than anything they might have gained from treating Sunday’s game like their season depended on it.
If there was an argument for Nick Sirianni playing his starters against the Commanders on Sunday, it was using the season finale as an opportunity to give the Eagles offense some momentum heading into the postseason.
The reasoning wasn’t exactly strong. But it had more validity than trying to jump up to the No. 2 seed (although starting Jalen Hurts & Co. could have satisfied both objectives).
Sirianni, of course, opted to sit his quarterback and most starters on both sides of the ball. The rest may benefit the Eagles against the 49ers in the wild-card round of the playoffs. As the coach said before and after a 24-17 loss to Washington, the one thing he could control was how he utilized his personnel.
It was a sound rationalization. Some will question the decision after a Bears loss to the Lions could have pitted the Eagles against the Packers and given them a potential home game at Lincoln Financial Field in the divisional round.
Either way, three games will stand between the team returning to the Super Bowl. And repeating as champion is unlikely if the offense continues to function as it has for most of the season. An inadequate Washington defense could have offered the chance to, at least, reverse a pitiful second half at the Bills last week.
“We treat every practice like we’re using that as momentum, and had a good week of practice with the guys and good individual work to sharpen our skills,” Sirianni said. “Again, this is what I felt was best for us, was to be rested and healthy going into the playoffs. Everything else was considered, obviously.”
It would be extreme to use the offense’s outing vs. the Commanders as a harbinger of how it will perform against San Francisco at the Linc. Two starters played briefly — wide receiver DeVonta Smith and right guard Tyler Steen — and several rotational skill position backups logged regulars’ snaps.
There was some positive from quarterback Tanner McKee, running back Tank Bigsby and various reserves who were given more playing time. There was ultimately more bad than good, but it was hard to come to conclusions about individual players considering the circumstances.
And the same could be said about coordinator Kevin Patullo. He had a decent opening half, and dialed up concepts that beat various schemes on occasion. The offense looked a little different with McKee and some new faces. The operation seemed to move at a quicker pace.
But Patullo was the one main cog in the offense who didn’t get the week off, and his game plan and play-calling felt like essentially more of the same. A better evaluation can’t be made until after a film review, but in the macro it felt like there wasn’t enough of Bigsby and the running game, and in the micro there were questionable decisions.
The Eagles have been among the best offenses in the red zone all season. It’s where Patullo has shined the most. McKee’s 15-yard touchdown pass to tight end Grant Calcaterra in the second quarter on a seam route was the perfect call against a quarters zone.
But when the Eagles advanced to the Washington 6-yard-line on their ensuing possession with balanced play-calling, Patullo had McKee throw out of the shotgun on third- and fourth-and-2. Maybe Sirianni didn’t inform his assistant that he was planning on gambling on fourth down, but a run on third down would have made more sense.
And having McKee with an empty backfield made it easier on the Commanders. Unlike with Hurts, a quarterback draw or scramble in that situation was improbable.
A series later, a Jalyx Hunt interception gave the Eagles the ball at Washington’s 22-yard-line. McKee hooked up with receiver Darius Cooper for a 17-yard toss over the middle, but the rookie spun the ball after his catch and was flagged for taunting.
The Eagles still had the ball at the 20-yard line, but after an incomplete pass and a Bigsby carry for no gain, McKee threw a bad interception.
“Like any game, he’s going to want some plays back, but I thought he did a lot of good things and we were able to move the ball,” Sirianni said of McKee. “Obviously, we didn’t finish a couple times in the red zone for different reasons.”
That didn’t count as a red zone possession. It’s hard to fault Patullo for Cooper and McKee’s mistakes on that drive.
The Eagles turned another fortuitous turnover into points in the third quarter. Patullo used a heavy dose of under-center runs to punch Bigsby into the end zone for a 14-10 lead. There was more shotgun on the next series that ended with a Jake Elliott 39-yard field goal.
But after Washington knotted the score at 17 in the fourth quarter, Patullo had McKee drop back to pass on all three downs before punting. It was the Eagles’ lone three-and-out of the game — an improvement upon their NFL-worst rate.
The inability to capitalize on Bigsby’s tough running and playmaking — his 31-yard catch was the Eagles’ longest of the game — was dubious, though. He didn’t get a single touch in the fourth quarter, partly because backup running back Will Shipley was on the field with the offense in pass mode.
But having McKee drop back on 15 straight plays on the final three possessions, behind a second-unit offensive line, wasn’t ideal. He completed just 5 of 14 passes for 40 yards and was sacked once on those drops. His lack of mobility was glaring whenever he was pressured.
Tanner McKee had some nice moments but his mobility was an issue, as was his supporting cast.
There were other differences between McKee and Hurts, with some of them suggestive of areas in which the latter struggles. The Eagles didn’t often snap the ball as late into the play clock as they do with Hurts at quarterback.
On the first seven possessions, McKee completed 16 of 25 passes for 201 yards. The ball often went where it should go based on the progression read vs. a certain coverage.
“I kind of have a philosophy that the defense is going to tell you where to throw the ball,” McKee said.
He wasn’t as good out of structure. McKee also missed some open receivers, the most egregious coming when he overshot Kylen Granson on fourth down late in the game. But he often had little time with rookie tackle Cameron Williams, for instance, having never previously played in an NFL game.
“When you don’t have your starting offensive line and you’ve got to have lots of different thumps on the D-ends and chip blocks, rather than get everybody out in the route scheme,” Eagles receiver Britain Covey said, “things like that make a huge difference.”
The Eagles ran more from under center (53%) than the shotgun (47%). But McKee didn’t throw off play action as much as expected. He dropped back from under center only five times and completed 2 of 3 passes for 37 yards. He was also sacked and scrambled for 2 yards on those plays.
DeVonta Smith’s brief cameo was helpful for the Eagles, but their reserves ultimately could not bridge the talent gap.
McKee lost his best option when Smith was pulled after eclipsing 1,000 yards receiving for the season. He hit the receiver on 3 of 4 targets for 52 yards. Sirianni said he limited Smith’s routes to protect him, but the Eagles clearly drew up passes in which he was a primary read.
“You have things drawn up for certain guys and certain things,” Smith said, “but, ultimately, it’s based on what the coverage is.”
It stands to reason why Patullo, Hurts and the offense can’t have more planned success with their designs. The sample was small and the Commanders, of course, didn’t offer the best resistance. But that might have been enough justification for playing the starters.
Sirianni tried something similar two years ago at the Giants and it blew up in his face. The Eagles had more at stake with the NFC East still on the line, but the offense was stagnant against another subpar defense and Hurts and receiver A.J. Brown also got hurt.
The Eagles have a much better defense than they did in 2024. Parity is the best way to describe the NFC playoff picture. Each team is flawed. The Eagles’ Achilles’ heel is their offense. Resting the starters — and probably playing them, as well — was unlikely to cure that condition.
“We’ll be all right,” Smith said. “We know what we’ve got to do. We know what’s at stake. It’s win or go home. It’s no time for the mistakes, ‘We’ll get it next time.’ You’ve got to get it this time.”
But will the Eagles offense finally get it together when it counts?
