Tag: NFL Playoffs

  • Bears receiver DJ Moore is having his winningest season since playing at Imhotep

    Bears receiver DJ Moore is having his winningest season since playing at Imhotep

    Albie Crosby has come across several talented athletes over his two decades as a high school football coach. But DJ Moore was “always one of the elites in that group.”

    It makes sense, considering the success the 28-year-old is having in his eighth NFL season.

    The Chicago Bears receiver, who graduated from Imhotep Charter in 2015, has been a critical part of the passing game since his arrival in 2023, while etching his name into franchise history.

    The Bears won the NFC North for the first time since 2018, and Moore caught a 25-yard game-winning touchdown to seal a thrilling 31-27 comeback victory over the Packers in the wild-card round. St. Joseph’s Prep graduates D’Andre Swift and Olamide Zaccheaus also scored as the Bears (12-6) advanced to the divisional round for the first time since 2011 and will face the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday (6:30 p.m., NBC10).

    The wild-card matchup was Moore’s first NFL playoff game, and he’s experiencing his first winning season since his senior year at Imhotep.

    “When you look at it, no winning seasons since high school. It’s crazy,” Moore told Marquee Sports Network ahead of the Bears-Packers game. “This is my first time in this thing, too, so I’m just going with the flow and working hard.”

    That aspect of Moore has never changed.

    He always wanted to be the best, Crosby said, who took over at Simon Gratz in late December after spending nine season at Neumann Goretti. Moore was the talk of the area. His skills caught the attention of coaches while he was in grade school, Crosby among them.

    When Crosby became the head coach at Imhotep in 2012, Moore was in his sophomore season and played receiver, running back, and was the team’s kicker. He still holds the Philadelphia Public League record for most kicked points.

    As a junior, he helped ignite Imhotep’s run to its first-ever state championship appearance. However, the Panthers got trounced, 41-0, in the PIAA Class 2A championship game by South Fayette of Allegheny County. That didn’t matter to Crosby, because his players had the experience of a lifetime at Hersheypark.

    Imhotep finished 12-2 during Moore’s senior campaign. While it lost to Archbishop Wood in the first round of Class 3A playoffs, moments from that year have stuck with Crosby.

    Former Imhotep star DJ Moore, who now plays for the Chicago Bears, caught a game-winning touchdown in his first NFL playoff game.

    “We played Trinity High School, and into the third quarter, our kids started cramping up,” Crosby said. “Injuries started happening. We lost our quarterback. So the next week, we played Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia, and I had to put DJ in at quarterback.

    “Then, we had another national game where we played against Friendship Collegiate Academy outside of D.C., they thought they got the team with DJ at quarterback. … First play, quarterback’s back, and DJ’s at wide receiver. We throw a little screen to DJ, and he takes it 80 yards.”

    Moore finished with 35 receptions for 1,012 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2014 and was the No. 12 player in Pennsylvania, according to 247Sports.com’s recruiting rankings.

    Despite the accolades, he’s a “private young person” off the field. He also had a strong support system, and his mother, Cookie Ridley, used to attend every game, Crosby recalled.

    “He had an advantage when he turned to the sideline, he knew that there was loved ones looking out for him,” Crosby said. “His mom was one of the team moms, and she made sure that all the kids felt loved. He was a special kid because he embraced that. There was never no jealousy. He loved that his mom loved everybody. It speaks volumes of a young person that can share their parents.”

    Crosby often brings up Moore’s journey when he’s coaching his high school or seven-on-seven team. But when he thinks about the impact he may have had on Moore, Crosby hopes he offered more lessons about life than football.

    “I’m super proud of him,” Crosby said. “To be the father that he is, be the husband that he is, to be the son and brother that he is. All that is what makes me extremely proud.”

    During his three seasons at Maryland and five with the Carolina Panthers — who drafted Moore in the first round with the 24th overall pick in 2018 — his teams compiled 13-24 and 29-53 records, respectively. With the Bears, he’s having career highlights.

    In his first season, Moore finished with a career-high 1,364 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. Last year, he had a career-best in receptions with 98. He hauled in six touchdowns and had 682 receiving yards in 2025.

    Moore will have the crowd behind him on Sunday, and his former coach also will be cheering for him and the Bears back in his hometown.

    “I’ll be rooting for him like crazy,” Crosby said. “Rooting for him, rooting for Olamide, and Swift.”

  • The Jalen Hurts roller coaster just lost Kevin Patullo. How will the next rider fare?

    The Jalen Hurts roller coaster just lost Kevin Patullo. How will the next rider fare?

    Jalen Hurts knew the score. He knew Kevin Patullo was done. It made zero sense for the Eagles quarterback to say he wanted the offensive coordinator to return, knowing it was a fait accompli.

    “It’s too soon to think about that,” Hurts said Monday when asked about wanting Patullo back. “I put my trust in Howie, Nick, and Mr. Lurie.”

    The Eagles haven’t officially fired or demoted Patullo as of this writing, but it’s only a matter of time before Howie Roseman, Nick Sirianni, and Jeffrey Lurie come to that conclusion after a once-banging offense ended a calamitous season with a whimper on Sunday. (Editor’s note: Patullo was removed from his position Tuesday).

    It was hard to find any source within the NovaCare Complex who expected otherwise. And if you listened closely to Hurts’ comments at his locker stall the day after the Eagles lost to the San Francisco 49ers, you could hear in his tone an elegy for Patullo.

    “I hate that, you know … [pause] … I hate that,” Hurts said before another pause. “I hate that it ended this way, but I know we’ll be better from it.”

    Hurts was talking about how the season ended, but he just as easily could have been talking about Patullo’s fate.

    He could have also, of course, stood up on his stool and defended the coach. He could have taken accountability for his role in the first-time play-caller’s struggles. He could have pointed to specific plays he failed to make and specific ways he limited the offense.

    But it really made no sense. Patullo will be the latest coordinator to exit the annual roller coaster that is having Hurts as your quarterback. From the highs of getting head coaching promotions (see: Shane Steichen and Kellen Moore) to the lows of getting canned (see: Brian Johnson and eventually Patullo).

    Hurts, meanwhile, will remain and have a fifth different coordinator and sixth play-caller since Sirianni became head coach in 2021. And if you want to go all the way back to college — as Hurts has noted before — he’ll have his 14th different play-caller in the last 11 years.

    That’s a lot of change and most of it out of his control, especially in Philadelphia after Sirianni gave up play-calling during his first year. But Hurts isn’t a pup anymore. And even he seemed to acknowledge that play-caller turnover isn’t a credible excuse after he won a Super Bowl in his first season with Moore.

    “I accept the change,” Hurts said when asked about areas he wanted to work on this offseason. “I accept that those things come, whether expectations are met or whether we’re making Super Bowl runs. I’ve experienced both ends of it, and so I have a unique perspective on that.

    “So I’m not going to allow that to be an excuse for us not to make championship runs and for us to not have the success that we desire and that I desire.”

    Hurts is just one piece of the puzzle, just as Patullo was. They’re major parts of the machinery, so they rightfully get the most attention. But too much outside blame was placed on the coordinator because he was new, while not enough was directed toward the quarterback because of his previous success.

    It’s understandable. Doesn’t make it accurate.

    Inside the Eagles, most understood that there were myriad reasons for the offense’s decline. The personnel wasn’t as good. The offensive line wasn’t as healthy. The coaching staff wasn’t as sharp. And it’s damn hard to repeat as champions. The margin for error is slim in the NFL.

    The Eagles’ best leaders looked internally at themselves and what they could improve and refused to point fingers. But there was definitely some redirecting of criticism, with the split about evenly distributed between Hurts and Patullo.

    The Hurts critics just seemed louder. Some of the gripes were performance-based. Like the offense isn’t exotic and moves slowly because Hurts can’t read complex defenses or doesn’t want pre-snap motion. Or his inability to process post-snap limits middle-field throws. Or he doesn’t want to run as much anymore.

    All claims can have some semblance of truth, but the first two didn’t seem to hinder the offense when the going was good. The scheme, as wide receiver DeVonta Smith said Sunday, was essentially the same since 2021.

    There was more nuance than that. The system evolved to become more run-based. Moore brought in some new passing concepts in 2024, but some were never used. The Eagles could rest on their talent more than most.

    But they rolled it back again in 2025 as running back Saquon Barkley said on Monday — similar to how they did in 2023 — and defenses caught up. And Patullo, as it increasingly became clear, wasn’t able to consistently dial up sustainable drives. He showed his acumen in the red zone, but getting there was often a battle.

    If there was a conflict between Hurts and Patullo that went public, it was over designed quarterback runs. Hurts didn’t originally deny reports that he didn’t want to run as much, but when asked last week about how that factored into his good health this season, he suggested that it wasn’t his doing.

    “The approach this year, and the way the games have been called with this coordinator — with Coach KP — it’s just kind of gone that way,” Hurts said. “I’ve taken it in stride and [am] giving my best with the position they’ve put me in.”

    It’s hard to believe that Hurts doesn’t have a say in those conversations. He has said his influence has steadily increased. Some team sources have said it’s much greater than has been conveyed. But if he has been overpowering coaches, isn’t that as much of an indictment of Sirianni and Patullo as it is the quarterback?

    Hurts was asked Monday how comfortable he had been with being uncomfortable in the offense.

    “I think that’s the essence of what my career has been,” Hurts said. “Can’t say that every situation I’ve been in has been the most comfortable, but I’ve been able to find my way out of it and find ways to win and find ways to success. And so that’s a part of growth, and I’ve never run away from growth.”

    Hurts has progressed. He’s better as a drop-back passer. He’s better at reading coverages. He’s better vs. the blitz. But in his growth as an NFL quarterback, he may have lost sight of how his mobility made him dynamic.

    “He is not who he thinks he is,” an Eagles source said.

    Teammates openly call him “Lil Jordan” in reference to his relationship with Michael Jordan, being one of the faces of the Air Jordan brand, and wanting to emulate and be the NFL version of the iconic basketball player. It’s a slight tease and Hurts rolls with it, several players said.

    He is an easy target. No one faces as much scrutiny. And some of the internal forces against him seem to be holding his famously stoic demeanor against him. He isn’t the most cuddly creature.

    But he has taken steps in that regard, as well. When A.J. Brown made it apparent he was frustrated with Hurts earlier in the season, he went to the receiver first to clear the air, two sources close to the situation said.

    “That was mostly about not being on the same page,” one source said.

    It took a while, but Hurts and Brown, whose friendship dates back almost a decade, have smoothed things over off the field. It’s unclear if they’ll be on the field together next season, although the quarterback intimated that he wants the receiver back.

    “A.J. and I have talked. We’re in a good, great place,” Hurts said. “I know you all can talk to him and ask.”

    The last sentence was a sly reference to Brown not talking to reporters in over a month. He again wasn’t available during locker clean-out day.

    Hurts, meanwhile, didn’t miss a media requirement all season. He’s heard the criticisms and he’s hardly ever thrown shade toward a teammate, coach, or otherwise. Maybe he could have taken some of the arrows for Patullo.

    But that stagecoach has departed. There will be a new coordinator in town soon enough. Hurts wouldn’t say how much influence he’ll have over the decision. He still may not be especially approachable, but Roseman, Sirianni, and Lurie have his number.

    “Overall, my line is always open,” Hurts said. “And so however involved or whatever level of inquiry I [have], I’ll definitely be available. Ultimately, I put my focus on controlling the things I can.”

  • Will A.J. Brown be traded? Kevin Patullo fired? Is Jalen Hurts holding Eagles back? Here’s what they’re saying.

    Will A.J. Brown be traded? Kevin Patullo fired? Is Jalen Hurts holding Eagles back? Here’s what they’re saying.

    The Eagles’ road to repeating as Super Bowl champions ended abruptly Sunday with a 23-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field. Following their early exit in the playoffs, most of the national discussion centered around who’s to blame and potential offseason changes surrounding the Eagles coaching staff — and A.J. Brown, after his sideline spat with Nick Sirianni and several key drops.

    Here’s what they’re saying about the Birds following their wild-card loss to the Niners …

    ‘That was a total embarrassment’

    The Eagles offense came up short — again — continuing the theme of this year’s inconsistent unit. Despite a strong first-half performance, Kevin Patullo’s group was more conservative in the second half and mustered just a pair of Jake Elliott field goals.

    The regression of the Birds offense has been a main topic of discussion throughout the season. So, for ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky, it wasn’t surprising to see the team’s downfall on Sunday night.

    “That was a total embarrassment from Philly, offensively,” Orlovsky said Monday on Get Up. “And we all saw it coming. We talked about it all season long. The fact that they didn’t see it coming is concerning. Yes, there’s going to be changes. But, Howie Roseman, their general manager, has got to be sitting back going, ‘Wait, wait, wait, wait, this is a roster that I put together that should no question have contended for another Super Bowl.’ …

    “We all saw this embarrassing performance coming and it still happened. And it was allowed to happen.”

    On X, Orlovsky, a former NFL quarterback, also broke down the Eagles’ final drive Sunday night, posting the video with a one-word caption: “Ugly.”

    To former NFL quarterback Cam Newton, Sunday’s performance revealed all the flaws the Birds “tried to mask” throughout the season.

    “The Philadelphia Eagles were who we thought they were,” said Newton on First Take. “And yesterday’s performance was a microcosm of that. We’ve seen insufficient play. We’ve seen ups and downs and the downs and the ups. … What we’ve seen is nothing new. They tried to mask it. They tried to put lip balm. They tried to put eyeliner. They tried to put mascara on it and they tried to challenge the status quo of you’ve been doing this all year.”

    Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown can’t pull in a deep pass from Jalen Hurts during the second quarter. He dropped several passes in the loss.

    Will the Eagles trade A.J. Brown?

    The most action Brown saw all night was when the broadcast caught Nick Sirianni yelling at him on the sideline. The receiver recorded three receptions for 25 yards; he missed a potentially big first-half reception and had a costly third-down drop later in the game. After the loss, Brown didn’t speak to media.

    Former tight end Shannon Sharpe believes it’s time for the Eagles to move on.

    “Me, personally, I think it’s the best if the Eagles just go their separate ways,” Sharpe told Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson on the Nightcap podcast. “He needs to go somewhere where he feels like he’s going to get — he’s looking at it, Ocho, like I need to be getting the Puka Nacua type targets.”

    Former NFL safety Ryan Clark also believes Brown won’t be in Philly next season.

    “A.J. Brown is getting traded,” Clark said on ESPN’s First Take. “He wants out and they need to want him out. That relationship is over. That relationship is done and part of it is the Philadelphia Eagles, but a lot of it is on A.J. Brown. … A.J. Brown this year was more problems than he was worth.”

    If the Eagles do move on from Brown, however, it might not happen until later in the year. According to Spotrac, trading him before June 1 would cost the Birds a fortune.

    “If the Eagles were to bite the bullet and trade Brown early this offseason,” Michael Ginnitti writes, “they’d be taking on the 4th largest single season dead cap hit in NFL history (and making a heck of a lot more financial trouble for themselves as well).”

    Jalen Hurts and the Eagles scored a pair of touchdowns in the first half, but settled for just two field goals in the second.

    ‘Jalen Hurts is holding them back’

    Although most of the finger pointing has been directed at Patullo, former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy said a lot of the Eagles offensive struggles could be because of the team’s starting quarterback, Jalen Hurts.

    “Jalen Hurts, I need you to be special, make plays,” McCoy said on The Speakeasy show. “I did a lot of digging, man, and I won’t throw them under the bus here. But I know some people, right. And the problem is, we can’t do different exotic looks, different formations, different motions because I’m hearing that [Hurts] can’t really do it. So, we get to a game like this, we got to have it. We’re playing against the Niners. They’re with their second unit. …

    “I look at the quarterback, like, if we have all these special players, Hall of Fame-type running back, Hall of Fame-type wide receiver, top three dual wide receivers with A.J. [Brown] and [DeVonta Smith] and a really solid tight end with Dallas [Goedert] and we can’t move the ball? … We got to make some big decisions next year.”

    McCoy wasn’t alone.

    “They certainly could be more creative on the offensive side and we know that. But, Jalen Hurts is holding them back in that department,” Chris Simms, a longtime Hurts detractor, said on Pro Football Talk Live. “I know these things. He doesn’t want the offense expanded, to a degree. So, that kind of handcuffs them a little bit.

    “And then, when you’re an offense, you can’t go to do advanced geometry when you brought up a minute ago that you can watch the film and go here’s a basic play and the guy’s open and he doesn’t throw it. That doesn’t give the coaches the confidence to go, ‘Let’s go deeper into the playbook.’”

    Nick Sirianni lost a home playoff game for the first time Sunday.

    ‘There’s enough blame for everybody’

    Former Eagles linebacker Seth Joyner believes Sunday’s loss was a team effort.

    “There’s enough blame for everybody,” he said on The Seth Joyner Show. “Wide receivers dropping balls, not catching balls, not giving maximum effort. Players on the defensive side standing around not necessarily ready. … They got out-coached, out-played, and they got out-willed today.”

    However, another former Eagles linebacker, Emmanuel Acho, narrowed it down to three individuals he would like to blame for the loss — and perhaps there’s no surprise that it’s Brown, Patullo, and Hurts.

    “A.J. Brown given how talented you are and how much dust you kicked up throughout the course of the season, you have to show up in the biggest moments,” Acho on The Speakeasy talk show. “So, A.J, first person I’m looking at is you because you’re capable. Second person I’m looking at is Kevin Patullo.

    “And then lastly, Jalen Hurts. I just need you to be more special. … So, really if I’m going to look at three people: A.J. Brown, got to look at you in the eye. Kevin Patullo, got to look at you in the eye. Jalen Hurts, got to look at you in the eye. Those are the three people that start with the blame.”

  • The Eagles need to ask themselves some hard questions. Jalen Hurts should face a few of them.

    The Eagles need to ask themselves some hard questions. Jalen Hurts should face a few of them.

    Multiple things can be true at the same time. They usually are when a team’s season ends the way the Eagles’ did on Sunday.

    It takes a special kind of bad to lose this limply. It is a collective bad, an existential bad, a bad that raises all kinds of hard questions that a team must confront head-on and wrestle with in the darkness. That is true even of a team that is less than a year removed from winning a Super Bowl. In fact, it is especially true for such a team.

    The bad that the Eagles were in a 23-19 loss to the 49ers is a disconcerting bad. It is a bad that shakes you to your core, a bad so bad that you spend an entire season desperate to disbelieve it.

    More than anything, it is a bad that is nearly impossible to achieve if your quarterback is doing the things he needs to do.

    Jalen Hurts did not do those things for the Eagles on Sunday. His counterpart did them for the 49ers. That is why the Eagles are headed home. It is why the 49ers are headed to Seattle. The difference in this particular playoff game was the same as it is in most of them. One team had a quarterback who rose above his circumstances. The other did not.

    “It starts with me and ends with me,” Hurts said afterward.

    Whether or not he truly believed those words, he was correct.

    A team that cannot, or will not, put pressure on a defense in the intermediate-to-deep part of the field is a team whose luck will eventually run out. Whether Hurts can’t or won’t doesn’t matter at this point. He didn’t, and that’s that. He completed just three passes that traveled more than 10 yards in the air, on 11 attempts. Those three completions gained a total of 38 yards. He was 17-for-20 on his short throws.

    Compare that to Brock Purdy, who was dealing with an offense that lost its last blue-chip pass-catching weapon when tight end George Kittle tore his Achilles tendon with six minutes left in the second quarter. The game should have been over then, one of several moments when that was the case. That it wasn’t is largely a testament to Purdy, whose poise and patience and intentionality were on display against an Eagles defense several calibers above that of the practice-squad Niners.

    San Francisco’s game-winning 66-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter featured a 16-yard completion to Demarcus Robinson and a 5-yard scramble, both for first downs, to help set up his 4-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey with just under three minutes remaining. A couple of possessions earlier, he found fullback Kyle Juszczyk of all people for a 27-yard gain that set up a trick play touchdown on an end-around pass from wide receiver Jauan Jennings to McCaffrey.

    There was a 14-yard pass to backup tight end Jake Tonges on third-and-14 late in the second quarter, a 45-yarder to Jennings earlier in the period, and a 61-yarder to Robinson that set up a touchdown on the 49ers’ opening drive.

    Purdy’s numbers on throws longer than 10 yards: 8-of-13, for 178 yards. His two interceptions were the cost of doing business.

    “You’ve got to be able to be explosive,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “It’s really hard to dink and dunk down the field. It’s really hard to get behind sticks with negative plays. You’ve got to be able to create explosives. Again, at the end of the day, there were a lot of elements [where] you end up with a loss, and we haven’t had this feeling of ending our season since 2023 with the loss. That’s why it hurts because it’s been a while. But yeah, at the end of the day, we need to find ways to be more explosive. Again, that starts with me.”

    Sirianni is right. Everything starts with him. But it ends wherever the quarterback takes it. The ball is in his hands. The clock is in his head. He is the one who decides how long to continue looking down the field. Whatever the game plan, whoever the play-caller, a quarterback almost always has the ability to force the issue. That’s especially true for a quarterback with Hurts’ ability to buy time and gain yards with his legs. He gained 14 yards on five carries against the 49ers. Purdy gained 24 on nine.

    “Well, I think finding a rhythm and whatever you define aggression as, maintaining the fluidity and the flow throughout four quarters of the game, so I think there’s opportunity for us to improve in that,” Hurts said. “Just finding a rhythm. Ultimately it is just all something that you either learn from it or you don’t.”

    One thing people lose sight of while focusing on the play-calling is that the quarterback sets the rhythm. He is the orchestra conductor. The great offenses are almost always a reflection of their quarterback. It wasn’t Tom Moore’s offense or Todd Haley’s offense or Charlie Weis’ offense: it was Peyton Manning’s and Ben Roethlisberger’s and Tom Brady’s. It’s no coincidence that the energy of this Eagles offense as a collective often resembles Hurts’ individual demeanor.

    Nobody should have to apologize for pointing out these things. High standards are not unfair. The only way to fix an offense as bad and boring and listless as the Eagles’ is to be unflinchingly honest about its component parts. The quarterback is inseparable from the play-caller. The right guy for the second job is a guy who can make it work with the guy in the first one. The next Eagles play-caller will be getting a quarterback who does not have elite size, or arm strength, or pocket presence, and who no longer makes up much of that difference with his ability to create on the run.

    Hurts didn’t get much help from his pass-catchers on Sunday. He didn’t get as much help from his play-caller as Purdy got from his. The Eagles will need to fix both of those things this offseason. Hurts isn’t, and shouldn’t be, going anywhere.

    That said, Hurts is who he is. Who he was on Sunday is the guy he has been all season, and most of the last 2½ seasons, if we’re being honest. It worked when the Eagles had an overwhelming talent advantage at all of the other positions. If that is no longer the case, they need to figure out a new formula.

  • The defense propped the Eagles up all season. On Sunday, it bent, broke, and the 49ers advanced.

    The defense propped the Eagles up all season. On Sunday, it bent, broke, and the 49ers advanced.

    In the days leading up to the Eagles’ Dec. 28 road game at the Buffalo Bills, defensive assistant Jeremiah Washburn, who coaches the Eagles edge rushers, handed out a new accessory to the entire defensive line.

    The green bracelet has “Isaiah 6:8″ and the phrase “send me” written in white. In the Bible verse, the prophet Isaiah hears the voice of God ask: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Isaiah responds: “Here I am. Send me.”

    That, defensive tackle Moro Ojomo said, was the mindset of the entire defensive line. And the entire Eagles’ defense.

    “Send us,” Ojomo said as he fiddled with the bracelet on his left wrist. “We want to be the ones to get the job done.”

    For most of the 2025 season, especially after the Eagles’ Week 9 bye, the defense answered the call. Vic Fangio’s unit propped up an inconsistent offense. It stifled good offenses and carried the team to victories that maybe it didn’t deserve. The Eagles beat Green Bay 10-7. They beat Detroit 16-9. They won that Bills game, 13-12. They entered the postseason, in what was a wide-open NFL playoffs, with a puncher’s chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions in large part because they had the talent on defense and Fangio, the mastermind, calling the shots.

    The season ended in abrupt fashion Sunday for myriad reasons, but the San Francisco 49ers advanced to the NFC’s divisional round in part because the Eagles didn’t have enough answers defensively down the stretch. The 49ers scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns. They had a 10-play, 66-yard touchdown drive that lasted more than five minutes and ended with less than three minutes on the clock.

    The strength of the Eagles defense was its ability to limit explosive plays and clamp down in the red zone.

    The 49ers threw the first haymaker. Lincoln Financial Field roared after Will Shipley crunched Brian Robinson on the opening kickoff and then the Eagles stuffed Christian McCaffrey’s first rushing attempt on San Francisco’s first play for a loss of one yard. But then Quinyon Mitchell allowed a 61-yard catch-and-run from Brock Purdy to Demarcus Robinson that set the 49ers up in the red zone at the Eagles’ 16-yard line. Four plays later, Purdy hit Robinson, who beat Mitchell for a 2-yard touchdown and the game’s first points.

    “I got to start the game off faster,” Mitchell said. “Maybe that could’ve changed the game in a way.”

    Mitchell would eventually atone. The Eagles forced punts on the next two San Francisco drives before allowing a field goal and then later stopping the 49ers as the second quarter ended. Mitchell then picked Purdy off on the 49ers’ first drive of the second half. He had another interception in the fourth quarter, too, but after the 49ers added another score.

    San Francisco, which was already banged up and lost star tight end George Kittle to an Achilles injury in the second quarter, dipped into the bag of tricks to open the fourth quarter. Out of the timeout, Kyle Shanahan dialed up a trick play, a reverse that found the ball in the hands of Jauan Jennings, who threw on the move to a streaking and wide-open McCaffrey for a 29-yard score.

    “We knew they liked to do some sort of trickery down in the red zone,” safety Reed Blankenship said. “We were just in a different call that allowed him to sneak through.”

    The Eagles took the lead back on a Jake Elliott field goal with eight minutes to play. The defense needed to deliver one final stop. Instead, the 49ers moved the ball with ease. The Eagles, who sacked Purdy once on the day, applied pressure at times, but not enough. Purdy felt the pressure and was excellent in escaping it. The 49ers didn’t face a third down on that 10-play, game-winning drive until the play they scored on, a 4-yard pass from Purdy to McCaffrey on third-and-goal. The 49ers converted six of their 11 third-down attempts.

    “They just made more plays than we did,” Blankenship said.

    Shanahan, Ojomo said, “is a hell of an offensive play-caller.”

    “At the end of the day, he kind of had a better plan and we should have executed at a higher level,” Ojomo said. “You got to play complementary football. After our scores, we needed to stop them. When we get turnovers, we need scores. We didn’t do that at a high enough level to win. That’s kind of the result when you’re in the playoffs. You’re playing good teams every week. You can’t have any hiccups.”

    Jordan Davis (90) and Moro Ojomo (97) were encouraging pieces of a fine Eagles defense in 2025.

    Especially not with an offense that rarely allowed for wiggle room. It was a lot to ask if the Eagles were going to try to repeat. The offense did not permit much in the way of a margin for error. It is a taxing way to play football, and it’s taxing on a defense that got better as the year went on. Ojomo, though, wanted to look only internally.

    “You could always get one more stop, one more turnover,” he said. “At the end of the day, we fell short as a defense. They don’t score, they don’t win. We didn’t get the job done.”

    The defense will look different next season. Blankenship is one of a few key free agents. The loss, he said, was tough.

    “This is one of the toughest things about football and about life,” he said. “You go through the challenges throughout the year, training camp, whatever. You create this relationship and these bonds and it ends so fast. You’re not really prepared for it and it’s tough.”

    How will the 2025 defense be remembered? It was the year of Jordan Davis’ breakout. Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, both second-year players, were named first-team All-Pros. Brandon Graham came out of retirement. Ojomo stepped in for a key free agent, Milton Williams, and shined.

    “I think everybody will just remember this game,” Blankenship said. “That’s the last game we played in and it wasn’t us.”

    You’re only as good as your last, they say.

    “You lose in the first round of the playoffs, I don’t think you’re remembered much,” Ojomo said. “That’s effed up. This defense played our tail off all year, young and hungry and filled with a bunch of guys who are selfless.”

    Washburn, Ojomo said, handed those bracelets out to provide some perspective. The message, he said, was received. The defense wanted to be the unit that carried the Eagles.

    “It’s sad,” Ojomo said. “I loved being on this defense.”

  • The 2025 Eagles played not to lose. In the end, that’s why they did.

    The 2025 Eagles played not to lose. In the end, that’s why they did.

    The play that encapsulated everything the Eagles offense wasn’t this season was a play that they themselves didn’t even run. First snap of the fourth quarter Sunday night for the San Francisco 49ers, first-and-10 from the Eagles’ 29-yard line, and there was Kyle Shanahan, calling a double-wing reverse pass that made one of the NFL’s best defenses look like a bunch of suckers. Brock Purdy handed the football to Skyy Moore, who pitched it to Jauan Jennings, who rainbowed a pass toward the end zone to Christian McCaffrey, who didn’t have an Eagles player within 5 yards of him.

    A six-point Eagles lead suddenly was a one-point deficit. And though that touchdown technically wasn’t the winning score in the 49ers’ 23-19 wild-card victory, it was the perfect symbol for the difference between a team that played like it had nothing to lose and a team that played like it was fearful of taking the slightest of chances.

    From Nick Sirianni to Kevin Patullo to Jalen Hurts, the Eagles spent too much of this season acting as if being daring was taboo for them. Sirianni preached the importance of minimizing turnovers, citing the Eagles’ marvelous record during his tenure as head coach when they protected the football better than their opponents. But it turned out that a Super Bowl champion cannot defend its title on caution alone. The 49ers committed two turnovers. The Eagles didn’t commit any. And the final score was the final score.

    In the locker room afterward, player after player used the same word as the cause of the Eagles’ struggles during the regular season and their quick exit from the postseason: execution. “If there are multiple players saying that,” tackle Jordan Mailata asked, “why don’t you believe us?” Good question. Here’s why: It’s a familiar, sometimes default way of thinking among elite athletes: It doesn’t matter what the coach calls. It doesn’t matter if my opponent knows what’s coming. If I do exactly what I’m supposed to do exactly when I’m supposed to do it, nothing can stop me, and nothing can stop us.

    “I don’t think we were playing conservatively,” running back Saquon Barkley said. “I think it comes down to execution. A lot of the same calls we have — I know it was a new offensive coordinator and new guys, but we kind of stuck with the same script, to be honest, of what we did last year. It’s easy to say that when you’re not making the plays. … If we’re making the plays, no one is going to say we’re being conservative.”

    The Eagles could get away with following that mantra last season. Their offensive line was the best in the league, and they shifted midseason from having Jalen Hurts throw 30-plus passes a game to giving the ball to Barkley and counting on him for consistent yardage and big plays. But, as Barkley acknowledged, they returned this season with pretty much the same offense — after the other 31 teams had an offseason to study what the Eagles had done and come up with ways to neutralize it.

    “If they call inside zone and we call inside zone and they run it better than us, they just ran it better than us,” Barkley said. “They executed better than us. That’s just my mindset. Maybe I’m wrong.”

    He is. There rarely was any surprise to the Eagles’ attack this season, rarely any moments when A.J. Brown or DeVonta Smith was running free and alone down the field, when Barkley wasn’t dodging defenders in the backfield, when anything looked easy for them. When everyone in the stadium knows you’re likely to call a particular play in a particular situation, yes, you had better be perfect in every aspect of that sequence. But when you catch a defense off guard — as Shanahan did on Jennings’ pass — your execution can be less than ideal, and the play will still work.

    Look at Sunday: Barkley had 15 carries in the first half and 11 in the second. He had 71 yards in the first half and 35 in the second; after halftime, the 49ers started sending more players toward the line of scrimmage just before Hurts took the snap. The proper countermove would have been to throw the ball downfield more often, but the Eagles were reluctant to court such risk. It doesn’t much matter whether Patullo couldn’t scheme up such plays or whether, even if Patullo had opened up the offense, Hurts would have held the ball anyway. The result was the same. They settled for what was safe.

    “I think that’s always the go-to. … People think you take your foot off the gas,” Sirianni said. “We didn’t create enough explosives. They did.”

    To the end, the head coach struggled to see the connection between his conservatism and the problems that plagued his offense. No Super Bowl appearance, no title defense, not even a spot in the playoffs’ second round. Over 18 games, this team wrote its own epitaph.

    The 2025 Eagles: They played not to lose. Which is why they did.

  • Shell-shocked Eagles locker room emotional after losing to the 49ers: ‘It’ll never be the same team again’

    Shell-shocked Eagles locker room emotional after losing to the 49ers: ‘It’ll never be the same team again’

    Up until the final failed fourth-down attempt, the Eagles still believed they were winning Sunday’s NFC wild-card game against the San Francisco 49ers.

    But after Jalen Hurts’ pass fell incomplete, it all hit linebacker Nakobe Dean. It may have been his final game in an Eagles uniform.

    “I don’t know what’s going to happen the next couple months, next couple weeks,” Dean, a pending unrestricted free agent said. “I don’t know if I’m going to play with the guys that I’ve been playing with for four years or had a good relationship with, or the guys that I went school with. I’m going through all the emotions.”

    The Birds had much higher expectations for themselves this season than a 23-19 loss in the wild-card round. Eagles players looked shell-shocked in the locker room, knowing they will never all be together again.

    Jordan Davis choked up in the locker room talking about how much Dean, his teammate since their days back at Georgia, meant to him.

    “We love to have his face and his leadership and his poise, his effort and just everything about him, the way he plays the game,” Davis said. “But it’s just the NFL. I’m not here to make decisions. I’m more here to play and move forward, but it’s unfortunate that it’s just the nature of the beast. It’s the league, be here today and gone tomorrow. But I love that man like a brother. Like a brother.”

    Dean said he took one last photo of his locker, unsure if he’d ever return to it. The Birds drafted linebacker Jihaad Campbell in the first round last spring to potentially serve as Dean’s replacement.

    But Dean wasn’t the only player who may have worn midnight green for the final time.

    Jordan Mailata said postgame that he couldn’t even look at Dallas Goedert, his teammate of eight years, without wanting to cry. Goedert signed a one-year contract extension to return to Philadelphia last offseason, but after catching a career-high 60 passes and 11 touchdowns, he might be out of the Eagles’ price range.

    “I had a moment with Dallas, and I wasn’t crying until I saw him,” Mailata said. “We’ve been together for eight years, and we just played a lot of ball together, a lot of time in the locker room, and so that one was hard for me. I don’t know what’s going to happen next year, I hope we bring him back, but he was one face that immediately after the game, I had to stay away from him, because I’d just cry.”

    Goedert caught four passes for 33 yards and one touchdown, and added another touchdown on the ground in the loss. He downplayed whether this game was more emotional than past losses as he approaches what might be the end of his tenure with the team that drafted him.

    “Saying goodbye to this team, it’ll never be the same team again, it’s always tough,” Goedert said. “You just grow as a family, and I got a lot of love for the brothers on this team, you know, and it’s just a somber state.”

  • Jake Elliott’s missed kick proves costly in what could be his final game with the Eagles

    Jake Elliott’s missed kick proves costly in what could be his final game with the Eagles

    The sudden finish to the Eagles’ season cannot be narrowed down to one play, but perhaps Sunday’s 23-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers would have at least reached overtime had Jake Elliott converted an extra point in the first quarter.

    The Eagles’ final drive as reigning Super Bowl champions ended with a fourth-down incompletion at the 49ers’ 21-yard line — a play that instead would have been a field-goal try to force overtime had the Eagles been down three points instead of four.

    Elliott, who missed four of his final 13 field-goal attempts in the regular season, battled the wind and lost when his extra point smacked the upright after the Eagles scored on their first drive of the game.

    “It’s a lot of guessing out there. You saw his, too,” Elliott said as 49ers kicker Eddy Piñeiro missed an extra point in the fourth quarter. “We both tried to play it left to right, and there’s a 40-mile-per-hour wind blowing left to right. For both of those balls, the wind just didn’t quite hit them the way we thought it would. It’s a tough night to kick, but you obviously want to make them all.”

    The first weekend of the postseason featured games in which missed kicks played a key role as Green Bay’s Brandon McManus (North Penn, Temple) missed two field goals and an extra point in a loss to Chicago, and Jacksonville’s Cam Little — who made an NFL-record 68-yarder earlier this year — missed a 54-yarder in a loss to Buffalo.

    Like Eagles-49ers, those games were not exclusively decided by a leg, but it was hard to see the outcome and wonder what could have been had the ball went through the uprights.

    “I’m just thinking about the next kick,” Elliott said when asked if he was thinking about his missed PAT while the Eagles had to try for a touchdown in the final minute. “You saw he missed one, too. It’s a tough night to kick. That’s not really what I’m thinking about during that moment in time. I’m thinking about that next kick.”

    Elliott, one of three players remaining from the Super Bowl LII champions, is under contract for next season but the team could look for an upgrade this offseason.

    He made just 74.1% of his field goals this season, below the league average of 85.6%. His 77.8% rate last season also fell below the league average. Since last season, Elliott is 5-for-15 on field goals from 50-plus yards, while NFL kickers are converting long-range kicks at record rates.

    “You show up every week and try to hit the ball well,” Elliott said. “I think for the most part, I did that. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, especially playing in the Northeast like this. We’ve had some pretty tough weather games. But, obviously, you want to make them all. It’s part of the job. You expect perfection and if it’s not that, it’s tough.”

    Brandon Graham, Elliott, and Lane Johnson — the three remaining players from the Super Bowl that capped the 2017 season — could be gone before next season. Johnson missed Sunday’s loss with the foot injury that has sidelined him since November and has openly pondered his retirement. Graham already retired after last season and his plans for next season are uncertain. Elliott, the author of so many important kicks in franchise history, could be kicking elsewhere in 2026.

    “We’ll deal with that when we get there,” he said. “This is all pretty raw right now. I’m under contract here, so that’s the expectation, but you never know in this business. I’m just trying to get over this game.”

  • A.J. Brown vs. Nick Sirianni, Tom Brady scouts Big Dom, and the best of the Eagles-Niners broadcast

    A.J. Brown vs. Nick Sirianni, Tom Brady scouts Big Dom, and the best of the Eagles-Niners broadcast

    The Eagles were unable to overcome the offensive woes that plagued them all season, and lost, 23-19, to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC wild-card round.

    Here’s everything you may have missed from the broadcast:

    Boiling point

    The frustration between Nick Sirianni and A.J. Brown finally went from talk to action on the sidelines.

    Following a drop from Brown that led to a consequential three-and-out, Sirianni sprinted toward Brown to tell the two-time All-Pro receiver to run off the field to avoid a penalty. Fox cameras showed Sirianni and Brown in a passionate argument soon after, and the pair eventually was broken up by Big Dom DiSandro, the Eagles’ chief of security.

    “Now on the sideline,” play-by-play commentator Kevin Burkhardt said. “Nick Sirianni going at him a little bit, Big Dom says ‘Hey, take it easy. We’re good.’”

    Sideline reporter Erin Andrews caught up with Sirianni at halftime, and asked the coach about the tense moment with the star wide receiver.

    “Emotions run high, especially in the playoffs,” Sirianni said, according to Andrews. ”Of course, after this game, we’ll go back to loving each other. But, look, this is just the way it is. We’re just fine, thanks.”

    Added analyst Tom Brady: “I just don’t think you can expect everyone to be super balanced and chill. You’re a warrior; you’re a gladiator down on the field. Emotions are running high every single play.”

    Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown’s drop here in the second quarter led to a tense exchange between he and head coach Nick Sirianni.

    Fox NFL analyst and Hall of Famer Michael Strahan also weighed in, but he had a different perspective on the exchange.

    “I don’t understand why Sirianni is running down there yelling at one of his star players,” Strahan said at halftime. “I don’t think that brings out the best in your player. … In my opinion, as a player, I wouldn’t have taken very well from my coach on the sideline.”

    Brown finished with only three catches for 25 yards and failed to record a reception after his confrontation with Sirianni.

    Big play Dom

    Despite fielding Brown and DeVonta Smith at wide receiver, Big Dom had the biggest highlight catch for the Eagles.

    Early in the third quarter, Jalen Hurts was forced to throw the ball away, sailing the rock over the head of Brown straight into the arms of DiSandro.

    Brady, in analyst fashion, reviewed Big Dom’s technique.

    “Tough catch,” Brady said. “Where’s his hands, Dom, with the grab. Look at him, He can’t believe it’s coming his way. I don’t like the body catch. I want to see hands, thumbs together when the ball is there. The body catch I don’t love.”

    Every time the Eagles step into the arena with the 49ers, DiSandro seems to take center stage — the security chief was ejected in 2023, the last matchup between the teams after breaking up a scuffle between Smith and San Francisco linebacker Dre Greenlaw.

    Fur-tastic

    If you thought you saw Staley Da Bear, the Chicago Bears mascot, on the sidelines to kick off the Birds’ wild-card matchup — don’t worry, so did we.

    Turns out it was just Andrews, Fox Sports’ sideline reporter, making a fashion statement.

    “I also want to hear about that coat,” Burkhardt said in the second half. “It’s terrific.”

    Big furs have been popular on the Eagles’ sideline over the years, with Chris Long and Josh Sweat, among others, donning similar coats after securing Super Bowl victories in 2017 and 2025. Andrews will be the only person donning one on the Eagles’ sideline this year.

    Andrews’ jacket, theorized by internet sleuths as a faux fur Auter product, will run you around $950 if you want it for yourself. We’ve got more reactions to the coat here.

    Perfect no more

    Early in the first quarter, Burkhardt and Brady were eager to sing the praises of Sirianni, pointing out his perfect home playoff record.

    “Two Super Bowls in five years,” Burkhardt said. “One championship, in the playoffs every year, second-most wins of all time in first five years of any coach.”

    “There’s always an expectation with winning,” Brady responded. “That’s when you come to the next season, like they did after winning the Super Bowl this year, ‘Oh, everything’s going to be perfect.’ And the reality is, it’s never perfect. You’re always trying to solve problems in the NFL. Every year is a little bit different. How he kind of inserts himself in different roles is what I appreciate. A head coach’s role is really special in what he’s able to do for this club.”

    The compliments aged poorly, as Sirianni suffered the first home playoff loss of his career in a matchup featuring plenty of penalties and drama on the sideline.

  • Kevin Patullo’s offense wastes two Quinyon Mitchell interceptions in crushing Eagles playoff loss

    Kevin Patullo’s offense wastes two Quinyon Mitchell interceptions in crushing Eagles playoff loss

    This time last year, few fans outside of the most rabid of the NFL knew who Kevin Patullo was. For the record, he was the Eagles’ passing game coordinator and coach Nick Sirianni’s favorite lieutenant.

    Now, everybody knows his name. After 18 games of ineptitude as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator, Patullo will bear the blame for the lost season of 2025, no matter how much he looks like his buddy, Nick.

    Patullo cannot survive the week. The blame will fall to him.

    It might not be true. The defense needed two months to round into shape.

    It might not be fair. Sixty percent of the offensive line was injured to some degree all season, and neither wide receiver A.J. Brown nor running back Saquon Barkley played to his usual standards.

    Still, it’s hard to believe that owner Jeffrey Lurie, who spent $128 million on an offense that cost him more than twice what the defense cost, will give another chance to the least popular assistant coach since Juan Castillo moved from offensive line to defensive coordinator in 2011. Castillo was fired in October 2012, two months ahead of Andy Reid’s departure.

    An offense that featured Barkley, Brown, Jalen Hurts, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, and a well-paid, pedigreed offensive line scored two early touchdowns against the visiting 49ers on Sunday night. And then just six more points.

    It had been 22 years since the Eagles suffered such a gutting home playoff loss, a 14-3 collapse in the NFC championship game. Move over, Carolina.

    The Eagles gave away a 23-19 wild-card playoff loss to a 49ers team that had crossed three time zones with a depleted roster, that, after the second quarter, also had lost one of its better players, tight end George Kittle. Hurts and Patullo’s offense had a chance to score the winning touchdown in the closing minutes, but the drive broke down and failed at the 21-yard line on the quarterback’s fourth-down incompletion intended for Goedert with 40 seconds left.

    Asked his evaluation of Patullo’s first season, Hurts replied: “We’ve all got to get better.”

    Eagles tackle Fred Johnson sits on the bench after the loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field.

    Left tackle Jordan Mailata said, effectively, let he who is without sin cast the first stone:

    “Nobody wants to blame the guy we paid $22 million, so let’s blame the offensive coordinator,” said Mailata, who averages $22 million per season.

    Niners coach Kyle Shanahan acts as his team’s play-caller, and, despite absences and injury, he gave Patullo a master class in scheme and preparation.

    The 49ers’ first possession, comprised mainly of passes for 61 and 11 yards, lent credence to the people who wanted the Eagles to play their starters instead of resting them in Game 17 the week before. The defense looked more than just rusty. It looked inept.

    The Eagles’ maligned offense somehow stayed sharper than their celebrated defense. On its first possession, six runs from Barkley helped move the Eagles to the 1, where tight end Goedert ran the ball for just the fourth time in his career and scored his first rushing touchdown.

    The Eagles’ next score happened because Barkley waited for Landon Dickerson to block a defender on a 20-yard screen pass. Later, Hurts waited for a defender to clear the path between himself and Goedert, whom Hurts found for a 9-yard touchdown pass.

    The game was punctuated by a sideline incident with 2 minutes, 2 seconds to play in the first half as the Eagles prepared to punt. Head coach Nick Sirianni ran 30 yards down the sideline toward the touchy wide receiver Brown, who, in Sirianni’s view, was taking too much time exiting the field. Brown stopped and appeared to heatedly argue the point. Security chief Dom DiSandro separated them.

    A few seconds later Brown left the bench and shouted in Sirianni’s direction, and was ushered away by sideline personnel and teammates.

    Some of the stars starred.

    Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts runs off the field after the loss to the 49ers.

    Goedert, who this season set an Eagles record with 11 touchdown catches, tied for the league lead, ran for one touchdown — the first tight end to do so in NFL playoff history — and caught another.

    Quinyon Mitchell, the team’s best defensive back since Brian Dawkins, collected his third and fourth interceptions in his five career playoff games.

    Barkley ran 26 times for 106 yards and caught a 20-yard pass.

    Brown? He managed just three catches for 25 yards. He failed on two consecutive deep shots to connect with Hurts, disconnects that immediately preceded his latest sideline incident.

    Brown often has expressed frustration with the Eagles offense the past two seasons. Sunday, as he has done for more than a month, he left the locker room without fulfilling his league-mandated obligation to speak with reporters.

    It continued the season’s theme:

    Brown wearing a frown.

    Patullo’s offense breaking down.

    Philly might have seen the last of both of them.