Good afternoon, everyone. On Sunday January 12th, 2025, the Green Bay Packers took on the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card Round at Lincoln Financial Field. Entering this playoff matchup, which was only the fourth between the Packers and Eagles, the Packers were looking to win against the 2 seed for the second straight time as the 7 seed. Unfortunately, the Packers were not able to get the win as they lost by a score of 22-10 due to a lot of mistakes and injuries to key players at the worst time. Let’s get into detail on how this game went down.
The Packers’ first mistake came when Keisean Nixon fumbled the ball after suffering a helmet to helmet hit on the opening kickoff return (which should have been a penalty). Even though it looked like Nixon had the ball, the officials somehow gave possession to the Eagles. After that debacle, the Eagles were able to score the first touchdown of the game when Jalen Hurts connected with Johan Dotson for an 11-yard TD pass. The extra point by Jake Elliott was good, giving the Eagles a 7-0 lead with 13:21 left in the first quarter. The Packers’ first real drive started at their own 13 after a holding penalty on the kickoff return. They went three and out after an incomplete pass, a 2-yard run by Josh Jacobs, and an incomplete pass. The punt by Daniel Whelan went to the Philadelphia 35 yard line. The punt return coverage was good as the return man was stopped for no gain. The defense was able to force the Eagles to punt on their second drive after Javon Bullard tackled Saquon Barkley for no gain after Barkley caught a pass on third and 5 from the Green Bay 47. The punt went into the end zone for a touchback, which meant that the next drive for the Packers started at their own 20 yard line. On the first play of the drive, Elgton Jenkins got banged up and had to leave the game with a stinger issue in his neck. The Packers were able to convert a third and 2 with a 10-yard pass from Jordan Love to Tucker Kraft. The drive ended shortly after that when Jordan Love was sacked for a loss of 14 yards on third and 3 from the Green Bay 45. The punt by Daniel Whelan went to the Philadelphia 19 yard line, where the return man (Cooper DeJean) ran it 11 yards to the 30 yard line. From there, the Eagles were able to move the ball down the field and get into field goal range. Thankfully, the defense forced Philadelphia to settle for a field goal. The kick was good from 31 yards out, increasing the lead to 10-0 with 19 seconds left in the first quarter. Keisean Nixon was only able to return the kickoff 24 yards to the Green Bay 30 after he messed up following the blocks. 2 plays into the drive, Jordan Love threw a 50/50 ball to Dontayvion Wicks, who was unable to fight for the ball. The pass was picked off by Darius Slay at the Philadelphia 22, where the Eagles’ next drive started (basically an arm punt by Jordan Love there). Luckily, the Packers defense forced the Eagles to go three and out. Jayden Reed was able to return the ensuing punt 20 yards to the Green Bay 43 yard line. From there, the Packers were able to get into field goal range. During the drive, the Packers were successful twice with a direct snap “tush push” play to Tucker Kraft, with the second one converting a fourth and 1 from the Philadelphia 19 yard line. Unfortunately, the drive stalled after that and the Packers were forced to settle for a field goal. Brandon McManus, who has only missed one field goal since coming to Green Bay, missed the 38-yard field goal to the right of the upright, keeping the score at 10-0 with 5:05 left in the first half. After the Eagles went three and out on their next drive, the Packers got the ball back at their own 28 yard line due to an illegal touching of the ball by an Eagles player. Two holding penalties were called on Travis Glover, which forced him to be benched in favor of Kadeem Telfort. Even with those penalties, the Packers were able to get into Philly territory. Unfortunately, the drive ended when Jordan Love threw an awful interception to Zach Baun, who returned the pick to the Green Bay 45. The Packers defense forced another three and out, and the Packers offense did nothing with the ball before the first half ended.
The Eagles got the ball first in the third quarter. Thankfully, the Packers defense forced them to punt after a sack by Rashan Gary and a third down run that went nowhere. The punt was caught by Jayden Reed at the Green Bay 10. Reed was only able to return the punt 6 yards to the 16 yard line. From there, the Packers started their first drive of the second half. A mix of run and pass plays followed. The biggest play of the drive was when Jordan Love found Dontayvion Wicks for a 29-yard pass completion on third and 4 from the Green Bay 41. 2 plays later, Jordan Love tried to throw a TD pass to Romeo Doubs, who was double-covered on the play. The pass went incomplete and Romeo Doubs landed on the back of his head. He had to leave the game immediately after that with a concussion. To rub salt in the wound, there was a holding penalty called on Kadeem Telfort. 2 plays later, the Packers got a first and goal at the 9 yard line thanks to a pass interference penalty called on Quinyon Mitchell. After that penalty, the Packers were not able to get into the end zone and had to settle for a field goal. McManus made the kick, cutting the lead to 10-3 with 5:46 left in the third quarter. Unfortunately, the Packers defense was unable to keep the Eagles from scoring a touchdown on their next drive. The play that resulted in a touchdown was when TE Dallas Goedert caught a pass and stiff-armed Carrington Valentine twice on his way to the end zone. The extra point was missed to the left, resulting in the score being 16-3 with 3:20 left in the third quarter. After the kickoff return by Keisean Nixon, the Packers’ ensuing drive started at their own 22 yard line. The first play was a 15-yard pass play from Jordan Love to Josh Jacobs. After a 5-yard run by Jacobs, Jayden Reed caught a pass that went for 13 yards to the Philly 45 yard line. Reed hurt his shoulder on the play due to an Eagles player hitting him and had to leave the game after that. A few plays later, Josh Jacobs was able to drag some defenders with him on a big run that nearly went all the way for a touchdown. It was initially ruled a TD, but it was overturned when his knee was down before the ball crossed the goal line. Thankfully, Jacobs ran it in on the next play. The extra point was good, cutting the lead to 16-10 right at the start of the fourth quarter. With a chance to get a stop, the Packers defense instead allowed the Eagles to have the ball for nearly 7 and a half minutes. During this drive, there was a ticky-tack penalty called on Keisean Nixon when he pushed Jalen Hurts after he went out of bounds. After that, plus a few other plays, the Packers defense was able to force the Eagles to settle for a field goal. The kick was not blocked and made it through the uprights, increasing the lead to 19-10 with 7:33 left in the fourth quarter. The Packers’ next drive started at the 20 since Keisean Nixon had the ball go through his hands before it went into the end zone for a touchback. On first and 10, Josh Jacobs caught a pass that he took 14 yards to the 34 yard line. Jacobs had to go to the sidelines due to him walking slowly after the play. 3 plays later, a bad play call occurred when there was a run up the middle by Emanuel Wilson that went nowhere on third and 3 from the Green Bay 41. On fourth down, the pass by Jordan Love was caught by Malik Heath. The problem was that the pass was a bit high and Heath did not get both feet inbounds, thus making the pass an incompletion. After that, the Eagles were able to add 3 more points to their score with a 32 yard field goal by Jake Elliott. The Packers tried desperately to get a touchdown on their next drive, but the pass to the end zone intended for Bo Melton was intercepted in the end zone. Melton was basically tackled before the ball was in the end zone, but the officials did not bother making the call. After that pick, the Eagles were able to run out the rest of the clock and seal the win. With the loss, the 2024-25 season ended in disappointment for the Green Bay Packers.
(Here are the “lowlights” of this game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page. Click on Watch on YouTube if you’re curious).
On offense, the Packers were not able to do anything scoring-wise until the second half. It did not help that a whole bunch of things did not go their way. They were immediately playing from behind due to the turnover on the opening kickoff and the Eagles TD that came after it. Even when the Packers defense was doing its best to give the offense more chances, they were unable to put up a lot of points due to penalties and turning the ball over. Jordan Love did not have a good day at the office as he threw for 3 picks and no touchdowns. The first one was a 50/50 ball that Dontayvion Wicks wasn’t able to fight well for. The second one was thrown right into the defender and was a bad decision. The last one was a desperation heave that should not have counted due to an uncalled defensive pass interference penalty. Love also had a bad moment and threw into double coverage on a play that caused Romeo Doubs to leave the game with a concussion. Love did not have any issues with his elbow that he hurt last week, which is a good thing. It did not help that Love had to deal with Christian Watson being out already and losing both Romeo Doubs and Jayden Reed to injury in Philadelphia. In addition to that, Love had to deal with Elgton Jenkins and Josh Myers leaving due to injury and messing up the continuity of the offensive line. It was a miracle that the run game was productive at points and Love was only sacked twice. Josh Jacobs was one of the only players on offense that played well. The highlight of his day was when he dragged multiple defenders on a big run that was nearly a touchdown. Thankfully, he scored on the next play, but it would have been much better if he scored on the bigger run. Overall, it was not the finest three hours for the Packers offense, from play-calling to execution. There were bad decisions by Matt LaFleur, injuries at the worst possible time, and three turnovers by the offense. It will be interesting to see what changes are made to make the offense better at everything next season. Perhaps the Packers could get more receiver help due to the uncertainty of when Christian Watson will come back. I just hope that Jordan Love does not have to deal with lingering injury issues next season.
On defense, the Packers played their butts off against the Eagles offense. There were a couple of touchdowns allowed, but the defense was able to force the Eagles to settle for field goals and even force some three and outs. Even without Jaire Alexander, who might not be a Packer next season, the defensive backs covered the receivers well and did not allow too many huge pass plays. The big exception was when Carrington Valentine was unable to tackle Dallas Goedert and got stiff-armed twice to add salt to the wound. Once again, there was the issue of little to no pass rush, which has to be fixed during this upcoming offseason in either free agency or the draft (or both). There were a couple of big runs allowed, but that was a given considering that the Packers defense had to deal with Saquon Barkley, who became only the 9th player in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season. It also did not help that Devonte Wyatt had to leave the game early due to a lower leg injury, which I hope is not too serious as he gets ready for the next season. There were definitely some things that the defense messed up on, including some discipline issues in the second half, but I have to give credit to Jeff Hafley for doing a great job in his first season as Green Bay’s defensive coordinator. The players have bought into the system, which I am sure will get better as the years go by. As long as the Packers draft some good defensive players in the draft and make a good free agent acquisition like they did with Xavier McKinney this past offseason, the defense could be a top 5 unit next season. Hopefully the rest of the team plays well next time the defense has this good of a performance. Considering everything that happened on Sunday, I’m thankful that the defense did not give up over 40 points against the Eagles.
On Special Teams, the Packers had some major errors on Sunday in Philadelphia. I’m going to get the elephant in the room out of the way with the opening kickoff fumble. I don’t know how the officials thought that the Eagles had possession of the ball when it was obvious that Keisean Nixon had the ball in that pile. Not only that, but there was an obvious helmet to helmet hit during the kickoff return that was not called. Instead of the Packers having the ball at their own 45 to start the game, the officials gave the ball to Philadelphia in prime scoring position, which the Eagles took advantage of by scoring a TD. Nixon was forced to return the kickoff quite a few times by the kicking team because of the opportunity for another turnover, which did not happen. Nixon did not have a big kick return at all on Sunday. Jayden Reed had a 20-yard punt return before a drive that should have resulted in points. Thankfully, the Packers did not allow a big kick or punt return to the Eagles. Brandon McManus made almost every kick, with the missed field goal being from only 38 yards out (yet another blunder by Green Bay on Sunday). Daniel Whelan had a couple of punts that went 50 yards, which was good. Luckily, there were no blocked kicks that would have given the Eagles extra momentum. It’s unclear to me whether Rich Bisaccia will be back as Special Teams Coordinator next season. Whether or not he is, the Packers better be ready to not fall for any tricks.
Overall, it was a disappointing end to the season for the Green Bay Packers. They improved by two wins from last season and made the playoffs for the second straight year as the NFL’s youngest team. All of the losses, other than against the Bears in Week 18, were against the 3 teams that finished with 14 or more wins in the NFC. In the 6 losses to the Lions, Vikings, and Eagles (twice to each team), the Packers had a litany of self-inflicted errors that made the difference between winning and losing. Whether they were penalties that wiped off big plays, bad coaching decisions by Matt LaFleur, or untimely turnovers, all of these mistakes were the main reason why the Packers came up short of the ultimate goal: the Vince Lombardi Trophy. I am still optimistic about the future of the Packers moving forward, and I hope that everyone involved is able to use this as a learning experience as they prepare for the 2025-26 season, which hopefully ends with the Packers hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy at Levi’s Stadium (the site for Super Bowl LX). Thank you all for following me along this season on here. I’ll be back for other posts on my blog website in the future as I wait for the next Packers season to get here. Have a great week, everyone. Go Pack Go.
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