Packers-Eagles Wild Card Stock Market: A Tone Setter, An Angry Run, And A Nasty Defense

PHILADELPHIA - It wasn't pretty but it was darn effective.

The Philadelphia Eagles methodically wore down the Green Bay Packers en route to a 22-10 win at Lincoln Financial Field.

The reward for that is another home game in the divisional round against Tampa Bay if the Bucs are able to beat Washington on Sunday night or the winner of the Minnesota Vikings-Los Angeles Rams game on Monday night if the Commanders upset the Bucs.

Here's the Wild Card stock market:

THE BULLS

THE TONE-SETTER

The Eagles were concerned with Keisean Nixon's playmaking ability as a kick returner and spent a lot of time during the week preaching block destruction and limiting the space Nixon had to work with. Oren Burks must have taken that to heart with a devasting hit on Nixon to force a fumble Jeremiah Trotter Jr. recovered on the opening kickoff.

Three plays later the Eagles went up 7-0 on an 11-yard Jalen Hurts to Jahan Dotson touchdown pass, a lead Philadelphia never relinquished en route to a workmanlike win.

PASS PRO

On that Dotson TD pass, Hurts could have built a home on the real estate the Eagles' imposing offensive line gave the QB and the time Hurts got to survey the situation. According to Next Gen Stats Hurts had 6.75 seconds, the longest time to throw on a TD pass from a clean pocket this season.

No Packers pass rusher got within 2.5 yards of Hurts at any point in the dropback.

ANGRY RUN

Dallas Goedert is no stranger to Kyle Brandt's "Angry Run" award, and the veteran tight end had a worthy candidate for any anger-based reward against the Packers, using Carrington Valentine as a prop with a pair of stiff arms en route to a 24-yard TD catch and run that turned a 10-3 lead in the third quarter 16-3.

NASTY NOLAN

The Eagles put a lot on Smith's plate coming into this game, adding kickoff coverage to his main job description of setting the edge and chasing Jordan Love. The second-year player delivered in all three phases and has arguably been the Eagles' most improved player in the second half of the season.

Green Bay gave most of its extra attention to Josh Sweat and paid for it to the tune of allowing Smith to record seven tackles, two sacks and two quarterback hits.

VIC FANGIO'S DEFENSE

Three more turnovers were generated, interceptions by Darius Slay, Zack Baun and Quinyon Mitchell helping put Philadelphia at plus-4 in the all-important turnover ratio when you add in Burks' forced fumble on the kickoff.

More so, Fangio's No. 1 ranked group held the explosive Packers to only 10 points and 302 yards.

THE BEARS

BIG INJURY?

Nakobe Dean sniffed out a tight end screen to Tucker Kraft with Green Bay driving with under six minutes to go in the second quarter. Dean helped stop the drive with what was a three-yard loss but the third-year linebacker was injured on the play and had to be helped off by trainers.

Dean was then carted off to the locker room from the sideline and quickly ruled out. A medical source saw a potential serious knee injury via the video of the play. Burks replaced Dean and finished the game. The veteran may have to replace Dean throughout the playoffs moving forward.

The Eagles' defensive leader and "green dot" Dean was in a brace and on crutches after the game.

"It hurt. It hurt my heart," Smith said of Dean's injury. "As soon as I walked in here, seeing him in here, I prayed. Then I was the first one there. I tried to help him up. He said, no. I immediately closed my eyes and prayed right there.

"To a lot of people it’s a game, this is a game to them, this is just, ‘oh, it’s just football,’ but this is our livelihood. I know me and him leave it on the field, and we were talking about it. This is another time we’re in the playoffs together. It almost made me tear up before the game because we were roommates in college."

THIRD-DOWN DOLDRUMS

Head coach Nick Sirianni was honest in assessing the Eagles were not good enough offensively and perhaps the biggest issue was third downs. Philadelphia was a dismal 2 of 11 on third down (18.2%), a number that needs to get better quickly.

MORE NFL: Eagles Open Playoffs With 22-10 Win Over Packers Behind Stout Defense