Packers Eliminated By Eagles in Wild-Card Playoff Game

Groundhog Day is next month. It might as well have been on Sunday.

Once again, the Green Bay Packers started slowly against a top opponent.

Once again, the Packers showed fight.

Once again, it wasn’t enough.

Once again, the Packers will not win the Super Bowl.

The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Packers 22-10 in an NFC wild-card game on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. Green Bay was eliminated one stage earlier than last season, when a Super Bowl seemed within reach.

The Packers went 0-6 against the NFC’s top three teams, including losses to the Eagles in Week 1 and again on Sunday.

“Defensively, I thought we played winning football,” coach Matt LaFleur said after the game. “Offensively and on special teams, we made too many mistakes.

“I hurt for our guys, because there’s a lot of energy and work that goes into this thing. And it should hurt. Hopefully, we can use this as fuel to have a great offseason and come back next season ready to rock.”

The Packers had an absolutely terrible first half, starting with Keisean Nixon’s fumble on the opening kickoff return that handed the Eagles’ a seven-point layup, but pulled within 10-3 midway through the third quarter.

Green Bay’s defense, so strong for most of the game, finally bucked. The Eagles gained 26 yards on a third-and-3 pass to DeVonta Smith before a 24-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dallas Goedert in which he abused cornerback Carrington Valentine. All 24 yards came after the catch, including 20 yards after plowing into Valentine and then delivering a pair of nasty stiff-arms.

The extra point was no good, so it was 16-3 with about 18 minutes remaining. With Christian Watson on injured reserve following last week’s torn ACL, Romeo Doubs suffering a scary concussion in the third quarter and Jayden Reed taking a hard hit and suffering a shoulder injury a few minutes later, the odds were stacked against the Packers.

But Green Bay answered Philly’s touchdown with one of its own. Jacobs had a 15-yard catch before an all-time run. From the Eagles’ 33, Jacobs avoided a tackle in the backfield, ran through another tackler, hand his shirt stretched into an XXXXXXXL by Oren Burks and plowed over Reed Blankenship before getting tackled inside the 1. On the next play, the first play of the fourth quarter, Jacobs bounced off the pile and scored to make it 16-10.

The Eagles consumed almost half the remaining clock, though, with a 13-play drive that resulted in a 30-yard field goal.

That put the Packers behind 19-10 with 7:33 remaining and without their three top receivers in hopes of rallying.

That didn’t excuse Love’s errant throw on fourth-and-3, which led Malik Heath out of bounds. It was a fitting play given how the passing game struggled down the stretch.

“I’m not sure,” Love said of why the passing game sputtered at the end of the season. “It’s something that we’ll look at in the offseason. It comes down to executing and making plays out there. It just wasn’t good enough.”

The turnover on downs put the final nail in the coffin, though defensive tackle T.J. Slaton grabbed another box of nails and a hammer with a boneheaded unnecessary-roughness penalty by a long-after-the-whistle tackle of Saquon Barkley.

The Eagles tacked on a field goal, center Josh Myers was carted off the field and a long, painful offseason is here.

Jacobs was Green Bay’s only threat for most of the game. He carried 18 times for 81 yards and added three receptions for 40 yards. He was shaken up after a 15-yard catch-and-run in the fourth quarter and did not return.

Love was 20-of-33 for 212 yards and three interceptions. Two came in the first half, when the Packers were in the thick of things, and the third put the game on ice.

“I love Jordan Love and how he competes,” LaFleur said. “He’s going to get better and better and better. He is very critical of himself, and he does such a great job of learning from every experience. Through this, I think we’ll all be better for it.”

Green Bay had four turnovers. The Eagles had zero.

“It was too much to overcome,” LaFleur said. “I thought our guys competed to final whistle.”

Hurts didn’t do much through air but Saquon Barkley topped 100 rushing yards during the final moments, and slid to the turf rather than putting an exclamation point on things with what would have been a 76-yard touchdown.

The Packers trailed 10-0 at halftime. It might as well have been 100-0 the way the offense played. It was a completely inept performance for a unit that was supposed to be so good and at one point scored 30-plus points in five consecutive games.

In their four close-game losses to the Lions and Vikings, the final scores were close but the Packers were thoroughly outplayed in the first halves.

So, this was quite a statement by LaFleur in his halftime interview with Fox’s Tom Rinaldi: “It’s the worst half of football we have played all year.”

The Packers had three turnovers in the first half, with Nixon’s fumble on the opening kickoff return setting up the Eagles for a gift-wrapped opening touchdown.

“I thought we recovered the ball,” LaFleur said. “Obviously, the league felt differently.”

On the one and only competent offensive possession, Brandon McManus missed a field goal.

“We have zero panic,” LaFleur said at halftime.

Fortunately, Jeff Hafley’s defense showed up to give the Packers a chance.

After the Eagles scored following Nixon’s fumble and added a field goal on their third possession, their final three drives of the first half resulted in three-and-out punts for a total of 7 yards.

That allowed the Packers to hang around. With the Eagles getting the ball to start the second half, Green Bay’s defense needed another stop. It got it, thanks to Rashan Gary’s second-down sack.

The Packers on the ensuing possession finally scored on McManus’ 26-yard field goal. Deep shots to Dontayvion Wicks produced a 29-yard catch and a 24-yard penalty to the 9. The drive stalled, though, with Love throwing back-to-back incompletions before the kick.

On the first play of Green Bay’s second possession, left guard Elgton Jenkins pulled to the right but suffered an injured right shoulder when he blocked an Eagles defender.

Chaos ensued. He was replaced by rookie Travis Glover, who played 13 snaps this season – none of them meaningful. He was flagged three times, including twice for holding, before he was replaced by Kadeem Telfort. Early in the third quarter, with the Packers in scoring position, Telfort was flagged for holding.

Another key injury happened on Green Bay’s third-quarter scoring drive. Doubs, who missed two games due to a concussion earlier in the season, took a hard fall in the end zone. His head slammed onto the turf and Doubs, even while wearing a protective Guardian Cap, came up clutching fists, not unlike a couple of Tua Tagovailoa’s concussions with the Dolphins.

After a lengthy stay on the turf, he was helped off the field and walked straight into the locker room to be examined for a concussion.

With Watson inactive, the Packers were down two of their top receivers. Later, Reed went down.

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The #Packers have wasted another season. That's 14 years and counting without a Super Bowl.

A season that started with high hopes and talk of a Super Bowl ended with two more wins but a one-and-done playoffs. ⬇️https://t.co/ANVTpUyG4Z
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) January 13, 2025