Eagles news: Latest on Jalen Hurts, Quinyon Mitchell injuries; Birds are Super Bowl favorites; NFC championship referee revealed

The first question asked of Nick Sirianni Monday was about Jalen Hurts checking plays at the line of scrimmage, something the quarterback appeared to do on both of Saquon Barkley’s long touchdown runs. The coach’s answer winded its way to a scene from Monday’s team meeting.

Yes, it all started at the line of scrimmage, where Hurts and Cam Jurgens set protections and do most of the communicating, but a lot went into Barkley’s bursts of 62 and 78 yards, and on Hurts’ 44-yard score.

On that on, a zone-read counter that Hurts kept, Sirianni pointed out on film to the team Monday how A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith did their jobs to perfection. Brown took Rams safety Kamren Kinchens, who was lined up at nickel, out of the play. Smith, meanwhile, executed what Sirianni called a “textbook stalk block” on cornerback Darious Williams.

The Eagles tallied just 65 net passing yards Sunday, a season-low. Jalen Hurts was efficient when he did throw the ball, completing 15 of his 20 attempts for 128 yards. But his seven sacks resulted in 63 yards in the wrong direction.

The passing game, or lack thereof, has been a relatively constant topic this season. But Nick Sirianni continues to point to a by-any-means-necessary approach that has resulted in 16 wins in 19 tries. The Eagles have a dominant offensive line, an explosive running back, and the league’s top-ranked defense in yards allowed.

“We’re doing everything we can to win the football game,” Sirianni said. “I think you saw yesterday we were able to win the turnover battle. We were able to take care of the ball in the elements, they had some turnovers that we were able to create yesterday. You do everything you can do to win each and every game.”

Jalen Hurts was sacked seven times in the Eagles' 28-22 win over the Rams. And while some of that can be credited to Los Angeles' pass rush — they did have nine sacks a week earlier against the Vikings — and even more can be attributed to the bad weather and Hurts' injured knee, Hurts' is also at fault for some of them.

Hurts' propensity to hold onto the ball has gotten him into trouble in the past, and conditions on Sunday didn't make throwing the ball any easier, but the Eagles finished with just 65 net passing yards on Sunday when you factor in the 63 yards the team lost on those seven sacks. While the Eagles passing offense has struggled and caused some to begin asking questions about whether or not it's good enough to win the Super Bowl, one of Hurts' former head coaches weighed in, saying he thinks Hurts is doing enough.

“I think he’s doing the things they need to do to win. They’re a running football team. I mean, that’s what the Philadelphia Eagles are," former Alabama coach Nick Saban said on The Pat McAfee Show. "They’ve got Saquon Barkley, they run it, Jalen can run it — which he had a big play last night as a runner. So you’ve got to make people defend that, and you’ve got to throw the ball effectively enough in the play-action game. And I think Jalen is a good enough passer to do all those things."

It’s difficult to gauge just how unpopular Josh Harris has become in Philadelphia.

Come Sunday, it will be easy to gauge it.

Since he led a group that bought the 76ers in 2011, Harris has mismanaged the franchise with the relentless irresponsibility of Norman Braman’s Eagles and conducted himself with a complete lack of consideration for Philadelphia’s tender feelings.

What more can you say about Saquon Barkley that hasn’t already been said?

After his 205-yard, two-touchdown performance in the snow against the Rams on Sunday, it turns out the answer is quite a bit.

Pregame, ESPN reporter Sal Paolantonio said he spoke with LeSean McCoy, who rushed for a then-franchise-record 217 yards in the snow against the Lions in 2013. The former Eagles running back said he reached out to Barkley before the game to give him “the recipe” for playing in the snowy conditions.

When Saquon Barkley saw what will likely become the lasting image of the Eagles’ snowy playoff win, his first instinct was to see if he could get it taken down.

Try as he might, the photos of Barkley screaming and sprinting toward the end zone in the team’s 28-22 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday will be about as impossible to erase as the history he made in the process. The Eagles running back finished with 205 rushing yards, breaking a 76-year-old franchise record set by Steve Van Buren in 1949 also against the Rams and delivering a signature snow performance — and image — akin to the one LeSean McCoy authored 12 years ago for the team.

Still, when backup tackle Fred Johnson showed Barkley the photo of him shouting and sprinting through the snow en route to his second long touchdown of the evening, he wasn’t sure he was as big a fan as everyone else.

The Eagles go into conference championship week as Super Bowl favorites.

Part of those odds (+180 according to FanDuel) will certainly speak to the fact they’re heavily favored at home against the Commanders this Sunday while the Bills and Chiefs’ AFC championship matchup is viewed as more of a toss-up by comparison.

Still, those steadily increasing odds for the Eagles translate to a 35% chance of winning it all. And strangely enough, that feels about right. There are still some lingering questions about this team despite it heading into the final four having lost just once since the end of September, but the Eagles have proven time and again they have mastered the art of not losing games during that stretch.

While the Eagles are heading into the NFC Championship game, their win over the Rams left a lot to be desired. 

The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane wrote Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore need to be better for the Eagles to beat the Commanders. Hurts was widely criticized for taking a safety late in the third quarter on a play where Saquon Barkley appeared wide open.

“Hurts went 14-for-20, but managed just 65 net passing yards because of a few costly sacks that killed Eagles drives.” wrote Eagles beat writer EJ Smith. 

Late in the fourth quarter, Saquon Barkley popped off a 78-yard touchdown run that appeared to seal the win for the Eagles in their divisional round playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams. 

“Barkley! Into the clear, through the snow, all the way home,” said NBC’s Mike Tirico during the broadcast. “He’s hit another home run against the Rams, and this one might send them to the championship game!”

But before the run, Tirico seemed to know what was coming. Leaning over to his broadcast partner, Cris Collinsworth, Tirco saw the Eagles lineup and asked the obvious question.

All eyes will once again be on Jalen Hurts this week.

The Eagles quarterback appeared to suffer a left leg injury late in the third quarter of Sunday's win against the Los Angeles Rams.

Hurts didn't miss a play, but did spend some time in the medical tent, and emerged with a brace on his knee. After the game, Hurts told reporters he plans to see "how the week" goes, but expects to play Sunday against the Washington Commanders.

After 281 games, the 2024 NFL season comes down to just three remaining match-ups.

While the Eagles will host the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship game, the Buffalo Bills look to defeat Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game.

The winners will face off in Super Bowl LIX, which is being played at the Superdome in New Orleans.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts started off the game with a bang, ripping off an explosive 44-yard touchdown run on the opening drive to put the Eagles up, 6-0. The fourth-year starter pulled the ball on a zone-read play, benefiting from strong blocks by receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith as he broke into the second level of the Rams defense. Jake Elliott missed the extra point, his first of two misses on the day.

The Eagles passing game rebounded early, as Hurts went 3-for-3 for 25 yards on the opening drive. But he struggled to connect with Brown as the first half continued. The star receiver dropped a pair of passes, including one over the middle later in the first quarter. On the next drop in the second quarter, Brown bobbled a deep shot from Hurts in the end zone and only got it under control when he landed out of bounds.

Handling pressure quickly became an issue for Hurts and the Eagles’ offensive front. In the first half alone, the Rams mustered three sacks that stalled drives. The first sack from Rams defensive tackle Braden Fiske on the Eagles’ second possession of the game forced them to go three-and-out. The next two were more significant momentum-killers, with the Eagles deep in Rams territory. A sack by rookie defensive end Jared Verse on third-and-8 at the Rams’ 30-yard line knocked the Eagles out of field-goal range and forced them to punt.

The snow never bothered Saquon Barkley anyway.

Barkley, the 2024 rushing title holder, plowed through a snow-covered Lincoln Financial Field, cruising for 205 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries in the Eagles’ nail-biter of a 28-22 divisional-round victory over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. The star running back contributed a pair of explosive touchdown runs, including a 62-yarder in the first quarter and a 78-yarder in the fourth to solidify the Eagles’ win.

The latter touchdown tied a career-long scoring scamper that Barkley had as a rookie with the New York Giants in 2018. He also broke Steve Van Buren’s franchise record for rushing yards in a playoff game, set in 1949 with a 196-yard performance against the Rams in the championship game.

The Commanders and Eagles played twice this year, splitting the season series. The Birds beat the Commanders, 26-18, in Philadelphia in Week 11, with two rushing touchdowns from Barkley in the fourth quarter to put the game away on the road.

The Commanders pulled off a comeback 36-33 win over the Eagles in Washington on Dec. 22, scoring three fourth-quarter touchdowns to win the game after Hurts left with a concussion. The Birds forced five turnovers but could not stop Daniels and the Commanders offense down the stretch

Both were one-possession games, so this could be a nail-biter, Birds fans.