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The Eagles entered this wild-card round well-rested and as a 6-point home favorite against the 49ers.
And they blew it.
A lot of the same issues that plagued the team all season popped up again in the 23-19 loss. They squandered a first-half lead, fell apart offensively and ended up falling well short of their goal to repeat as Super Bowl champions.
Up next: The offseason. But first: time for the final report card of the season.
Quarterback
Jalen Hurts: 20/35, 168 yards, 1 TD; 5 rushes, 14 yards
The Eagles’ offense wasn’t great in the first half and really dried up in the second half, which has been a theme pretty much all season. The wind caused some issues for Hurts in this game and he was victimized by several drops from his key players. There were some really good moments, like his touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert, which took a ton of patience, and a few money throws on the final drive of the game. But Hurts prides himself on being great in big moments and he wasn’t great on Sunday.
Grade: C-
Running back
Saquon Barkley: 26 attempts, 106 yards
Barkley did have a key drop in this game on a 3rd down that hurt but he also had a nice game on the ground, going over 100 yards after doing that just three times all regular season. And even though he had a drop, Barkley also caught three passes for 25 yards. Tank Bigsby again contributed with 19 yards on 4 carries.
Grade: B
Receiver
DeVonta Smith: 8 catches on 11 targets, 70 yards
A.J. Brown was targeted 7 times but finished with just 3 catches for 25 yards and had a few costly drops. Smith had another big postseason game and increased his impressive playoff total but he couldn’t haul in a tough catch late in the fourth quarter. Darius Cooper had 1 catch for 9 yards but was also called for a hold.
Grade: D
Tight end
Dallas Goedert: 4 catches on 7 targets, 33 yards, 1 receiving TD, 1 rushing TD
Goedert became just the second Eagles player to ever have a rushing touchdown and receiving touchdown in the same playoff game, joining Ricky Watters, who did it in 1995. Goedert was a force in the red zone all season long. He did whiff on a block against Bryce Huff but that’s obviously tough duty. Grant Calcaterra continued to struggle as a blocker.
Grade: B-
Offensive line
Lane Johnson practiced this week and there was some hope that he’d be able to return for this game and then it didn’t happen. Fred Johnson made his eighth straight start and didn’t have a good day. At least the offensive line was able to open up some holes in the run game as the Eagles rushed for 140 yards against the Niners. And pass protection was mostly fine too.
Grade: C
Defensive line
Jalen Carter: 3 tackles, 1 sack
The Eagles got some pressure on 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy but they were able to bring him down just once for a sack. The Eagles did a nice job to contain the 49ers rushing attack. The Niners had just 75 rushing yards and the Eagles held Christian McCaffrey to 48 yards on 15 attempts.
Grade: C+
Linebacker
Nakobe Dean: 6 tackles
The duo of Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean finished with 12 tackles but they did give up some plays in coverage against McCaffrey. While Baun and Dean each had 6 tackles, neither of them had a TFL or a QB hit or a sack or a forced fumble. We’ve been so used to those guys making big splash plays and those weren’t there in this game.
Grade: C+
Secondary
Quinyon Mitchell: 2 INTs, 3 tackles, 3 PBUs
It was a rough start to this game for Mitchell, who gave up three catches on the first drive, including a 61-yarder and later a touchdown. But Mitchell bounced back in a huge way with a couple of interceptions that could have helped turn the tide in this game. Mitchell now has 4 INTs in 5 career postseason games. Cooper DeJean had one big pass breakup but was also in coverage on a 45-yard explosive pass. Reed Blankenship got caught on the 49ers’ trick play touchdown.
Grade: B-
Special teams
Jake Elliott: 2/2 on FGs, 1/1 on PATs
The Eagles’ special teams units were mostly good on Sunday except for one big mistake. Jake Elliott missed his first PAT attempt off the left upright and that miss haunted the Eagles the rest of the afternoon. Because of that miss, the Eagles late in the game were down 4 points instead of 3, so they had to play for a touchdown and not a field goal.
Grade: C
Coaching
The Eagles were the more talented team on Sunday and that was even before the 49ers lost All-Pro tight end George Kittle to an Achilles injury. The 49ers were able to get more out of less. Whenever a team loses despite a major talent advantage, there’s only one place to point: Coaching. The Eagles’ offense hasn’t been well-coached all season and many of the issues we’ve seen over the past few months popped up again on Sunday. When the same errors in execution never get fixed, when things never get better, when the same problems happen in perpetuity, that’s on coaching. Not to excuse the defense — that needs to be better too — but this is on Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo.
Grade: F-
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