Eagles beat Packers in Brazil as Saquon Barkley shines in debut, 34 to 29

The Philadelphia Eagles are 1-0 after opening their 2024 season with a Week 1 win over the Green Bay Packers in Brazil! Final score: 34 to 29.

That’s an important victory over a team that the Eagles could conceivably be jockeying for position with in the NFC playoff picture, depending on the outcome of Jordan Love’s injury.

This certainly wasn’t an all-around pretty game for the Birds. Early on, the offense certainly looked like a unit that did not play in the preseason with two straight turnovers to start the game. But Kellen Moore eventually got things cooking, in part by relying on Saquon Barkley, who made a great debut with 132 yards from scrimmage and three total touchdowns.

Not unlike the Eagles’ defense, which did a nice job of limiting the Packers to just nine points directly off three turnovers, this was an uneven game for Jalen Hurts. The franchise quarterback made some good throws and was crucial to Philly’s game-sealing drive at the end. But he also made some really unwise and quite frankly alarming decisions for a fifth-year player. Hurts, who finished the game with an 80.3 passer rating, needs to be much sharper moving forward.

Other heroes from Friday night’s game include DeVonta Smith, Zack Baun (who had the game-clinching sack), Reed Blankenship, and Nakobe Dean. We’ll have more on them in our Winners-Losers-IDKs analysis.

For now, the Eagles should feel good to start their season on the right foot. They’ll be back in action next when they host Kirk Cousins’ Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football in Week 2.

Read on for a recap and stay tuned for BGN’s postgame coverage.

FIRST QUARTER

• The Packers won the coin toss and elected to receive. Kelee Ringo got flagged for an illegal formation penalty even though the ball went into the end zone. Not starting the season on the sharpest note! Jordan Davis was in the backfield to help create a Josh Sweat tackle for loss. Good to see the big man active early. On 3rd-and-6, Avonte Maddox slipped in coverage and allowed a first down catch to Romeo Doubs. Reports of the playing surface being slippery apparently weren’t exaggerated (unwelcome Super Bowl flashbacks). Jordan Love threw a 38-yard touchdown pass that got wiped out by 12 players on both offense and defense … not sure if I’ve ever seen that one before. Quinyon Mitchell had good coverage downfield on Christian Watson to prevent a touchdown pass. After the play, Mitchell chirped Watson. Not the first time the rookie, who has a reputation for being soft spoken publicly, has showed some fire and propensity to trash talk. Facing 4th-and-6 and lacking kicker stability, the Packers decided to go for it … until a false start prompted a punt. Nice start by Vic Fangio’s defense to only allow 22 yards on six plays with one first down coming in part due a defender slipping.
• The Eagles took over at their own 10-yard line. Jalen Hurts was under center (!) on the Eagles’ first snap. A pitch to Saquon Barkley resulted in him slipping and getting touched down for a 5-yard loss. Bad! Facing 3rd-and-15, Hurts targeted DeVonta Smith up the seam and got easily picked off by Xavier McKinney. Terrible! What the heck was that.

• Zack Baun had a sack get wiped out by unnecessary roughness penalty on Jalen Carter after the play. Weak call but yet another dumb mistake, lot of those by the Eagles early on. The defense ultimately settled in to hold the Packers to a 31-yard field goal. Seems like Vic Fangio might know what he’s doing? EAGLES 0, PACKERS 3.
• The Eagles started at their own 16-yard line after the Packers’ kickoff landed in the landing zone and forced Kenny Gainwell to pick it up and return it. Barkley’s run went for three yards, a short screen pass to Dallas Goedert went for one yard, and then Cam Jurgens’ shotgun snap to Hurts was fumbled and recovered by the Packers. Dumpster fire offense!
• The Packers took over at the Eagles’ 13-yard line. They got to 3rd-and-1 despite Nolan Smith drawing a holding penalty. Nakobe Dean, coming downhill, and Brandon Graham combined for a TFL, pretty good stop. Facing 4th-and-2, a handoff to Jacobs was ruled a first down. Looked like a generous spot? No challenge from Nick Sirianni. Reed Blankenship did a nice job of breaking up a would-be touchdown pass that would’ve been wiped out anyway by a Packers OPI penalty. Facing 3rd-and-goal from the 5-yard line, Love’s throw into the end zone was incomplete with Watson slipping on the field.

• Facing 3rd-and-1, the Eagles did not line up for a Brotherly Shove. Hurts instead completed a short pass to A.J. Brown for Philly’s first first down of the season. A miracle! DeVonta Smith, lining up in the slot with A.J. Brown next to him outside, made Packers defenders miss to pick up enough YAC for a first down after a short catch.

SECOND QUARTER

• Facing 3rd-and-1, the Eagles went Brotherly Shove and did not get the marker. Facing 4th-and-inches, a Hurts hard count got the Packers to jump for the offsides penalty. Smart. Barkley popped for an 11-yard first down run into the red zone. Two plays later, Hurts lofted the ball to Barkley on the wheel route for the Eagles’ first touchdown of the season. Nice throw, nice catch along the sideline for the score! Also nice design with Jahan Dotson motioning to the opposite side of the formation to draw attention away from Barkley. Good bounce-back by the offense to go 70 yards in 11 plays to take the lead. EAGLES 7, PACKERS 6.

• The Packers ran the ball three straight times to move into Eagles territory. And then Jayden Reed took an end around for 33 yards to the end zone. So much for that great defensive start, Packers went 70 yards in just five plays without a pass being completed. Another Carter penalty prompted the Packers to take their extra point kick off the board and go for two from the 1-yard line instead. Unfortunately for them, Jacobs was stuffed short of the goal line. 4D chess by Carter to commit the penalty on purpose?! Probably not. EAGLES 7, PACKERS 12.

• Facing 3rd-and-8, Hurts got the ball out JUST in time to avoid getting sacked on a nickel corner blitz and Brown was able to make a defender miss to pick up a first down. Wow. Hurts to DeVonta with the receiver being schemed open on an RPO resulted in another first down; we saw the Eagles have success with Kenny Pickett doing that in the preseason. Barkley capped off another Eagles scoring drive looking spry with a jump cut to take off to end zone! EAGLES 14, PACKERS 12.

• Dean failed to catch a would-be pick six with Love throwing right at him. He’s gotta make that play. Mitchell broke up a pass on the next play to almost create another pick opportunity. Facing 3rd-and-10, Love climbed the pocket and hit a wide open Reed for an all-too-easy easy touchdown with C.J. Gardner-Johnson missing an open field tackle (slippery field sure didn’t help). Pretty annoying to see the defense fall apart after the offense figured things out. EAGLES 14, PACKERS 19.

• Gainwell made a bad decision to return the ball out of the end zone to get to the Eagles’ 23-yard line when he could’ve kneeled to get to the 30. Perhaps Gainwell shouldn’t be back on kick returns. Hurts had good completions to both Brown (who was fired up to beat Jaire Alexander after exchanging some words with the Packers cornerback) and Goedert to move into Packers territory. Facing 3rd-and-8, Hurts took a designed QB run (?) up the middle for five yards. That kind of approach looked similar to the Eagles’ 2023 offense. Facing 4th-and-3, the Eagles tried to get the Packers to jump before calling a timeout. Sirianni kept the offense on the field … and Hurts hit DeVonta in a tight window for a short first down completion. Good aggressive decision, good execution. With Kenny Gainwell in the game instead of Barkley, the backup running back had a good catch-and-run to make some defenders miss for a first down. Hurts took a bad sack (when he should’ve been able to throw it away) and the Eagles took their final timeout with 0:31 on the clock. A false start called on Goedert but prompted by Hurts knocked the Birds back to 2nd-and-21. A short completion to Goedert only gained five yards … and set up the Eagles to spike the ball with four seconds remaining. Jake Elliott’s 38-yard field goal was good. Could’ve been much worse than being down by two points at the half … but also could’ve been a lot better if not for self-inflicted wounds. EAGLES 17, PACKERS 19.

THIRD QUARTER

• Another win for A.J. against Jaire Alexander: Brown got a step on the Packers CB for a 67-yard catch-and-run touchdown. Credit to Hurts for putting the ball right on the WR’s hands for the over-the-shoulder grab. Perfect start to the second half. EAGLES 24, PACKERS 19.

• The Packers ran a flea flicker that resulted in an incompletion, great discipline to not fall for trick play. Darius Slay (!) forced a fumble on a Jacobs run but the Packers were very lucky to recover the ball. Annoying. Baun got called for a BS roughing the passer penalty (what else was he supposed to do, not hit the QB as he was throwing?) and then Dean got beat in coverage after misdiagnosing the play to allow the Packers to move into the red zone. Dean in coverage was an obvious issue in training camp. Maddox got called for DPI to set up 1st-and-goal from the 2-yard line. Watson then beat Maddox on a quick slant for another Packers touchdown. Not a good night for Maddox. EAGLES 24, PACKERS 26.

• Hurts threw a ball right at Rashan Gary for some reason for a deflection. Facing 3rd-and-8, Gary sacked hurts with Lane Johnson not getting out of his stance in time. The Eagles’ offensive line wanted a penalty for Gary being in the neutral zone but did not get one. Pretty bad three-and-out. First punt of the game (and season) for Braden Mann.

• Love missed a throw and Doubs dropped a pass to set up third down. Facing 3rd-and-15, Dean absolutely blew up a screen to force an incompletion. Dean’s clearly pretty good playing downhill. Big stop by the defense, nice of them to finally force a punt.

• The Eagles took over at their own 32-yard line after much delay in sorting through offsetting special teams penalties (the Eagles’ side being another whack call). Despite looking faster than ever in training camp, Hurts looked slow once again on a read option keeper to run for no gain. Facing 4th-and-2, Hurts avoided an intentional grounding call with the refs ruling his pass was impacted by getting hit. Two straight three-and-outs.

• Reed Blankenship, who picked off Aaron Rodgers as an undrafted rookie the last time the Eagles played the Packers in 2022, read Love and made a great diving catch for an interception. Huge takeaway by a player who is good!

• The Eagles took over at the Packers’ 24-yard line. A few plays later, Barkley forced his way into the end zone for his third touchdown of the night! EAGLES 31, PACKERS 26.

• Mitchell helped to break up a pass that Love threw behind his receiver. The Packers went back to the running game to move into field goal range. Baun, flying around, made a pair of good tackles for no gain to get the Packers to third down. Facing 3rd-and-10, Love’s pass was off-target. The Packers’ 43-yard field goal attempt was … no good! Single doink off the right upright. No surprise Green Bay’s sketchy kicker situation turned out to bite them at some point.
• Barkley broke off a 34-yard run to run out the clock on the third quarter.

FOURTH QUARTER

• Hurts threw to a wide open Grant Calcaterra for a first down. Then Hurts had a really terrible sequence to result in Philly’s third turnover:

• Facing 3rd-and-5, Love found a wide open Reed for a completion into Eagles territory with a coverage miscue from Mitchell. The Packers moved into the red zone. Facing another 3rd-and-5, Love’s throw was too high with Moro Ojomo hitting the QB while he was throwing. The Packers settled for a 26-yard field goal. Eagles benefit from Matt LaFleur’s cowardice. EAGLES 31, PACKERS 29.

• The Eagles got a free first down from a bad defensive holding call on Alexander (didn’t look like there was much to it). Sirianni called a timeout with Hurts not ready to snap the ball before the play clock hit zero. Hurts took off running and slipped short of the marker when he had room to get beyond it. A first down completion to Gainwell was wiped out by Lane Johnson being called for lining up too far off the ball, which NFL officials are clearly obsessed with enforcing early this season. Hurts nearly threw yet another interception, this time to Alexander. Facing 3rd-and-7, Hurts took off running and was stopped short but another defensive holding penalty got the Eagles another first down. Hurts took off running and powered through contact (weight room!) to get beyond the marker, pretty impressive finish. Hurts hit a crossing DeVonta and the WR broke through some arm tackles to run for a key first down. The Packers took their first timeout with 2:15 left. After a Barkley run, the Packers took their second timeout with 2:10 left. Hurts completed another pass to DeVonta for a first down at the 6-yard line with 2:00 remaining. Kudos to Sirianni and Moore for being aggressive in that spot. After another Barkley run, the Packers called their final timeout at 1:57. Another Barkley run got the Eagles to the 1-yard line. The Eagles let the clock run and took their first timeout at 1:12. Facing 3rd-and-goal, the Eagles lined up for the Brotherly Shove … but Hurts couldn’t handle the snap from Jurgens … and the Eagles were lucky that Barkley was able to jump on the ball for the recovery. The Eagles called their second timeout at 0:30. Elliott came in for the field goal … and made the 21-yard chip shot. Should’ve been capped off by a TD but, overall, a strong 16-play, 67-yard drive that took 7:25 off the clock to make it a five-point game. EAGLES 34, PACKERS 29.
• The Packers’ kick returner unwisely decided to return the ball and waste valuable time to only get to their own 16-yard line. Love to Reed along the left sideline allowed the Packers to quickly get to their own 49-yard line. Love somehow avoided a sack and pitched the ball to Jacobs to pick up four yards and prevent the clock from running out. Love then had to be helped off the field … and the Packers’ center also got hurt. Malik Willis entered the game and tried to set up a closer Hail Mary but failed to complete his first pass. Willis’ final

FINAL SCORE: EAGLES WIN, 34 to 29

LINEUP NOTES

• Braden Mann, not Jake Elliott, handled the Eagles’ opening kickoff.
• Quinyon Mitchell got the start at outside cornerback, as expected. Avonte Maddox was first up at nickel cornerback, which wasn’t a given. There was thought that Mitchell might move inside with Kelee Ringo coming in on the outside.
• Cooper DeJean saw some snaps in dime as early as the Eagles’ first drive.

INJURY UPDATES

• C.J. Gardner-Johnson spent some time in the medical tent early in the second quarter but did not miss snaps. CJGJ then suffered a hand injury late in the third quarter. He missed a play before returning.
• Saquon Barkley seemed to get banged up late in the second quarter, leading way to Kenny Gainwell taking over in the two-minute situation. Barkley remained in the game to start the third quarter.
• A.J. Brown missed a play after taking a big shot on a run play midway in the fourth quarter.
• Landon Dickerson was seen holding his arm late in the fourth quarter but stayed in the game.