Sunday’s slate of football ends with one of the biggest games of the week—an NFC showdown between two titans of the conference over the past few years.
Since 2022, the Eagles have been to two Super Bowls, winning one of them. They’ve got a 46-14 record since that time, and they entered this week looking to repeat hteir conference dominance. They held the top seed in the NFC to start the day, though that position is currently held by the Los Angeles Rams, who are now 8-2.
The Lions, over that same timeframe, have won a pair of NFC North titles, made just their second NFC Championship appearance, and won last year’s top seed in the conference. They’re still searching for their first Super Bowl, but a 6-3 start to the season has them in a position to make another playoff run.
This Sunday night showdown will not only have a huge impact on the immediate standings, but this could be a significant tiebreaker down the line between the Lions and Eagles, as they jockey for playoff seedings.
This post will serve as a live-updating article. When the game kicks off at 8:20 p.m. ET, you can start refreshing the page, and game updates will appear approximately after every drive. We’ll have drive-by-drive analysis, the biggest highlights from the game, score updates, and any significant injury news as it comes in. When the game comes to a close, this will turn into our recap story.
See you at 8:20 p.m. ET, and GO LIONS!
First quarter
The Lions won the toss and deferred, giving the ball the Eagles first. Detroit nearly got off the field on a three-and-out, but A.J. Brown caught a 12-yard pass on third-and-10 to move the Eagles near midfield. But Aidan Hutchinson shut down the drive from there. He forced a holding penalty on first down, caused a throw away on second down, and Jalen Hurts couldn’t find anyone open on third down.
But the Lions offense quickly gave the ball back. Three plays into their first drive, defensive tackle Jordan Davis deflected a Jared Goff pass and the ball bounced right into the hands of Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean—given Philly the ball in the red zone immediately.
Detroit’s defense managed to limit the damage, though. Philly managed just 3 yards on three plays and settled for a chip-shot field goal. 3-0 Eagles.
The Lions offense responded with a terrible drive. A Jahmyr Gibbs run for -1 yards was followed by a Jared Goff sack, and a third-down pass at Amon-Ra St. Brown’s feet. But a big punt and a penalty on the Eagles, pushed them back to their own 20-yard line.
Despite a 14-yard pickup by Saquon Barkley on first down, the Eagles offense didn’t go anywhere. Trevor Nowaske came up with a huge third-and-1 stop on Barkley, forcing Philly to punt yet again.
Backed inside their own 20 again, the Lions finally saw some early rhythm on offense. Jameson Willaims earned 9 yards on an end around and another 19 on a catch over the middle. But when Detroit moved over to Philly’s side of the field they stalled. They tried to catch the Eagles off-kilter with a third-and-8 run, but David Montgomery picked up just 2 yards. That left the Lions in a tough spot: from the Eagles’ 40-yard line, go for it on fourth-and-6, punt, or try a 58-yard field goal on a windy night. Detroit made it look like they were going to go for it, but ended up taking a delay of game and punting.
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