The Philadelphia Eagles are on the road for the second week in a row. After defeating the Washington Commanders in Maryland last Saturday, now they’re in Orchard Park, New York to take on the Buffalo Bills. The stakes of this game might not actually be that big since the Eagles are likely to be the […]
The Philadelphia Eagles are on the road for the second week in a row. After defeating the Washington Commanders in Maryland last Saturday, now they’re in Orchard Park, New York to take on the Buffalo Bills.
The stakes of this game might not actually be that big since the Eagles are likely to be the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoff picture. But a win over the Bills keeps them alive for the No. 2 seed at least a little longer. Not to mention it could also be a nice confidence boost in what could conceivably be a preview of Super Bowl LX. It’ll be interesting to see if the Eagles can win a third straight game or if they’ll go back to struggling.
Follow along here for live score updates, highlights, injury news, analysis, and more before this article ultimately turns into our game recap. The best place to actually discuss the game as it happens is still in our open threads for each quarter, the first of which you can find here.
FIRST QUARTER
- The Bills won the coin toss and deferred to put the Eagles on offense first. The Eagles got called for illegal formation on the opening kickoff return, which made them start at their own 28-yard line. Good to see them looking sharp from the jump! Jalen Hurts slightly overthrew Jahan Dotson downfield on the first play from scrimmage. Facing 3rd-and-10, Hurts completed a pass to A.J. Brown just shy of the marker. Three-and-out. Zero rushing attempts despite the Bills being one of the NFL’s worst run defenses.
- The Bills took over at their own 10-yard line after a Braden Mann bounced for a total of 54 yards. Josh Allen hit Dawson Knox over the middle for a first down and more. Then James Cook ran for a first down. Facing 3rd-and-4 a little shy of midfield, Zack Baun sacked Allen but the stop was wiped out by a defensive holding penalty on Marcus Epps. Tacky call but Epps shouldn’t have given the ref any reason to throw that flag. Facing 3rd-and-7, a stunting Jalyx Hunt got to Allen for a sack! Nice effort to buckle down and force a punt after giving Buffalo a free first down.
- The Eagles took over at their own 13-yard line. Saquon Barkley took his first carry for three yards. His second carry resulted in a first down. Facing 3rd-and-8 after Dallas Goedert couldn’t catch a ball away from his body in the heavy rain, Nick Sirianni brought the coward’s draw with Will Shipley back! How exciting to surrender. Shipley picked up four yards and the Eagles punted the ball. Disgusting lack of ambition.
- The Bills took over at their own 26-yard line. Brandin Cooks got wide open downfield with Epps and Cooper DeJean trailing for a 50-yard completion. Then Allen scrambled and the ball popped out with Jaelan Phillips in his face for a Jihaad Campbell recovery (really good effort by the rookie to get possession)! There was some thought it was a pass and not a fumble … but the replay confirmed the call!
- The Eagles took over at the plus 45-yard line. Hurts hit Darius Cooper (!) for a short gain and then Brown for a 27-yard gain into the red zone. Facing 3rd-and-1 after Hurts hit Brown on a bubble screen, Barkley took a carry up the gut for a first down at the 2-yard line. Two plays later, Hurts went under-center play-action and found an open Goedert in the end zone. Strong 7-play, 45-yard touchdown drive to take advantage of good field position after the takeaway. EAGLES 7, BILLS 0.
- The Bills took over at their own 20-yard line after Jake Elliott’s kickoff bounced in the landing zone and into the end zone.
SECOND QUARTER
- Facing 3rd-and-3, Allen took off running for a 17-yard gain. Good effort by Jalyx Hunt to make the shoestring tackle to prevent even more damage. The Bills picked up another first down with a Cook run but the Bills got called for holding (Dion Dawkins on Jalyx Hunt) to knock their offense back. Allen made up for it with a first down completion over the middle to Josh Palmer. Quinyon Mitchell was beat downfield by Brandin Cooks but Allen threw to the wide receiver’s wrong shoulder for an incompletion. Facing 3rd-and-8, Allen broke out of a Zack Baun sack and threw to Palmer for a would-be first down but Adoree’ Jackson helped to break it up. Jaelan Phillips was injured after the third down stop.
- A Bills player tripped over Sydney Brown and into Britain Covey for a 15-yard fair catch inference penalty to have the Eagles take over at their own 23-yard line. Covey took a big hit to the leg and was hurt on the play. Hurts threw too short of an open DeVonta Smith to bring up third down. Facing 3rd-and-4, Sirianni called a timeout to talk over the third down play. Facing 3rd-and-4 for real, Hurts ripped a pass to DeVonta in a tight window for a first down. Great throw. Barkley took a carry for a loss and got banged up. Facing 3rd-and-10, Hurts danced away from pressure and hit Brown for a first down. Wowza. Another really good third down throw. The Eagles went with a Will Shipley run (why not Tank Bigbsy?!) for a loss. Then Hurts was pressured into a throwaway. Facing 3rd-and-12, Hurts took off running and took a shot along the sideline but there no was flag for that hit. How?! Happened right in front of the refs. There was a flag on the Bills for defensive holding to give the Eagles a first down. Brown dropped a one-handed catch attempt on a dime by Hurts … Brown couldn’t get his second hand on the ball due to pass interference that wasn’t called. Facing 3rd-and-9, Hurts checked down to Goedert. The Eagles brought Jake Elliott in for the 47-yard field goal attempt … and Elliott drilled it. Nice bounce back kick to take a two-possession lead. Bills fortunate they got away with some big penalties on that drive. EAGLES 10, BILLS 0.
- The Bills took over at their own 32-yard line with 4:57 on the clock. Epps flew in for a big tackle where it looked like Cook originally fumbled for a DeJean recovery but it was ruled that his forearm was down. Jalen Carter destroyed the Bills’ right guard to put a big hit on Allen for a sack. Facing 3rd-and-19, Reed Blankenship put a big hit on the checkdown option to bring up a Bills punt. Bunch of heat-seeking missles out there! Great stand by Vic Fangio’s defense. Three plays, -2 yards, punt.
- The Eagles took over at their own 29-yard line with 2:49 on the clock. They picked up a first down into Bills territory with two Barkley runs to reach the two-minute warning at 1:58. Hurts got hit as he threw but still managed to complete a pass to Brown for another first down. Hurts hit DeVonta for another first down to the 15-yard line. The Eagles called their second timeout with 0:23 left. The Bills then took their first timeout with the play clock running down on the Eagles. Facing 3rd-and-8, the Eagles went with a bubble screen to Goedert instead of trying to throw into the end zone. This end of second quarter drive was better than a lot of Sirianni’s give up attempts but still would’ve liked a better effort of getting into the end zone at the end. Elliott made the 28-yard field goal attempt to cap off a 10-play, 61-yard drive that took 2:41 off the clock. EAGLES 13, BILLS 0.
- Sydney Brown got flagged in off-setting unnecessary roughness penalties as the Bills took over at their own 25-yard line and Allen took a knee to end the first half.
THIRD QUARTER
- Updates to come …
FOURTH QUARTER
- Updates to come …
EAGLES LINEUP NOTES
- Will Shipley was on kickoff return duty despite his struggles in Week 16.
EAGLES INJURY NEWS
- Jaelan Phillips got banged up early in the second quarter. He limped off the field and into the medical tent. Phillips exited the tent with his helmet in hand. He returned to the game.
- Britain Covey got banged up early in the second quarter. He returned to the game in time for the Eagles’ next punt return.
- Saquon Barkley got banged up midway through the second quarter. He returned to the field on the same drive.
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