January 05, 2025
Kirby Lee/Imagn Images
Saquon Barkley ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns in his Eagles debut and a 34-29 win over the Packers back in Week 1.
The Eagles will be back at Lincoln Financial Field next Sunday, January 12 for a 4:30 p.m. kickoff to begin their playoff run against the Green Bay Packers.
FOX will be the TV broadcaster for the NFL Wild Card matchup.
The Eagles locked down the No. 2 seed in the NFC well ahead of this Sunday's Week 18 regular-season finale against the Giants, but the reserves tacked on one more win anyway, putting the Giants away 20-13 and the Birds at 14-3 overall for the year.
The bulk of the Eagles' starters rested during the game, standing on the sidelines in street clothes while many of the eyes in the Linc were kept on the out-of-town scoreboard to see who that first playoff opponent would be – and with a Commanders win over the Cowboys and a Packers loss to the Bears, the NFC side of the postseason bracket was set with Green Bay as the No.7 seed up against No. 2 seed Philadelphia.
The Eagles and Packers faced one another already, all the way back in Week 1 down in Brazil. Saquon Barkley took off for 109 rushing yards and two touchdowns in his first game as an Eagle, and the Birds took that opener 34-29 to start 1-0.
But that was a long time ago, and players were trying to keep aware of that in the locker room after the Giants game on Sunday, once they knew the Packers were going to be the playoff opponent.
"I feel like it's been a year since we've played them last," center Cam Jurgens said.
And a lot happened in the time since.
The Wild Card Weekend schedule! #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/L08eDmoPdz
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Barkley won the rushing title with 2,005 yards and fell only 100 short of catching Eric Dickerson's all-time single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards, Vic Fangio's defense settled in and broke out into an NFL-best unit after a rocky 2-2 start, and the Eagles on the whole won 12 of their last 13 following an early October bye.
The Packers, meanwhile, stayed competitive with quarterback Jordan Love and their own star running back Josh Jacobs leading the charge, but got stuck third down in the NFC North at 11-6 behind the two juggernauts at the top in the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings (both 14-2 approaching Sunday night).
Still, Green Bay is a team to be respected, especially when there's no more room for error anymore – for the Eagles or anyone in the playoff field.
"It's do or time," Jurgens said.
Both the Eagles and the Packers are also in a spot where their starting quarterbacks, at the least, are a bit banged up.
Jalen Hurts suffered a concussion two weeks ago in a road loss to the Commanders and hasn't practiced since. After Sunday's win over the Giants, head coach Nick Sirianni said Hurts is still in the league's concussion protocol.
Love took a hit to his throwing arm during Green Bay's loss to the Bears at home on Sunday, and exited the game. Postgame, Love said that he lost feeling in his hand on that sequence, that he wasn't immediately 100 percent back from it, but he is confident that he'll be ready to face the Eagles in a week, per The Athletic's Matt Schneidman.
MORE: What we learned about the Eagles' backups in Week 18
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