Roob's Observations as Eagles find a way to win at Lambeau Field

By Reuben Frank • Published November 10, 2025

When the Eagles were winning all those games last year on their way to a Super Bowl championship, every time they had to have a play, somebody made a play. That’s what Monday night felt like.

When the Eagles desperately needed a huge play on offense, Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith made huge plays. When they desperately needed a huge play on defense, Jaelan Phillips and Reed Blankenship combined to make a huge play.

Lambeau Field is not an easy place to play, but the Eagles went into Green Bay Monday night and found a way to beat the Packers 10-7 and improve to 7-2. That’s three straight wins since the losses to the Broncos and Giants.

Whew.

1. Running backs aren’t supposed to be able to do this. But Saquon Barkley isn’t a normal human being. We should all know that by now. The Eagles desperately needed something big to happen up 3-0 with a 3rd-and-7 on their own 23-yard-line 3 ½ minutes into the fourth quarter. The offense looked punchless and Jalen Hurts had been shaky all night. Third down deep in your own end? Play of the game. Hurts dropps back, looks right, nothing there. Looks left, and Barkley was his outlet. Drops a short pass in the left flat to No. 26, who catches it at the 18 but appears to be cooped up by cornerback Carrington Valentine short of the sticks. This is when Saquon made magic happen. He pulled out a 360 spin move, setting it up with a stutter step, then raced past the 1st-down marker and into open space. Picked up 41 yards before Xavier McKinney, his former Giants teammate, finally brought him down at the Packers’ 36. Kevin Patullo sensed blood and had Hurts go up top to DeVonta Smith one play later with a safety on him, Evan Williams, and that was no contest. Touchdown. The Eagles’ first 45 plays netted 184 yards. Their next two netted 77 and a touchdown. A game like this – scoreless into the third quarter – it’s just a matter of grinding and staying positive and working and trying to figure it out. Patullo did that. Hurts did that. Saquon did that. You’re not going to win a lot of games scoring 10 points, but the Eagles found a way.

2. Just a tremendous performance by the Eagles’ defense holding the Packers to 261 yards and seven points and really making life miserable for Jordan Love with constant pressure from a bunch of different guys. Love looked pedestrian under siege from the Eagles’ pass rush, missing open guys, completing just 20 of 36 passes, throwing for 176 yards with no completions longer than 25 yards. Cooper DeJean made play after play. Jaelan Phillips was all over the place in his first game as an Eagle. Jalyx Hunt had his best game of the year. Zack Baun was his usual all-pro self. Nakobe Dean was incredible. Adoree Jackson was fine in a surprise start. Nolan Smith looked terrific in his first game in a month and a half. Reed Blankenship had his best game of the year. Quinyon Mitchell was his usual outstanding self. Jalen Carter had a monster first half before maybe running out of gas a little in the second half. The Eagles have played the Packers 25 times in Green Bay (or Milwaukee) and held them to seven points or less three times. The thing about this defense is that they’re only going to get better and better. This is the youngest defense in the NFL and once some of these guys get more experience and the newcomers get acclimated, this is going to be an elite defense. I’ve been saying all year this will be a top-5 defense by the time the season is over and I’m not budging from that. Fantastic stuff.

3. Just about the last thing anybody wants to see is Lane Johnson being helped off the field and then carted to a medical area inside Lambeau. This is an all-time Eagles great we’re talking about, the best right tackle in the game, already a legit Hall of Fame candidate in his 13th season. Johnson got hurt on a 2nd-and-3 late in the second quarter when Packers safety Evan Williams flew low into his ankle and Lane is such a warrior you’re always just shocked when he doesn’t pop right back up. And just when you’re wondering if he’ll be back this year, there he is, back on the field when the Eagles got the ball back with just under six minutes left. That Lane showed unbelievable toughness shouldn’t surprise any of us. That’s Lane Johnson. But, man, that was just unbelievably impressive. How many times do you see a guy leave a game on a cart and return to the game? Johnson is about as tough as they come, and hopefully he’s able to keep playing moving forward. What a beast.

4. If Jaelan Phillips can keep playing like this, wow, Howie snagged a real stud. He was terrific in his Eagles debut with six tackles, two quarterback hits, a huge run stop and a fumble recovery in somewhere around 40 snaps. Just all-around solid, intelligent, physical play. I know he played for Vic Fangio in 2023 in Miami, but to see a guy who just got here five days earlier play like this is remarkable. Speaks volumes of the work Phillips did since Wednesday to learn the defense and prepare for Monday night. Nolan Smith was also very good in his first game in a month and a half, with two QB hits and a sack in limited reps. As Phillips, Smith and B.G. work their way into game shape, this is really going to be a formidable group of edge rushers along with Jalyx Hunt. It’s gone from a weakness to a real strength.

5. No clue what Nick Sirianni was thinking at the end of the game. You don’t go for it with 33 seconds left up three on the Packers’ 35-yard-line. You just don’t. Especially with a low-percentage deep ball into double coverage. If you’re really going to go for it on fourth down in this situation, at least make it a higher-percentage play, like Dallas Goedert or Saquon past the sticks. But that? Come on, Nick. You don’t give the Packers an opportunity to tie the game. You have Braden Mann punt the football inside the 10 and make life a lot more difficult for Jordan Love and the Packers. The difference between the 10 and the 35 is huge with half a minute left. As it turned out, Brandon McManus’s 64-yard field goal attempt as time ran out wasn’t close. But it never should have come down to that.

6. One thing that’s really impressive about this team is its ability to go into hostile environments and beat good teams in their own building, and they’re now 11-5 since 2022 on the road against winning teams, including wins in Kansas City, Tampa and now Green Bay. These are very good teams that play in very difficult stadiums, and Nick Sirianni’s ability to beat good teams on the road is impressive. That 11-5 record since 2022 in road games against winning teams is best in the NFL. If you’re going to be a championship team these are the kinds of games you have to win.

7. I’ve been campaigning for a role for Will Shipley for a while now. He’s a tough and crafty runner and a smooth receiver with great hands and the speed to pick up yards after the catch.  So it was interesting to see Kevin Patullo use Shipley Monday night in a couple key moments. Jalen Hurts threw to Shipley on a critical 3rd-and-10 on the Eagles’ first drive, and he made a sweet move to escape linebacker Quay Walker and pick up 11 yards on the first 3rd-down catch for a first down of his career. In his first extended playing time this year, Shipley caught two passes for 17 yards and ran four times for 17 more. His 34 scrimmage yards are the most yards of his career not counting garbage time in blowout wins. I’ve always been a big fan of change-of-pace backs, going back to Ricky Watters and Charlie Gardner. Makes it tough for defenses when they get a feel for one back and now they have to defend another back with a completely different skill set. Barkley is obviously always going to be the bellcow, but I like mixing it up and I like what Shipley offers.

8. I feel like I start gushing about DeVonta Smith every week, but the dude is just dazzling, and I don’t care what the numbers say he’s one of the top WRs in the NFL as far as I’m concerned. He caught four passes for 69 yards Monday night on a day the Eagles never really got the passing game going, and those aren’t particularly impressive numbers. But you watch him play and he’s just a flat-out stud. Going up and snagging that 36-yarder for the Eagles’ only touchdown was massive, and the thing about DeVonta is that he makes that play every freaking time. He’s just so clutch. Does he ever not make a huge play in a huge moment? I don’t know how he’ll get to a Pro Bowl in a conference with Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Justin Jefferson and Emeka Egbuka, but I’ll take him on my team anytime.

9. The Eagles have quietly gotten much better against the run the last few weeks, and that’s been a big key to the defense’s improvement. Through Week 5, they were 22nd in the league against the run, allowing 127 rushing yards per game and 24th allowing 4.7 per yards per carry. Since then? They’ve held the Vikings, Giants and Packers all under 4.0 yards per carry, and they’re allowing 87 yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry – 13th and 6th-best in the league. The Packers really wanted to establish Josh Jacobs, but he managed only 74 yards on 21 carries and didn’t have a run longer than 11 yards. When you can stop the run like the Eagles have started to, it just makes everything else a lot easier.

10. There’s got to be at least some measure of concern about the offense, which managed a Jake Elliott field goal in the third quarter and that DeVonta touchdown, plus five punts, a fumble and a drive that ended on downs. The running game was back to pedestrian, with Saquon Barkley showing some positive signs early – 6-for-28 in the first quarter – before sputtering the rest of the game – 16-for-32 after the first quarter. You really hoped the 150-yard game against the Giants might spark the rushing offense, but once again there just weren’t any holes there in the second half for Barkley to run through. Jalen Hurts was a middling 15-for-26 for 183 yards with a TD pass and a fumble, A. J. Brown had just 2-for-13 and the Eagles had just 13 first downs – just four rushing. Maybe it was just that kind of game, close to the vest, conservative, don’t turn the ball over. And that is a very good defense and the weather conditions were challenging. But considering the offenses' issues earlier this year, this was definitely concerning. You’re not going to win many games scoring 10 points.

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