Roob's Observations after Eagles withstand furious Bills rally

The Eagles improved to 11-5 with a 13-12 win over the Bills

By Reuben Frank • Published December 28, 2025

You’re not going to win a lot of games when you only have 17 net yards in the second half. But when you have this defense? You can do practically anything.

The Eagles withstood a furious Bills rally Sunday in Orchard Park but hung on for a 13-12 heart-stopping win that kept alive their hopes to improve from the three seed to the two seed.

Wow. What a game.

The Eagles improved to 11-5 in a game that wasn’t decided until Josh Allen threw incomplete to Khalil Shakir on a potential game-winning two-point conversion with five seconds left.

This was another defensive masterpiece for Vic Fangio’s group. The offense? We’ll get into that later. It wasn’t pretty.

Here’s our 10 Observations from a win over a team that was 26-2 in its last 28 home games.

1. They didn’t get the shutout, but just to put the defense’s performance in context, the Bills are third in the NFL with 29 points per game, and the Eagles held them to a season-low 12 points, their fewest at home since the last day of the 2022 season and a 27-10 loss to the Bengals. This was a monster game for everyone on defense but in particular the Eagles’ rejuvenated pass rush was just huge. It’s tough to pressure the quarterback on a wet field, but the Eagles sacked Josh Allen five times and they were all from the d-line – Jalyx Hunt had two and Moro Ojomo, Jaelan Phillips and Jalen Carter had one each. Allen was under pressure just about every time he dropped back and other than the 50-yarder to Brandin Cooks he never had time to get the ball down the field. The d-line had five sacks in the Eagles’ first seven games but 17 in the last nine. They’re rushing as a group and playing off each other really well. And they don’t have any one guy with a ton of sacks, but they have seven guys with at least three. And when they need pressure, they’re getting it. This is the heart of the football team right now.

2. The Eagles’ second half offense was a nightmare. After scoring 13 points and netting 174 yards in the first half, they were blanked and netted 17 yards in the second half ... Seventeen yards? This is what their 2nd-half drives looked like: 13 yards punt, no yards punt, two yards punt, four yards punt, minus two yards punt. They had terrible field position that entire half, starting their drives at their own 22, 16, 1, 20 and 30 and they just never got anything going. One first down in the half. No completed passes. Yeah, the conditions were awful, but they were awful also for the Bills, and they scored 12 points and netted 140 yards after halftime. The Eagles were tentative after halftime, and they looked like they were playing not to lose and just waiting for the clock to run down to all 0's. It seemed like they were content to go three-and-out, punt the ball to the Bills and put the game in the hands of the defense. It worked. But it’s not going to work very often.

3. How about that Dallas Goedert? He just keeps getting into the end zone. His 1st-quarter TD catch on a 2nd-and-goal from the 1 was his 11th this year and that’s tied for 5th-most in franchise history, behind T.O. (14 in 2004), Tommy McDonald (13 in 1960 and 1961) and Mike Quick (13 in 1983). That’s elite company. It’s also tied for 17th-most in NFL history by a tight end. Goedert had 15 touchdowns in 62 games from 2020 through 2024, and he’s got 11 in 14 games since Week 3. Of those 11 TDs, 10 have come in the red zone. Only Davante Adams, with 12, has more red-zone TDs this year than Goedert. His 10 red-zone TD catches are the most ever by an Eagle Cris Carter in 1989 and Calvin Williams in 1993 each had nine. Amazing.

4. They weren’t long field goals, but just seeing Jake Elliott get the ball through the uprights twice in terrible conditions was encouraging. He’s been so bad lately that making 28- and 47-yarders in the rain and wind was big. Elliott had missed seven field goals in the Eagles’ last nine games, something no other Eagles kicker had done in 38 years – since Paul McFadden in 1987. So going 2-for-2 has to help his confidence.

5. Let’s talk about Jalyx Hunt. He is beasting out there lately, and I think he’s got a 15-sack season in him. He’s that good. Hunt had two sacks the first 12 games and with two Sunday now has 4 ½ in his last four games for a team-high 6 ½ sacks with one game left. You’d like to see a little more consistency, but when he’s going well he’s unstoppable. Hunt’s 19-yard sack of Allen on a 3rd-and-8 with the Bills at the Eagles’ 27 was a masterpiece of discipline and pursuit. That knocked the Bills out of field goal range and forced a punt, which in a one-point game is enormous. There were times earlier this year where you got the sense Hunt was underachieving. Not lately.

6. Wow, was it good to get Jalen Carter back. He was all over the field Sunday in his first game in a month. Carter blocked a PAT and how enormous is that in a one-point win? If he doesn’t block that PAT, it’s a 13-13 game and the Bills are kicking a PAT on the last play of the game instead of going for two. Carter also had his third sack, a tackle for loss, a pass knockdown and a quarterback hit. Their other interior linemen played lights out while Carter was out, but he’s just such a playmaker when he’s healthy and available and we all saw Sunday in Orchard Park just how much of a difference maker he is. They don’t win this game without Carter.

7. What an remarkable goal-line stand by the Eagles’ defense late in the the third quarter. The Bills had a 1st-and-goal at the 7 after a couple terrible calls and non-calls on the Eagles. First down, Adoree Jackson had great coverage on Gabe Davis on a short incomplete pass, second down Marcus Epps stopped Khalil Shakir for five yards after a short pass, third down Epps stuffed James Cook for a loss of one, setting up 4th-and-goal on the 3. Josh Allen scrambled around, eluded pressure, danced around some more, then tried to will himself into the end zone. But Zack Baun got enough of him to get him down about six inches short of the goal line. That was just tremendous team defense. Smart, tough, physical, relentless. Man, this defense is fun to watch.

8. Last three games, the Eagles have allowed 30 points. Think about that for a moment. The Bills average 29 on their own. There have only been two other three-game spans in the last 20 years where the Eagles have allowed 30 or few points. First three games of 2016 – which were the first three games of Doug Pederson’s coaching career and the first three starts of Carson Wentz’s career - they allowed 27, and the last three weeks of 2008 they allowed 26. If the offense can just play OK, this team is going to be very tough to beat.

9. Maybe my favorite play in this game was Jihaad Campbell’s madcap hustle down the field to pounce on Josh Allen’s fumble before O’Cyrus Torrence could get there. Now, Torrence is a 345-pound guard, but he also had a pretty big head start. He and Campbell got to the ball around the same time, but Campbell – getting the start in place of injured Nakobe Dean – just out-muscled him for the ball. Including Jaelan Phillips’ six-yard strip sack, that was a net loss of 26 yards on one play for the Bills. The Bills had some momentum after Allen’s 50-yard pass to Brandin Cooks down to the Eagles’ 30 two players earlier, and the Eagles snagged the momentum right back, thanks to Phillips and Campbell. That gave the Eagles a short field and set up Jalen Hurts’ TD pass to Dallas Goedert, the Eagles’ only touchdown of the game.

10. Jalen Hurts’ stats were a mess and nobody wants to go 0-for-8 in a half, but one thing Hurts did Sunday – and this was huge – was protect the football. Playing in awful conditions, ball security is paramount, and no interceptions and no fumbles from the quarterback gave the Eagles a chance to win. Josh Allen fumbled twice and lost one and it led to the Eagles’ only touchdown. Hurts didn’t. And the Bills are a team that gets a lot of takeaways – they were ninth with 20 coming into Week 17. Allen put up some pretty big numbers, but Hurts had the biggest number of all: No turnovers.

10A. Obviously, the offense was a disaster in the second half, I get that. But my biggest takeaway from this game is a win over an MVP, a win on the road in a very tough place to win, a win against one of the best teams to play. If this is a final tuneup before the playoffs it’s a damn good one. I don’t care about the score. I don’t care about style points. I don’t care about total yards. Yeah, the offense has to play better, we all know that. But I believe they will. They just won in a building where the Bills don’t lose. Think about 26-2 in their last 28 games. And then factor in the conditions? If you beat the Bills in Orchard Park, that’s a performance to celebrate. It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t pretty. But there’s no way you go into Highmark Stadium and leave with a win and don’t feel great about it.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/roobs-observations-bills-josh-allen-vic-fangio-defense/703311/

I thought Carter had 2? In the first half Allen snapped the ball, stumbled and gave himself up by going down. Carter was the first player to touch him down so isn’t that a sack? There was a similar moment in the game the week before with the Browns (funnily enough against the Bills) where Allen gave himself up right on the goal line and they were deciding between Garrett and another player as to who touched him first.

Anyway… That defense was incredible! The DL took over the game and Coop was really really good (bar the one play where Cooks burned him). Actually though I thought Q was not as good as he has been. He gave up some big plays including that PI (that whilst was soft was one of those where you do see it).

But yeah I mean if the officials could do their job this wouldn’t have even been that close. If they give the AJ PI that’s a TD and it’s probably game over. The PI on Q was certainly soft. And the Smitty catch that was overturned was BS. Oh and then didn’t a Bills receiver have a catch that clearly wasn’t a catch but they gave it? The officials were horrible.

Vic definitely needs to look at his late game play calling! This defense late in games when we need them to stand up doesn’t stand up. Prevent defense does nothing but prevent your own team from stopping the opposition.

And finally… Roob thinks Hunt can get a 15.5 sack season? What his he talking about? Sure Hunt was really good on Sunday. Sure he’s shown real flashes during his young career. But let’s see him get double digits first please! That’s a huge huge jump from 6.5 sacks right now to 15.5.