Are the Eagles back to their dominant ways heading into the NFC Championship Game? | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss the Philadelphia Eagles dominant 38-7 win over the New York Giants in the Divisional Round on Saturday, and debate if the Eagles will be able to continue their dominant ways against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
Video Transcript
CHARLES ROBINSON: The Eagles beat the living hell out of the Giants, 38 to 7.
FRANK SCHWAB: Ooh wee.
CHARLES ROBINSON: One of those-- I mean, two things about the game that were clear, it reminded you of the Eagles early on where we watched them roll teams up. And we were like, oh man, like that is going to be trouble. That is going to be a problem for a lot of people in the NFC, if this is real.
And then as it carried on, and undefeated record went a long way, we're talking about months, we were just like, no, this is-- it's legit. Hurts is that dude. Everything about this team looks scary, especially once they started to make-- trade deadline, they start to make some defensive additions.
I think the Giants played way over their heads this season. And this is kind of what happens when you get into playoff football. And the Eagles are absolutely hitting their stride.
FRANK SCHWAB: Philly's legit. I mean, we lost track of that. It was weird. And I wrote about this after the game, basically saying there was no buzz about Philly going into the playoffs.
We kind of forgot. This team is 15 and 1 when Jalen Hurts starts. And the one loss was a really, really, really, really bad missed facemask penalty, that I think they win that game against the Commanders if that gets called.
So this Eagles team was the cream of the crop of the NFL throughout the entirety of the season. Now you could argue the 49ers are playing better right now. I'd be fine with that.
But from week one to right now, the Eagles have been the best team in the NFL. Jalen Hurts was awesome. I think that he looked-- did you have any questions about him?
Like, he looks healthy to me. I didn't see any throws where I was like, oh, Hurts' shoulder. No, he looked fine to me from that first, I think his second play of the game, airs it out to DeVonta Smith, just a dime, right on him. DeVonta makes a nice catch.
Any questions about Hurts going forward? I don't think so. Right?
CHARLES ROBINSON: No. I will say this. I mean, it wasn't necessary. So I get it. He was at times during the season the volume offense guy, running and passing like he was a guy who could absolutely strap it up and running, passing, roll up 400 yards.
It wasn't in this game. But again, it wasn't necessary. I think we're going to find out. A truer test is going to be against the 49ers defense, as it would be anyway.
FRANK SCHWAB: Right. They're really good. Yeah, of course, yeah.
CHARLES ROBINSON: I think they're closer to the edition that we expected. Right? That's all that matters to me is that he goes through the injury. And it's like, I thought, all right, OK, we still don't know. Let's see.
He's going to have to get hit. He's going to have to run a few times. Let's see if he still functions in the offense the way that he did early in the season, which put them at their peak level.
And I thought-- again small sample size, but it looked very familiar to me. And I think we're going to see two teams with the Eagles and the 49ers that are playing pretty much as-- you're not going to get much better than this.
There's not some massive injury where it puts a damper on the game. It's going to be best on best. And I'm pretty hyped about that.
FRANK SCHWAB: Yeah. And not enough was made of Dallas Goedert being out for a long time. I mean, he got hurt in that Monday night game they lost to the Commanders.
He makes such a big difference in that offense. He's just a guy who--
CHARLES ROBINSON: That one-handed catch.
FRANK SCHWAB: --Jalen Hurts finds. Really, really sweet. He's just, he is-- he's not as good as AJ Brown or DeVonta Smith, maybe.
But he's really a difference maker in that, when they need it, when Jalen Hurts needs a security blanket guy, or needs somebody near the goal line, Dallas Goedert is a guy he always looks at. And Goedert always comes through. He's a big part of that offense.
And now that he's back and they're full strength there-- Lane Johnson played. He was limping around a little bit. But I thought he played his normal self. Like, I mean, this is-- we're seeing two teams that are pretty much full health, really good teams, just going to go at each other.
I mean, again, both teams are really balanced too. The Eagles defense--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, they're balanced.
FRANK SCHWAB: --probably doesn't get talked about enough. They're really, really good with all those pass rushers they have. San Francisco, obviously, has a great defense. Both offenses are highly functioning.
It's going to be a really fun game. Philly fans will be fired up for that one. I'm really excited about it.
CHARLES ROBINSON: Frank, and they ran the ball. I mean, it was dominant, the way they ran the ball. And it wasn't like it was Jalen Hurts. It was running backs just gouging the living crap out of the Giants.
FRANK SCHWAB: I remember this team ran for, what, 362 against a Packers or whatever? I mean--
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah, what a joke. That's insane.
FRANK SCHWAB: --they beat you in different ways, man. Sirianni, he knows. Like, OK, I need to do this in this game? All right. We'll just run it on you. We can do that.
And that might be their formula against the 49ers. I'm sure we're going to talk briefly real quick about the title games later. But I think it's going to be, hey, we could dictate what we want to do against even a great defense.
We'll see. We'll see if they can. But really, really impressive win by the Eagles.