For the Eagles in 2025, the split was impossible to miss: one side of the ball spent too many weeks spinning its wheels, while the other kept landing haymakers.
Philadelphia’s offense never really found a clean rhythm, hampered by futile playcalling, a lackluster offensive scheme, and the underlying turmoil stirred by a certain star wideout turned New England Patriot. The defense, though, kept showing up with the kind of force that can change a season in a hurry.
Four times it held an opponent to 12 points or fewer, and the most eye-catching result came in Week 15, when the Raiders were blanked 31-0 at home. That one came with a caveat - Las Vegas arrived in rough shape offensively - but it was hardly the only time this group looked suffocating.
The clearest proof came in a handful of games against better competition, where the Eagles’ defense didn’t just survive. It took over.
At Green Bay in Week 10, Philadelphia escaped with a 10-7 win, and Moro Ojomo played a huge role in making sure the Packers never got comfortable. He tracked down a critical fourth-and-one late in the game, stopping Green Bay inside its own territory.
Jordan Love was sacked three times and finished with just 176 passing yards, as the Eagles’ secondary erased much of what the Packers wanted to do through the air. Josh Jacobs did reach the end zone once, but even that came with limited impact; Philadelphia held him to 3.5 yards per carry.
The following week at home against Detroit, the Eagles turned the Linc into a dead end for Dan Campbell’s offense. The Lions went for it on fourth down five times and came up empty on every single try.
Philadelphia’s defense kept the pressure on from start to finish, forcing Detroit into just three field goals. Cooper DeJean added an interception in the 16-9 win, another key moment in a night when the Eagles kept the Lions from ever finding a real opening.
Then came Week 17 in Buffalo, where the weather wasn’t the only thing making life miserable for the Bills. Philadelphia came after Josh Allen early and often, and Jalyx Hunt delivered a pair of sacks as part of the punishment.
Buffalo went scoreless for nearly 57 minutes of regulation before Allen finally scrambled up the middle with five seconds left to cut the margin to one. The Bills then tried to steal it with a 2-point conversion pass from Allen to Khalil Shakir, but it fell short, and the Eagles walked out of upstate New York with another low-scoring, grind-it-out win.
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Zach Berman of The Athletic sees Barkleys floor next season landing around 1,252 rushing yards, which would still qualify as a strong year and one of the better marks of his career. The catch is that the number depends on a few moving parts, from how much the scheme shifts toward wide-zone and under-center runs to how much work backup Tank Bigsby takes on, so the range of outcomes may be wider than the projection suggests. [Read more 🡒]