It was Jalen Hurts versus Drew Lock in a flexed Monday Night Football affair. The winner was not one of the MVP candidates.
Lock and the Seattle Seahawks stunned the Philadelphia Eagles 20-17 on Monday Night Football, making the NFC playing picture all the more chaotic.
Philadelphia held a slim 10-3 lead at halftime with not much energy buzzing between either side. It then went up 17-10 in the fourth quarter, but Lock and Co. had the final say.
Lock led a 10-play, 92-yard game-winning drive in the final minutes, ending in a 29-yard touchdown to rookie Jaxon Smith Njigba.
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The Eagles had 28 seconds to get into field goal range and force overtime, but Hurts threw his second pick of the game, again to Julian Love, who brought it down in wide-receiver toe-tap fashion.
NFL
With the result, the Eagles fell to 10-4 with three straight losses while the Seahawks stayed afloat in the playoff race at 7-7. Let's analyze the game further with three takeaways:
Drew Lock outshines Jalen Hurts under the lights
That's not a header you'd expect to see after this matchup. Lock said after the game he was ready to start even though Seattle never announced its starter after Geno Smith's late activation. Lock remained the guy after starting last time out versus the San Francisco 49ers and used a late surge to outduel his MVP-candidate opponent.
Lock completed 22 of 33 passes for 208 yards, one touchdown and no picks while Hurts completed 17 of 31 passes for 143 yards, no touchdowns and two picks. Hurts also rushed for 82 yards on 13 attempts for two goal-line scores, including the infamous "tush push."
DK Metcalf had been held quiet until the end, where he finished with five catches for 78 yards. A.J. Brown, his matchup that was highly touted throughout the week, managed just five catches on eight targets for 56 yards.
But Lock, who had not started a game prior to last week since 2021, absolutely deserved this moment for staying ready and not taking anything lightly.
Eagles flying backwards at the wrong time
It's not fully panic time just yet for Philadelphia, but this result was just the latest in a series of tough goes. Perhaps the Eagles had been lucky to pull off some late wins of their own earlier in the season when they didn't play so well.
Now they've played three straight NFC playoff-contending teams, losing blowouts to the top two in San Francisco and Dallas and now dropping this road game (also now 0-8 versus Pete Carroll) in Seattle.
But the Eagles just need to win out and stay in the race for both the division and No. 1 seed. They play the New York Giants twice and host the Arizona Cardinals between those fixtures. On paper, they'll be favored in all three. But they need to right the ship fast to fix up before the playoffs.
How NFC playoff picture changes
In terms of the No. 1 seed in the NFC, the 49ers now have the chance to clinch it next week depending on certain results. They'd need these four to happen:
- Win vs. Ravens
- Eagles’ loss vs. Giants
- Cowboys’ loss vs. Dolphins
- Lions’ loss vs. Vikings
The Eagles, should they win out, would need the 49ers to now lose two of their next three games (Baltimore, Washington, Los Angeles Rams) to reclaim the top seed. They can also win the division over Dallas if they win out.
Seattle currently is in the wild card race. Despite the win, the Seahawks are still on the outside looking in with the Rams above them at 7-7, owning the head-to-head tiebreaker. The New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings are also 7-7, not to mention the 6-8 Atlanta Falcons and Green Bay Packers.
But Seattle now has Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Arizona up next. How it fares along with its competitors will determine who sneaks in, but winning this one against Philadelphia is a significant boost.
