It was a lot harder than it should have been. It was way more stressful than it needed to be. It was ugly at times, frustrating at times, bizarre at times. In the end, the better team won. The Eagles are onto the conference semifinal round after beating the Packers 22-10 in their wild-card-round game at the Linc. Here’s our 10 instant observations after the Eagles’ first home wild-card win since they beat the Giants with Jeff Garcia in 2006. Yep, 18 years ago. 1. It was the toughest draw any NFC No. 2 seed has ever had. Because up through 2019, the No. 2 seed had a 1st-round bye and since the No. 2 seed they’ve faced the 8-8 Bears in 2020, 9-8 Eagles in 2021, 9-8 Seahawks in 2022 and 9-8 Packers last year. So getting an 11-win Packers team wasn’t ideal, but you never heard them complain about it. They embraced the challenge head on and sent the Packers back to Wisconsin without any doubt who the better team was. This is an Eagles team that has been up for every challenge it’s faced this year, and Sunday was no different. They bounced back from the Saquon drop and loss to the Falcons in the home opener with a win in New Orleans, they bounced back from a blowout Week 4 loss in Tampa with a 10-game winning streak, they bounced back from losing Jalen Hurts to beat the Cowboys and Giants with backup quarterbacks and they bounced back from a nightmare fourth quarter in Washington to win their last two games. This is an incredibly talented team, and Howie Roseman deserves credit for that, but they’re also an incredibly resilient team, and that’s because of Nick Sirianni and the confidence he’s infused in his players, the work ethic he demands of them and the focus he requires of them. Don’t look ahead, don’t look back, focus only on the moment, and the formula works wonders. The Eagles are now 13-1 since the bye week, and they haven’t lost with Jalen Hurts at quarterback in 3 ½ months. They’re rolling and it’s going to take one hell of an effort by a very good team to stop them. 2. This was a monster defensive effort against a dangerous offense that averaged 27 points per game during the regular season and was top-5 in yards, points and rushing yards per game. The Eagles held the Packers to 10 points and 262 yards until that meaningless final drive over the last few minutes and although Josh Jacobs finished with 81 yards, the vaunted Packers rushing attack never really got going. Darius Slay, Quinyon Mitchell and Zack Baun intercepted a quarterback who hadn’t been picked off in two months, Nolan Smith picked up two sacks against a quarterback who was only sacked 14 times all year and Vic Fangio’s group essentially did what it’s been doing since the bye week. Did not let an opposing offense do what it wanted to do. With the offense sputtering most of the game, the defense had to come up huge and they did. They carried this team to a crucial win. Youngest defense in the league. And the best. 3. Through seven series, the Eagles had 29 net passing yards, and Jalen Hurts looked absolutely lost. The 11-yard touchdown to Jahan Dotson on the third play of the game was sweet, but the next six drives netted 18 net passing yards, and Hurts was missing open receivers, taking needless sacks, holding onto the ball too long, jittering around the pocket. With Hurts unable to extend any drives, the offense looked lifeless. Four drives from the start of the second quarter through early in the third netted nine yards. Then I don’t know how but he just woke up long enough to put together a clutch TD drive. Twenty-eight yards to DeVonta. Nine yards to DeVonta. Then the 24-yard touchdown to Dallas Goedert and just like that he was back and the Eagles were up 16-3. Should have been 17-3 but Jake Elliott missed another PAT. I don’t know what was going on with Hurts early, if it was just rust from the layoff or something else, but he’s just got to be better, and the passing offense has to be better. Way better. The positives: As shaky as he was, Hurts didn’t turn the ball over, didn’t make any mistakes. No fumbles or interceptions. Didn’t do anything to hurt the team. And he showed a lot of resilience bouncing back with that 3rd-quarter touchdown drive. And that final passer rating of 111.4 is pretty good. But he threw for just 131 yards, and the bottom line is Hurts has to be better and the passing game has to be better if the Eagles are going to keep winning. 4. Speaking of Goedert. Wow. What a difference getting him back. He only played in nine regular-season games this year, but when he’s healthy I still believe he’s a top-5 tight end in the NFL, and he showed why Sunday. That 24-yard touchdown was brilliant, as he stiff-armed Packers corner Carrington Valentine for about 20 yards down the left sideline and into the end zone. Just a total destruction of a cornerback by a tight end. He’s such a physical player and not just blocking on the line of scrimmage but with the ball in his hands as well. Goedert finished with 4-for-47, and the four catches gave him 39 in the postseason, one more than Chad Lewis for the most in Eagles history. Dude is a beast. 5. Saquon Barkley didn’t get rolling until the final minutes when he closed things out with a 17-yard run that should have been about a 35-yard run, but he runs so tough and so hard and even when he’s not busting a bunch of big gains he has such a big impact on the game. I thought Kellen Moore was a little slow to dial him up in the first half – he only had three carries on the Eagles’ last 17 plays before halftime. But Barkley finished with 25 carries for 119 yards against the NFL’s No. 3 run defense. And he helped the Eagles control this game on a day where not much on offense was working. And that’s the true definition of a star. 6. You knew it was most likely a serious injury when Nakobe Dean didn’t even react as he was being helped off the field by a couple trainers and his closest friend on the team, Zack Baun, came over and shared some words of encouragement, and Dean didn’t even react. Dean got hurt Sunday not surprisingly making a three-yard tackle for loss on Tucker Kraft midway through the second quarter, and the Eagles quickly ruled him out for the rest of the game. Nothing official from the Eagles yet but Dean was seen leaving the locker room on crutches with a brace on his knee. What a loss. Dean has been so active, so productive, so physical, so consistent this year. His improvement from deep backup as a rookie to injured almost all of last year to Pro Bowl caliber linebacker play this year has been spectacular. One of the most under-rated linebackers in the NFL and definitely one of the most improved players on the team, along with college teammate Nolan Smith. Oren Burks is a smart, tough veteran who’ll empty the tank playing in place of Dean – you saw how physical he is when he forced that fumble on the opening kickoff – but he’s no Nakobe. If Dean is out for the rest of the postseason, that’s a huge blow for the NFL’s No. 1 defense. 7. Jordan Love had thrown 173 consecutive passes without an interception, and the Eagles had just two interceptions in their last nine playoff games. Two streaks that truly went by the wayside Sunday. This was the first time since the conference semifinal win over the Bears at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2001 that the Eagles picked off three passes in a playoff game. That was Rashard Cook, Carlos Emmons and Damon Moore, and it was during Moore’s return that Hugh Douglas buried Jim Miller, effectively ending his career. (“I told him don’t move. He moved. The rest is history.”) That was also 24 years ago. So to see the Eagles pick off a quarterback who rarely throws them was huge. Was great to see Darius Slay finally get an interception after 21 straight games without one. He’s had a really good year and people don’t realize it because he didn’t have any picks. Zack Baun could have had a pick on one play and then got one on the next play. What a playmaker. And Quinyon Mitchell, he becomes the first Eagles 1st-round pick with an interception since Mike Patterson in 2008. Great stuff. The Eagles don’t intercept a ton of passes – this was the first time in 50 games they picked off three in any game. But those are winning plays. The Eagles needed every one of them. 8. Nolan Smith has become such a kick-ass pass rusher, and he is such a fun player to watch. This is a kid who barely made an impact as a rookie and wow, look at him now. Two more sacks on top of 6 ½ during the regular season – all after the bye – and he almost had a third, and he just plays so hard all the time. He’s just relentless both as a pass rusher and against the run. Which you just don’t see from a guy who’s 6-2, maybe 240. Jordan Love does not take many sacks. Only 14 all year, 2nd-fewest among all starting quarterbacks. But Smith is quickly developing into an elite pass rusher and in a post-Brandon Graham world that’s something the Eagles really needed. 9. It was curious to see the Eagles pad up for their Wednesday practice at the Linc. We’re now 19 weeks into the season and this team has been going hard since training camp began in late July. And their bye was in Week 5 so they haven’t had a break in nearly four months. But on a very cold and windy day, Nick Sirianni wasn’t about to give them a light day or bring them to their indoor bubble. And here we are. Nick wanted his team to go out and practice in difficult conditions on a miserable day to get them into a playoff mindset, and they sure responded. And I think this is something Sirianni is really good at. Understanding what his team needs. Understanding when to work them to the bone. When to turn a full practice into a walkthrough. When to make a practice longer or tougher. He’s got such a keen sense of what his players need, and people are always asking what Nick really does, but understanding how to approach the week and the best way to get his players prepared for kickoff is a huge part of being a coach, and Nick is terrific at it. 10. Maybe at some point in NFL history there was a guy who was a backup and a special teamer for four years and never really made an impact who went to a new team and was moved to a new position and in his first year made 1st-team all-pro playing for the best defense in the NFL. Maybe. I doubt it. Zack Baun is one of the wildest stories I’ve ever seen. The impact he’s made on this defense and this team is immeasurable, and once again Sunday he was all over the field – seven tackles, an interception, a pass deflection and even a special teams tackle. Baun on Friday raced out of the locker room as soon as it opened to the media because he’s such a team guy he just didn’t want to talk about making all-pro two days before a playoff game. He’s a special person and a special player and I keep saying this but Howie has to get him signed. Has to. Subscribe to Eagle Eye anywhere you get your podcasts: Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Simplecast | RSS | Watch on YouTube