The Philadelphia Eagles used turnovers and an unstoppable run sport to care for the Washington Commanders, 55-23, and attain their second Tremendous Bowl in three seasons.
The Eagles are the first team in NFL history with seven dashing TDs in a playoff sport for the reason that 1940 Chicago Bears. Philadelphia had 229 yards on the bottom and averaged 6.4 yards per rush.
Listed below are three takeaways from the NFC Championship sport:
Knee-jerk response: Eagles QB Jalen Hurts is simply positive
Regardless of injuring his left knee within the divisional-round win over the Los Angeles Rams, Hurts returned to kind in Sunday’s NFC title sport.
The Eagles signal-caller was 20-of-28 for 246 yards and a TD. Hurts added three extra TDs on the bottom, which tied his previous mark that was set in Tremendous Bowl LVII.
With this one-yard rush early within the fourth quarter, Hurts set the document for essentially the most dashing TDs within the playoffs by a QB in NFL historical past with 9.
As a workforce, the Eagles had eight TDs and an NFL-record seven dashing TDs within the NFC Championship sport. According to StatMuse, the Eagles set the document for essentially the most factors (55) within the NFC title sport, surpassing the Carolina Panthers, who had 49 towards the Arizona Cardinals in 2016.
Hurts and head coach Nick Sirianni turn into the primary QB and coach in franchise historical past to achieve a number of Tremendous Bowls. Whereas he solely averaged 1.6 yards per carry, Hurts reminded us of his expertise and what he’s able to, even regardless of the damage considerations.
MVP: Eagles RB Saquon Barkley
It was one other sensational efficiency from the Eagles working again on Sunday.
Barkley had 15 carries for 118 yards and three TDs within the sport. This 60-yard TD run on Philadelphia’s first play of the sport gave the Eagles a 7-0 lead and halted any momentum the Commanders had after an 18-play opening drive.
Barkley adopted that up with a four-yard TD run to increase the Eagles’ result in 14-3 with 3:43 left within the opening quarter. If that was not sufficient, he capped off one other unstoppable efficiency with this four-yard TD run to present the Eagles a 48-23 lead and formally put the sport out of attain.
Barkley is tied with Hurts for essentially the most dashing TDs in Eagles playoff historical past.
This was Barkley’s eighth sport of the season with a number of TDs and the second with three scores. Because the Eagles put together for his or her fourth Tremendous Bowl look in 20 years, they may accomplish that with a dominant pressure on the bottom.
Turning level: Commanders RB Austin Ekeler’s fumble late in third quarter
Regardless of falling behind, 34-15, on the 8:58 mark of the third quarter, the Commanders scored a TD, two-point conversion and compelled an Eagles punt to achieve some much-needed momentum.
Washington had the ball close to midfield till Eagles LB Oren Burks compelled a fumble from Ekeler, which arrange an Eagles TD nearly three minutes later.
That was one in every of 4 Commanders turnovers (three fumbles) within the sport, which was the exact opposite of every week in the past when Washington compelled 5 Detroit Lions’ turnovers and didn’t commit any.
There isn’t any assure the Commanders would have scored on that drive, however the momentum gave the impression to be of their favor they usually couldn’t make the most of it.
