Eagles outlast Josh Allen and Bills in rainy win, keep NFC’s No. 2 seed in play

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Once again, the Eagles defense dragged its offense to the finish line.

The Eagles squeaked out a 13-12 victory over the Buffalo Bills on a cold, rainy evening at Highmark Stadium thanks to Vic Fangio’s dominant unit. Despite going up, 13-0, in the first half, the Eagles punted on all five of their possessions in the second, routinely putting their defense in difficult situations.

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The Bills notched a pair of touchdowns on two straight drives — both on Josh Allen Tush Pushes — late in the fourth quarter. Bills head coach Sean McDermott opted to go for two to win it, but Allen’s pass intended for Khalil Shakir sailed too far in front of the receiver. Dallas Goedert recovered the ensuing onside kick with four seconds remaining to seal the win.

Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ third straight victory:

The Bills had early momentum on their second possession, but squandered it to set the tone for much of the first three quarters.

They were just outside the red zone thanks to Allen’s 50-yard completion to wide receiver Brandin Cooks. On second-and-3 from the Eagles’ 23-yard line, Allen faked a handoff to running back James Cook, then rolled out to his right. He had Jalen Carter in his face, forcing Allen to scramble away.

As Allen fled Carter, he attempted to tuck the football, but Jaelan Phillips knocked it out of his grasp. The ball bounced past midfield, where Jihaad Campbell fell on it, beating Bills right guard O’Cyrus Torrence to the ball.

“We knew Josh Allen could continue to extend plays,” Nick Sirianni said after the game. “And the way we pursued to the ball showed how good of shape [the defense is] in. It showed how relentless they are.

“I tell them, I always say, ‘Hey, talented teams that play with great attention to detail — which we have some things to clean up — that play together and play with relentless effort, those teams are hard to beat.’”

The Eagles made Allen pay for his mistake. On the second play of the drive, Jalen Hurts completed a 27-yard deep ball to A.J. Brown with Bills safety Cole Bishop and cornerback Christian Benford trailing in his wake to bring the Eagles to the Bills’ 14.

Hurts eventually went back to his favorite red-zone target — Goedert. The 30-year-old tight end hauled in a pass in the end zone from Hurts out of an under-center play action look in 14 personnel (four tight ends, including depth tackle Matt Pryor).

The Eagles went up, 7-0, on the heels of Allen’s blunder.

Fangio’s unit ensured that Allen was under duress for the majority of the game.

The pass rush gave him fits. Allen was sacked five times — twice by Jalyx Hunt and once each by Phillips, Moro Ojomo, and Carter.

Carter, the 24-year-old defensive tackle, made his return to action after a three-week layoff due to a pair of shoulder injuries. He dominated the Bills’ offensive line, notching his sack when he obliterated Torrence on his way to Allen in the second quarter. Carter also had a critical extra point block after Buffalo scored its first touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter.

The Eagles were the more physical team. On the play following Carter’s sack, Reed Blankenship crashed down on a short pass to Shakir over the middle and stuffed him, forcing the Bills to go three-and-out.

Late in the third quarter, the Eagles defense bent but didn’t break. Quinyon Mitchell had a shaky drive, getting flagged for defensive pass interference and then conceding a 32-yard catch at the hands of wide receiver Terrell Shavers to the Eagles’ 7-yard line.

The Eagles didn’t blink and mustered a goal-line stand. On third-and-goal from the 2, Marcus Epps stuffed Cook for a loss of a yard. Allen attempted to scramble on the ensuing fourth down, but Zack Baun tackled him short of the goal line to force a turnover on downs.

Allen wasn’t finished making costly plays. On the Bills’ next possession, on third-and-8 from the Eagles’ 27, Hunt sacked Allen for a loss of 19 yards. The 24-year-old outside linebacker’s play pushed the Bills out of field goal range and forced them to punt.

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The Bills had opportunity after opportunity to mount their comeback. Josh Allen tried to pull it off with his arm, going 23-for-35 for 262 yards, his fifth-best performance in terms of passing yards this season. Still, the Eagles defense prevented Buffalo from scoring on four of their six drives in the second half, leading to the Bills’ second home loss of the season.

“We’re just resilient,” Hunt said. “We trust each other, no matter what, the ups and downs. Nobody gets to bickering on the sideline. We know it’s a close game. We’re built for close games. So we just keep playing football.”

After punting on their first two possessions of the game, the Eagles offense eventually got going. They scored points on all three of their possessions following Allen’s fumble — the Goedert touchdown and a pair of Jake Elliott field goals (for 47 and 28 yards).

The Eagles were balanced in the first half on offense. The run game averaged 4.0 yards per carry, with Saquon Barkley averaging 4.6. Hurts was fairly efficient in the passing game, going 13-for-20 for 110 yards and the touchdown throw to Goedert. Brown eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards on the season with his five receptions for 68 yards in the first half.

The second half was a different story. The Eagles punted on all five possessions, collecting just 17 yards of offense in that span. The Eagles went three-and-out on four of those drives.

The Bills eventually capitalized on the strong field position afforded them by the struggling Eagles offense. After the Eagles went three-and-out for a fourth time, ending their drive at their own 24, the Bills started the following possession from their own 46. They marched down the field, capping it off with a Allen Tush Push for a touchdown to make it 13-6, Eagles.

Negative plays wrecked the Eagles. Barkley had eight carries for 17 yards in those five possessions, averaging 2.1 yards per play. Hurts did not complete a pass on seven drop backs in the second half. After the game, Hurts acknowledged the disparity in the level of execution between halves.

“I think we got into a good rhythm and good groove,” Hurts said of the first half. “We were able to move the ball down the field in the first half and in the second half, there are a lot of things that I have to watch the tape on to be able to pinpoint obviously maintaining aggression is one thing and maintaining rhythmic ball play. Then just going out there and executing, ultimately. So you always look yourselves in the mirror with that.”