Eagles stats: Sirianni, Lurie join Hall of Fame company; Eagles rushers make history; Mitchell locks up McLaurin (again)
Four numbers and facts from the NFC championship.
The Eagles are going back to the Super Bowl for the second time in three seasons and third time in eight seasons.
They rolled over their NFC East rival, Washington, 55-23, and scored more points than any other team in NFC championship game history.
Their win set up a Super Bowl LVII rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs, this time in New Orleans.
Here’s a look at four stats that stood out from Sunday’s Eagles win:
» READ MORE: Eagles turn NFC championship into game of ‘mental warfare.’ Turns out, the Commanders were unarmed.
3
There was a chance last offseason that Nick Sirianni would be looking for a new job. A year later, he joined a pretty exclusive club.
Three coaches in NFL history have reached multiple Super Bowls in their first four seasons as a head coach: Joe Gibbs, Mike Tomlin, and Sirianni. Gibbs already is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Tomlin will be one day, and Sirianni’s legend is in its early stages.
Sirianni is proving to be a prolific winner. He became the fifth Super Bowl-era head coach to reach the playoffs in his first four seasons and owns the third-best winning percentage by a head coach in the Super Bowl era. The other two? Hall of Famers John Madden and George Allen.
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie also joined a Hall of Fame duo Sunday, becoming the third owner to earn at least four Super Bowl berths with three head coaches, joining former Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen and former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis.
» READ MORE: The Eagles are underdogs no more: Like Doug Pederson said, it’s the norm for them to reach the Super Bowl
7
The last time a team had seven rushing touchdowns in a playoff game, the game itself made some modern technological history. In 1940, the Chicago Bears defeated Washington, 73-0, in the first NFL championship game broadcast nationwide on radio.
The Eagles turned back the clock Sunday. Saquon Barkley rushed for three touchdowns, Jalen Hurts scored three of his own, twice via Tush Push, and Will Shipley crossed the goal line for rushing score No. 7 late in the fourth quarter when the party at Lincoln Financial Field had already started. Hurts and Barkley are the first teammates in NFL history to each have three or more rushing touchdowns in the same playoff game.
The Eagles now have 39 rushing touchdowns this season, three away from tying their record-setting 42 scores from two seasons ago.
» READ MORE: ‘Now we see’: There’s no stopping Saquon Barkley as he’s about to take his record-setting show to New Orleans
1
Quinyon Mitchell’s introduction to a national audience came when the Eagles hosted the Commanders on Nov. 14 and he shut down Pro Bowl wide receiver Terry McLaurin. McLaurin got him back a little in the rematch more than a month later, but Mitchell showed again Sunday why he is in the running for Defensive Rookie of the Year.
McLaurin, a second-team All-Pro selection, ran 48 routes Sunday, according to Next Gen Stats, and Mitchell lined up across from him on 75% (36) of those routes. On those 36 routes, McLaurin was targeted four times by Jayden Daniels and caught just one pass for 7 yards.
Mitchell also intercepted a Daniels throw intended for McLaurin in the end zone in the fourth quarter.
» READ MORE: The Eagles preach and practice attacking the football on defense. Facing the Commanders, it was easy to see why.
90%
Hurts had one of his best games of the 2024 season on Sunday.
The brilliance of Hurts is in his ability to extend plays with his legs and throw on the run, but he was at his best Sunday when standing in the pocket.
The Eagles had a reshuffling along their offensive line with usual starting center Cam Jurgens dealing with a back injury that relegated him to emergency backup (and the team needed him in the second half). The Commanders, according to Next Gen Stats, generated five unblocked pressures and eight quick pressures, both of which were the second-highest number Hurts faced all season.
Hurts was 18 for 20 (90% completion rate) for 216 yards and his only touchdown throw when standing in the pocket, but was just 2 for 8 for 30 yards and four throwaways when he was forced out of the pocket.