Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Panthers game

In Week 14, the Philadelphia Eagles scored more points than the Carolina Panthers, and they are now 11-2, but it was an ugly day at the Linc. As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.

1) The 'Holding Them Back?' Award 🛑: Jalen Hurts

The Eagles have the NFL's No. 1 defense, an elite offensive line, star receivers, and a running back who should be the league MVP. Playing quarterback for this team should be easy, but Hurts is somehow making it look hard.

Hurts was 14 of 21 for 108 yards (5.1 YPA), 2 TD, and 0 INTs. Those aren't awful numbers, but the concerns are in the details.

• On the Eagles' first drive, he had A.J. Brown WIDE OPEN deep down the field for what could have been an 83-yard TD. He did not pull the trigger, instead opting to dump it down to Jahan Dotson for a 5-yard gain.

• On a 1st and 10 from midfield, Hurts slid down for a loss of 9 instead of throwing the ball away, an egregiously weird decision. During his postgame press conference, he explained that the play call was an RPO, so he was worried about the offense being flagged for an illegal man downfield penalty, hence the slide instead of the throwaway. This was wrongful thinking, as the slide resulted in a 2nd and 19 instead of a 1st and 15 if a penalty had been called or a 2nd and 10 if it hadn't.

• Four plays later he had a delay of game penalty in a crucial spot that might have affected whether the Eagles would be in field goal range to put the game away, or not.

• He was a checkdown artist all day, as shown here:

Jalen Hurts – per @NextGenStats:
4 sacks on 9 pressures – 3.29 average time to pressure was slowest in league this week so far
3.47 Average Time to Throw – slowest of season for him
5.1 yards/attempt – lowest of season
5.6 air yards/attempt – lowest of season

— Fran Duffy (@FDuffyNFL) December 8, 2024

It's almost hard to hold onto the ball that long while also barely throwing down the field.

A.J. Brown only had 4 targets on the day, an unacceptable amount for an elite receiver against a terrible pass defense. He was pretty clearly unhappy in the locker room after the game.

AJ Brown on what the offense needs to improve on:
“Passing”
Says everything is fixable
Says he slammed his helmet out of frustration after a 3-and-out pic.twitter.com/iSG4MvOpt2

— Eliot Shorr-Parks (@EliotShorrParks) December 8, 2024

"Passing" is what Brown thinks the offense needs to improve on, in case you didn't watch that video.

Hurts has zero turnovers in eight of the last nine games. He has also made plays with his legs, like he did today, when he ran 8 times for 59 yards and a TD. That's all valuable, but it's also not enough if the Eagles have Super Bowl ambitions.

2) The 'Playing Not To Lose' Award 😨: Nick Sirianni

On their opening drive to start the second half, the Eagles faced a 4th and 4 from the Carolina 34. Sirianni sent Jake Elliott out for a 52-yard field goal attempt. Elliott missed it. He is now 0 for 5 on field goal attempts from 50+ yards on the season.

With the way that Elliott has kicked this season from long distances, the better play was to go for the 4th and 4. The Panthers have had by far the worst defense in the NFL this season. Go get the first the first down.

Later, facing a 4th and 8 from the Carolina 36 with 3:05 left to play, Sirianni had three choices:

1. Try a 54-yard field goal.
2. Go for it.
3. Punt.

Only one of the above options guaranteed that the Panthers would get the ball with a chance to take the lead on their ensuing drive, and that's the one that Sirianni chose.

And sure enough, the Panthers should have taken the lead, except… 👇

3) The 'Thank You' Award 🙏: Xavier Legette

Darius Slay guessed wrong on a route by Legette, who got wide open deep down the field on a post pattern, but he dropped the ball.

That was reminiscent of Marquez Valdes-Scantling's drop against the Eagles last season.

Sirianni is extremely lucky that the Panthers were unable to take advantage of his conservative decision to punt, and Slay is lucky this game won't be remembered for him getting burnt.

4) The 'Slow Starts' Award 🐌: The Eagles' offense

The Eagles' first-quarter scoring this season:

It seemed like the Eagles' starts to games might be improving, but they have only scored 3 first-quarter points in the last 4 games.

In their first two drives of the game, the Eagles ran 9 plays and gained 14 yards.

Obviously, they've been much better in quarters 2, 3, and 4 this season, but it has to be maddening for the offensive staff that they can't seem to figure out how to fix the slow starts.

MORE: Eagles' defense gets it done as slow starts continue to mount

5) The 'Should We Worry?' Award 😬: Jake Elliott

Elliott is the best kicker in Eagles history, and he's still only 29 years old at a position where guys can play into their late 30s and even their 40s. He's not washed, right?

But he's also not making kicks he normally makes. In addition to the missed field goal against the Panthers, he also missed a PAT, but was bailed out by a Panthers penalty.

6) The 'Record Breaker' Award: Saquon Barkley

I guess we should get to some positives, since it was a win, huh?

Let's start with Barkley, who passed LeSean McCoy for the most single-season rushing yards in team history:

It's been a foregone conclusion for weeks that Barkley would own this record, assuming he stayed healthy. So yes, it's a big accomplishment, but bigger ones could be on the horizon.

Barkley is on pace to gain 2,122 rushing yards this season, which would make him the NFL's all-time single-season rushing leader.

7) The 'Toughness' Award 💪: Chauncey Gardner-Johnson

CJGJ had a busy day. He had a monster hit on Legette:

Bang. Huge, legal hit.

He also had an INT on a Bryce Young overthrow:

And he also seemed to get hurt pretty badly twice, but was able to re-enter the game both times.

Part of the Eagles' offseason focus was to add tough players, and CJGJ is a prime example.

8) The 'He's Everywhere' Award 🥷: Zack Baun

Another week, another game in which Zack Baun had double-digit tackles (11) and a sack. On the season he has 129 tackles, 4 forced fumbles, an INT, and 3.5 sacks.

If he's not an All-Pro, just replace the voters.

MORE: Eagles overcome dreaded 'trap game' to continue nine-game winning streak

9) The 'Playmaker' Award 🥾: Braden Mann

While the decision to punt with 3 minutes to play was a poor one, kudos to Braden Mann for placing the ball at the 2-yard line, and for Avonte Maddox to get down the field and catch it.

This won't be talked about this week, but this pin-job by Braden Mann and Avonte Maddox was huge! #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/XXjhQEancg

— Inside The Iggles (@InsideIggles) December 8, 2024

It was indeed "talked about, " but whatever. That effort forced the Panthers to drive 98 yards for the win, which, you know, they would've done if not for Legette's drop.

10) The 'No 1 or No. 2' Award 🌱: The Eagles' placement in the playoffs

With four games to play, the Eagles now have a three-game lead over the Commanders in the division, a three-game lead over the 3 seed Seahawks, and a four-game lead over the 4 seed Buccaneers.

It will take a collapse worse than what we saw in 2023 for the Eagles not to earn at least the 2 seed.

The 1 seed will require the Lions to lose at least two more of their games, all while the Eagles continue to win their games.

In other words, the Eagles' games are only meaningful the rest of the season until they lose again, at which point they can probably just pack it up and take it easy until the postseason.

MORE: The pivotal plays from the Eagles' nail-biter win over the Panthers

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