In Roob's Eagles stats: A few positive nuggets amongst the carnage
In Roob's Eagles stats: A few positive nuggets amongst the carnage originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
For our final Roob's Eagles Stats of the year, I was determined to find as many positive stats as possible.
Positive stats? After this game? After the last two months? Hey, there are always positive stats if you look hard enough. And I found three! Although one was kind of a reach.
So we’ll start out with the good stuff and then finish with the bad stuff. And if you want to just abandon this after No. 3, I’m not going to blame you.
1. DeVonta Smith. What a performance by Smith, who caught eight passes for 148 yards against the Bucs. That 148 yards broke the franchise postseason record of 146 yards set by Jeremy Maclin in the 34-14 loss to the Cowboys in 2009. (The five highest receiving totals in Eagles playoff history have come in losses. (In case you’re wondering, the most receiving yards by an Eagle in a playoff win was Harold Carmichael’s 111 yards in the Eagles’ wild-card win over the Bears in 1979.) What’s even more remarkable is that Smith, who’s 25 and only in his third NFL season, now has 405 career postseason receiving yards, 4th-most in Eagles history and only 60 off Carmichael’s franchise record of 465. He also trails Todd Pinkston (433) and Chad Lewis (409). Smith’s 81.0 receiving yards per game are 2nd-most in Eagles history (minimum three game played), behind tight end Keith Jackson’s 101.7. Smith joins Jackson as the only players in Eagles history with more than one career 100-yard game in the playoffs. He’s the first with two in a row.
2. Jake Elliott only attempted one field goal Monday night, a 47-yarder in the second quarter, but he improved to 16-for-16 in his career in the postseason. That’s the 4th-most attempts in NFL history by a kicker who’s never missed, behind Robbie Gould (29), Evan McPherson (19) and Chris Boswell (17). Including both regular-season and postseason games, Elliott is at 87.2 percent in his career, 4th-highest among kickers who’ve attempted at least 200 field goals, behind Justin Tucker (89.7), Harrison Butker (88.8) and Boswell (87.9).
3. Jalen Hurts may not have had his best game Monday night, but his passing numbers put him into rarified air. He became only the seventh quarterback in NFL history with consecutive postseason games with 70 percent accuracy, at least one passing touchdown, no interceptions and 250 passing yards. The others are Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, Peyton Manning, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Josh Allen and Matt Ryan.
OK, now for the depressing stuff:
4. The Eagles went 0-for-9 on third down in Tampa, becoming only the fourth team since the NFL began tracking 3rd-down conversions in 1991 to fail to convert any in a playoff game. They were also 0-for-2 on fourth down. The only other team to go a 0-for-11 on third and fourth down combined on record in the postseason was the 2022 Cards, who were 0-for-9 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down in a 34-11 loss to the Rams at SoFi Stadium. The Eagles have only had two regular-season 0-for-9 or worse games since 1991 – they were 0-for-8 on third down and 0-for-1 on fourth down in that 27-3 loss in Pittsburgh midway through the 2004 season and 0-for-9 plus 0-for-3 on fourth down in a 27-17 loss to the Giants at the Meadowlands in 2020.
5. Cade Otton is a 2nd-year tight end who averaged 27 yards per game this year and had just one 50-yard game all year – 70 yards at Houston. All he did Monday night was record career highs with eight catches for 88 yards, the 2nd-biggest game any tight end has ever had against the Eagles in the postseason. Gronk was 9-for-116 in Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis in 2017.
6. With his 56-yard TD pass to Trey Palmer and 44-yarder to David Moore, Baker Mayfield became the first quarterback ever with multiple 40-yard touchdown passes against the Eagles in a postseason game. Only six others threw one. The Eagles allowed two TD passes of at least 44 yards Monday after allowing just five in the previous 50 postseason games in franchise history (and just two in the previous 31 games). Mayfield is the first quarterback with two 40-yard TD passes in any playoff game since Ben Roethlisberger in 2016. In the Steelers’ 30-12 wild-card win over the Dolphins at Heinz Field, Roethlisberger threw TDs of 50 and 62 yards to Antonio Brown in the first quarter.
7. The Eagles are the first playoff team in NFL history to lose four games by 17 or more points over the last seven games of a season. The Eagles lost to the 49ers by 23, Cowboys by 20, Giants by 17 and Buccaneers by 23. The Eagles lost more games by 17 or more points over the last seven games (four) than in Nick Sirianni’s first 48 games (two).
8. The Eagles have allowed 10 or more 1st-quarter points in only four playoff games in the last 20 years. Three of those games have been against Tampa. The Bucs led 10-7 in the first quarter of the 2002 NFC Championship Game, they led 14-0 after the first quarter of their 2021 wild-card game and they led 10-0 Monday night. The only other team to score 10 points in the first quarter in the Eagles’ last 26 playoff games was the Packers, who led 14-0 in the 2003 conference semifinals at the Linc – the 4th-and-26 game that the Eagles wound up winning 20-17 in overtime.
9. The Eagles have no takeaways in their last four postseason losses – Seattle in 2019, at Tampa in 2021, the Super Bowl last year and Tampa Monday night. Their last takeaway in a postseason loss was Cre’von LeBlanc’s interception of Drew Brees in the Eagles’ loss to the Saints in 2018.
10. This is the first time the Eagles have finished a season with three consecutive games with fewer than 300 yards since 1999 and only the second time in franchise history. It’s also only the second time in the last 20 years they’ve gained fewer than 300 yards in any three consecutive games - 275 vs. Arizona, 299 vs. the Giants, 276 vs. the Buccaneers. Last time they had a longer streak was over the 1999 and 2000 seasons. The Eagles averaged 363 yards their first 15 games and 283 in their last three.
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