December 28, 2025
Gregory Fisher/Imagn Images
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) runs the ball near the goal line against Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Adoree' Jackson (8) during the fourth quarter at Highmark Stadium.
Every other NFL team had already fallen victim to Josh Allen during his eight-year career, but the Eagles were still his white whale.
On Sunday, during a downpour in Orchard Park, N.Y., the Eagles hounded, harassed and smothered the NFL's reigning MVP for the better part of four quarters. They shut out the Bills for about 55 minutes of the game, but Allen still had a chance to harpoon the whale. He just whiffed.
Conservative offensive play calling all throughout the second half never let the Eagles pull away from their early 13-point lead, and allowing Allen and the Bills to hang around almost came back to ruin the Eagles as Buffalo scored its second touchdown of the fourth quarter to come within a point.
A gutsy decision to go for two backfired on Bills coach Sean McDermott as Allen just flat-out missed Khalil Shakir, throwing low and wide of the open receiver in the end zone on the two-point attempt.
The Eagles held on to win, 13-12, in a wild game between two teams that are headed to the postseason but surely have issues to work out if they want to be in the Super Bowl.
As for Allen, he fell to 0-3 in his career against the Eagles, who remain the lone NFL team that he hasn't yet conquered. He lost 31-13 to the Eagles in 2019 and 37-34 in overtime at the Linc in 2023. This was the closest he's come to getting the best of the Birds, but the result remains the same.
The Eagles are finishing 2025 the same way they did 2024, with a suffocating, sacking, turnover-creating defense that's carrying the load for an offense that does enough to get by – just enough, this time.
Let's get to the observations:
• Man, did Nick Sirianni coach conservatively – but why? The Eagles had already clinched the NFC East, had basically locked up the No. 3 seed. Sirianni and his offensive staff sat on a very slim lead against a team that's already had several big comebacks and never tried to stress the Bills with a knockout punch. The worst calls were the consecutive runs on first and second down after the Bills had finally gotten on the board with a fourth-quarter touchdown. The Eagles ran the ball on first and second down on each of their final two drives, setting up unfavorable third-down scenarios. Have they not learned their lesson, or does the win cloud their thinking?
• We've seen this hot-and-cold Eagles offense basically all year, outside of a few games against inferior opponents. The Eagles moved the ball well in the first half, got an early touchdown, had some nice third-down conversions, but again completely shut down in the second half. It did appear that the Bills pressured Jalen Hurts less after the break, an adjustment that has worked against them in the past, but what looked like a step forward at halftime resembled something more like the same old Eagles offense for most of the season.
• The Eagles' fourth possession might have been Hurts' best drive of the season. Still without much of a run game, the Eagles got a perfect third-down strike from Hurts to DeVonta Smith in an ultra-tight window between two Bills to move the chains on an 11-yard gain. On 3rd-and-8, Hurts deftly maneuvered out of a broken pocket and scrambled to the right side, where he unleashed another perfect toss to A.J. Brown for 19 more yards. Five plays later, Hurts put a ball in Brown's hands deep down the left sideline, but Brown couldn't corral it as it went incomplete – still, a great ball by Hurts. The Eagles settled for a field goal, but Hurts was tremendous on that drive.
• Even with the Bills missing three DTs, the Eagles chose to attack from 11 personnel (three wide receivers, one tight end) instead of more snaps for TE/FB Cam Latu and more under center. The results were mixed. After a good first half, Saquon Barkley got stuffed a bunch in the second half and finished with 68 rushing yards and an average of just 3.6 per carry.
• It's hard to blame the defense for the late Bills rally. They were on the field too much in the second half as the offense failed to move the chains. Still, even as they were tiring down, Jalen Carter's blocked PAT played a huge role in the outcome, as it forced the Bills to go for two after their last touchdown.
• The Bills are very good up front on offense, but the Eagles were better in the trenches. Jalyx Hunt was a nightmare, showing really good lateral movement on stunts to create pressure. He sacked Allen on a line game with Moro Ojomo in the first quarter and later added another sack as Allen tried to freelance around the field. Carter, back after missing three games to have a procedure on his shoulders, looked more explosive than he has in months. He swam past RG O'Cyrus Torrence to sack Allen in the second quarter and, as mentioned, came up with the enormous PAT block.
• Zack Baun keeps playing at an unreal level, running downfield to cover tight ends and break up passes, and chasing down ball carriers. His touchdown-saving hit on Josh Allen in the third quarter on fourth down at the Eagles' 1-yard-line ended up being about as big of a defensive play as there was in the game, and there were plenty.
• Vic Fangio hasn't blitzed much over the past five or six weeks, and he typically doesn't like to, but Fangio brought a few five-man pressures against Allen, and they were effective. He dialed up a few on second- and third-and-long situations that forced Allen to get rid of the ball quickly for either an incompletion or a pass well short of the sticks. He also disguised some pressures that confused Allen. Some of the Bills' best gains came on ridiculous catches downfield that weren't even bad defense.
• Nolan Smith has taken a backseat to Jaelan Phillips and Hunt among the edge group, but he still makes a significant play here or there. He pressured right tackle Spencer Brown on a 3rd-and-15 in the third quarter to force another Bills punt that was critical at the time, as the Bills were frustrated and Allen, who injured his foot last week against the Browns, was feeling the impact of having his cage rattled early and often.
• Cooper DeJean was everywhere in the secondary. He finished with nine tackles. All that talk from months ago about DeJean moving to outside corner in nickel has quieted, mainly because Adoree' Jackson has held his own opposite Quinyon Mitchell and because DeJean continues to flourish on the inside.
• Jake Elliott passed his tests, nailing the PAT after the Eagles' first-quarter touchdown – more like a pop quiz – but then coming through on his first two field goal attempts, booting a 47-yarder in the second for a 10-0 Eagles lead and a 28-yarder right before halftime. All of his kicks were on point and automatic, a major step in the right direction after he missed three kicks against the Commanders in his puzzlingly inconsistent season.
• Braden Mann continues to be a master of getting the punt off just before it's blocked. He boomed his first punt 64 yards to the Buffalo 10-yard line despite having three Bills converging on him as he punted. Mann was a Pro Bowl snub. He had an even better punt that died at Buffalo's 1-yard line in the third, but for some reason, Latu decided to down the motionless ball while his foot was on the goal line, so the Bills got a gift-wrapped touchback.
• Stop us if you've heard this before: Sydney Brown got into a fight at the end of a kickoff just before halftime, which drew negating personal foul penalties. Never change, Syd.
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