The Eagles offense came out in this one pretty hot. On a drive that took 12 plays and over 8 minutes, the Eagles ran the ball well and mixed in solid passes. They had a fourth-down tush push conversion and the key fourth-down conversion on 4th and 4 that went to AJ Brown for a 37-yard touchdown and the early lead.
The defense tried to answer and was close to a three and out, but gave up a 10-yard pass into Adoree’ Jackson’s coverage to move the ball. Even worse, Quinyon Mitchell followed that up by not covering Addison at all, for a 34-yard reception on the next play. They couldn’t stop anything and allowed the Vikings into the red zone where a bad pass and then a botched snapped gifted the Eagles defense allowing just the long field goal.
The Eagles then went three and out, but it wasn’t a bad drive in itself. The pass from Hurts to Smith was perfect downfield to keep things moving and get into field goal range, but Smith jumped too early. It was there and they just missed it.
The defense responded, with Jalen Carter finally getting some pressure for the line again and forcing a bad throw that was picked off by Hunt and returned for a touchdown. The Vikings came back out and went backward, resulting in an arm-punt interception to Mukuba, who was able to make the pick as he was in his usual position of not covering anyone downfield and able to move to the ball.
With all the momentum, the Eagles once again went three and out. The defense came out and saw Cooper DeJean get burned for 26 yards. Then the Vikings threw a pass behind the line and that went for 40 yards because Andrew Mukuba is SO incredibly weak, he couldn’t even push a receiver out of bounds – whiffing on a push out of bounds for what should have been about a 2-yard gain. He then got burned in coverage for a nine-yard reception that setup the Vikings again before they shot themselves in the foot on three straight plays and had to settle for a field goal.
By this point, the offense checked out. Toth took a holding penalty, Barkley ran for seven yards to get most of that back, then Jalen Hurts watched Saquon Barkley pick up the blitz (well) and inexplicably just stood there like a statue for another minute after that as thought he couldn’t see the blitzing defender right in front of his face. He took a sack and setup 3rd and 20, so that was some great filler stats for him on that short pass he setup for the next play before the punt, I guess.
The defense did allow a 10-yard pass, but otherwise stopped Minnesota. That didn’t matter much as the Eagles just added 19 yards on a two-minute offense before Hurts somehow took a sack (in a two-minute offense where the ball needs to be going out fairly quick) and that ended the half as the Eagles were content to give up the remainder of the drive.
The special teams gave up a big return of 38 yards to start the second half, then started getting gashed by runs. The Vikings again shot themselves in the foot after averaging 6.8 yards per carry to get to the red zone, settling for a field goal for a third time. The Eagles responded with a short 5-yarder to Smith and then a 79-yard reception deep downfield for the quick strike to re-extend the lead.
Jalyx Hunt took a pass interference penalty to bail out the first play that should have been stopped, but then three straight 10-yard receptions put the defense on their heels again. It was a touchdown drive where the Vikings ran eight plays – one for -4 yards (blown up by Dean), the one-yard touchdown run, and then every other play gained four or more yards as the pathetic excuse for a defense couldn’t do anything properly, letting the Vikings right back into the game.
The offense looked like it was back and went 47-yards, but on second and five called two runs right into the teeth of the offense for no gain. That brought out Elliott, who missed a 42-yard field goal to hand the ball over in good field position with the Vikings trailing by just five. A 25-yard out pass, supposedly covered by Ringo, and a 20-yard out, supposedly covered by Mitchell, accounted for almost all the Vikings yardage to get into the redzone where a negative run and a sack from Moro Ojomo forced the Vikings to settle for a field goal and keep the lead by a slim margin.
In a bit of a signature drive, Hurts had one of the best drives that could be expected. He had one throw away which could potentially have been caught for a gain on a pressure, but then hit Brown for 13 yards, Barkley had two runs to move the chains again, then he hit Smith for 21 yards and Brown for the 26-yard touchdown pass. Perhaps the most impressive offensive drive of the season with the mix of plays.
The Eagles appeared on the verge of a big stop on 3rd and 10 before Jihaad Campbell totally whiffed and failed to make the tackle, allowing a 16-yard gain. On the next 3rd and 10, the rush integrity was absent allowing for a 12-yard run before anyone even touched Wentz. Mukuba was burned again in the end zone not covering his man at all, but the refs overturned it and called it an incompletion to save him. Getting the first down, the Vikings then took a sack from Josh Uche to keep the clock ticking. At the two minute warning, the Vikings faced fourth and goal from the 11. They came back and kicked a field goal to leave 1:57 on the clock with all timeouts for both teams and trailing by six.
The Eagles opted to burn a Vikings time out with a run, but a pass behind Brown was dropped to stop the clock for free for no gain. Then the Eagles nearly took a delay of game and had to burn their own timeout. A 45-yard deep target went back to Brown and Isaiah Rodgers was caught biting on a slant to give up essentially a game-sealing catch that allowed the Eagles to burn the Vikings two remaining timeouts and then burn the clock down to :02 seconds on 4th down. The play to just waste time officially sealed the Eagles’ fifth win of the season.
The Eagles maintain the lead in the East and will head to Philadelphia to take on the Giants again before they take their bye week.
Offensive MVP: DeVonta Smith
Jalen Hurts had one heck of a game and certainly deserves serious consideration, but I never like picking the QB since it seems like an easy out in any win. I have to pick DeVonta Smith here. He did have the one that I’d consider a drop, but otherwise was a spark plug for the offense. The 79-yard touchdown seemed to jump start an offense that stopped doing anything at all. It assisted in a career-high 183 receiving yards despite clearly being a bit hobbled on nine receptions.
Defensive MVP: Nakobe Dean
The Eagles have been using Dean a bit less as they work him back into things, but he’s made a strong impression and is playing himself back into a starting role – six tackles including perhaps the most impressive one for loss. Campbell has been good, but made multiple mistakes the last three weeks and Dean is looking like he could be the answer to that.
Game Notes
Andrew Mukuba is still out there? He had an interception lobbed to him while a real defender covered the receiver and he could continue on his normal schedule of not covering anything himself and then all but allowed a Vikings touchdown, turning a sure punt into a field goal because he can’t tackle or cover. Maxen Hook out of Toledo is on the Seahawks practice squad – the Eagles could bring him back and start him next week and the defense will have improved already. This guy is about as bad as you can possibly find starting in the NFL.
Nakobe Dean has been working more into the game at linebacker and has been solid. His name hasn’t been called out as a problem like much of the rest of the defense has.
Tank Bigsby had an impressive 11-yard run and could have had another if Hurts had handed him the ball instead of keeping it for himself for some reason on a 0-yard run. Then he just vanished entirely. I get that Barkley is the guy, but he had multiple plays in a row that worked and it clearly caught the defense off guard, so I don’t know why they didn’t lean into that. It was clearly something that wasn’t predictable to the defense and it vanished almost immediately.
People will complain, but one penalty from a backup center isn’t too bad. We saw the backup center for Minnesota, and he was far better than that.
All this talk about Adoree Jackson and Kelee Ringo, apparently there needs to be attention paid to Mitchell and DeJean, who both got burned for far more.
Will Shipley took a spear on a return. It wasn’t called, but he had to be evaluated for a concussion once again.
This was a far better passing day for Hurts. He never escaped on runs and it was kind of odd his taking two carried just to the line of scrimmage instead of just throwing the ball away or looking for a short pass as he approached the sideline. He also had questionable times of turning into a statue standing in the pocket forever. When he actually got the ball out, though, they were good reads and possible the most accurate passes of his career – he only had two incompletions through 50 minutes and one of those was the deep pass DeVonta Smith should have had on the second drive. Overall, he went 19/23 with 326 yards through the air.
The second-half offense may not have put up a ton of points, but it’s the best we’ve seen in probably at least five weeks.
The defensive pick six – and actually getting a turnover for the first time in three games – led directly to the win here.
Injury Notes
Midway through the second quarter, Cam Jurgens left with a knee injury and was replaced at center by Brett Toth.
Azeez Ojulari left in the second quarter with a hamstring injury, further depleting an already paper thin position group.
Jerimiah Trotter left the game in the second quarter.
Adoree’ Jackson left in the third quarter after taking an arm to the head. He was replaced by Kelee Ringo and ruled out with a concussion.
Saquon Barkley left in the fourth quarter with some sort of injury. He did return for the final drive.
Moro Ojomo went down in the fourth quarter after getting hit by Kelee Ringo.
Philadelphia Eagles @ Minnesota Vikings – October 19, 2025
Team
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Eagles
7
7
7
7
Vikings
3
3
10
6
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