Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni expressed disappointment with the team's offensive performance in Sunday's Wild Card round victory over the Green Bay Packers. "I don’t think we had the game that we wanted to have". Thankfully Philly outlasted the Green Bay Packers by a 22-10 final score in the Wild Card Round. Now, it's off to the Divisional Round and another worthy opponent.
Despite failing to catch their offensive stride and going just 2-11 on third downs, the Eagles are moving on, according to Sirianni. The team now prepares to host their Divisional Round opponent on Sunday, January 19, at 3:00 pm.
Who will the Eagles play next week?
The Washington Commanders defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, which means that Washington will travel to Detroit to take on the Lions.
As a result, the Eagles will host the prevailing team from Monday Night's Wild Card matchup between the Los Angeles Rams (10-7) and Minnesota Vikings (14-3).
The Vikings, a 14-win five-seed led by Sam Darnold, are -2.5 favorites to defeat the Rams, according to ESPN BET as of Sunday night. Los Angeles was the team to come out victorious during the regular season, beating the Vikings 30-20 in Week Eight.
Puka Nacua caught seven passes for 106 yards in the Week Eight matchup against Minnesota, a game that also saw Kyren Williams rush for nearly 100 yards. An overall clean game, the Rams offense simply outpaced the Vikings as Matthew Stafford threw for four touchdowns and a 124.5 passer rating.
But who will win when it matters most?
Vikings-Rams breakdown
First things first -- the Rams, who are the official home team, do not have a true home-field advantage as the widespread wildfires in California forced the game to be moved to the Cardinals stadium, State Farm Stadium.
The game will still have a Los Angeles feel, as the field will be themed for a Rams home game.
Thanks for opening your doors to us, @AZCardinals. 🫶 pic.twitter.com/9zgyUabQdk
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) January 12, 2025
As for the on-field matchup, Los Angeles is at full strength. No players had injury designations on Saturday, meaning that everyone is healthy and will play. The Vikings are pretty much healthy -- Cam Akers is questionable to play as he's battling an illness.
It will be fascinating to watch Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold as he will be starting in his first career playoff game at age 27. It will be key for Darnold to rely on All-World wide receiver Justin Jefferson and his partner-in-crime Jordan Addison.
Los Angeles allowed the seventh-most yards per game in the regular season at 353.1 yards per game, according to FOX Sports analytics -- located in the bottom fourth of the NFL.
Both the Rams rushing and passing defense are ranked in the bottom half of the league. It will be key for Minnesota to keep a balanced attack, relying on Jefferson, Addison, and tight end T.J. Hockenson, while also giving a heavy dosage of Aaron Jones and the run game.
Minnesota struggled to stop the pass in the regular season as they ranked the fifth-worst passing defense in the NFL.
Their run defense, on the other hand, was the second best in the league. As of late, though, Minnesota has allowed 100+ rushing yards in five of its last six games -- something that the Rams could look to take advantage of with Kyren Williams.
Stafford attacked Minnesota in the regular season with his four touchdown performance. Look for the Rams to spread the ball to both Nacua and Cooper Kupp, though Nacua has been the feature receiver since returning from injury.
How are the Birds preparing?
"We're going to go back to work tomorrow," Sirianni said of the offense on Sunday, "No victory Monday for us... we do have a lot of things to clean up."
Sirianni clarified that the Eagles must first address the errors from their Wild Card matchup. Though they will likely take preliminary looks at both teams, they will turn their full attention to the winner on Monday night after the outcome of the game.
The Eagles scored a sloppy 22 points as their offense punted five times and struggled to move the ball for most of the game. But Monday is a new day as the team will look to learn from Sunday and move ahead to the Divisional Round.
"We’re going to get our lift in. We’re going to correct the things we need to make as coaches, Sirianni said, "We made errors as coaches, and we made errors as players, and we’re going to go back and get those fixed."