The Philadelphia Eagles avoided a disaster on Christmas with their 33-25 win over the New York Giants.

They got solid production from their stars; Jalen Hurts completed 24 of 38 passes for 301 yards and a touchdown. D'Andre Swift ran well on his 20 carries, turning those into 92 yards. AJ Brown was his typical self, as he hauled in six receptions for 80 yards. DeVonta Smith helped break the game open with a 36-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter to give the Eagles a 14-point lead.

But it was far from a perfect game for the Eagles. Jalen Hurts threw a pick-six, although it was a pretty fluky play since his intended target (Dallas Goedert) slipped on the play. Boston Scott fumbled a kick return that allowed the Giants to get back in the game. Philadelphia also allowed a quick 69-yard touchdown strike to Darius Slayton that made the Eagles have to sweat this game out.

The Eagles still don't have much to complain about. They're 11-4 and tied with the San Francisco 49ers and the Detroit Lions for first place in the NFC. They will take that no matter how it comes. But there are still a couple of areas with the Eagles that warrant some cause for concern.

Eagles Defense

The Eagles' defense was just as much a bedrock for their team last season as was their offense. In 2022, the Eagles ranked fourth in the NFL in EPA per play allowed and first in EPA per dropback allowed. The Achilles heel to the Eagles' defense last season was their run defense, which ranked 23rd in the NFL in EPA per rush allowed. But in today's NFL where the priority is to be stingy defending the pass and preventing big plays, that wasn't a big area of concern.

But this season, the Eagles aren't great at defending anything. They rank 28th in the NFL in EPA per play allowed. The only teams that rank worse than the Eagles in that stat? The Arizona Cardinals, Washington Commanders, Cincinnati Bengals, and Seattle Seahawks. The Eagles are also 26th in EPA per dropback allowed and 28th in EPA per rush allowed. They aren't great at defending anything.

That porous defense has come back to bite them too. They could not stop Drew Lock a week ago in Seattle to keep the lead in that game and gave up at least 33 points to three of the best offenses in the NFL (Buffalo Bills, San Francisco 49ers, and Dallas Cowboys) the three weeks before that. To make matters worse, Darius Slay, their best corner, is currently on injured reserve. This unit cannot be relied upon to shut down the best teams in the NFC and could very well be the Eagles' undoing in the playoffs.

The Eagles are getting lucky

Jalen Hurts, Eagles, Seahawks

It's never a bad thing to be lucky, but when parsing out who the best teams in the NFL are, determining who the luckiest teams in the NFL is a great way to do that. The Eagles have a lot of things going for them in that regard. The main area to look at? The Eagles' point differential. Philadelphia, despite an 11-4 record, has only a +26 point differential on the season.

That particularly doesn't bode well for the Eagles when comparing their point differential with teams with similar records. The Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins, and 49ers, all teams with either 11-4 or 12-3 records, have a point differential that is at least 123 points higher than the Eagles' this season. The Eagles' point differential would indicate they're closer to the 8-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+24) and Los Angeles Rams (+25) than the top of the NFL.

The Eagles have also been very successful in one-score games. They are 8-2 in one-score games so far this season. That is fine, but Bill Barnwell of ESPN has written numerous times how being successful in those games types of games is not any type of indicator of future success.

The Eagles are certainly a good team and will be a tough out with the stars on their roster. But they are nowhere near a perfect team either and could get sent packing sooner than expected heading into this season.