In Week 17, the Philadelphia Eagles' win over the Buffalo Bills was a game of inches.
Playing in ugly conditions that made the ball and grass slippery, both teams played below their usual standards, with typically lights-out contributors suffering uncharacteristic drops, incompletions, and coverage lapses.
Discussing the Eagles' win on Monday with reporters, head coach Nick Sirianni laid things out simply: the Bills made more mistakes than the Birds and secured the L as a result.
“They ended up making a critical mistake in the game, and we didn’t,” Sirianni explained via Eliot Shorr-Parks.
Now, which play is Sirianni noting? It's hard to say; it could be Josh Allen's fumble, or the Jalen Carter blocking an extra point attempt by the Bills, or even the blown two-point conversion that effectively ended the game, where Khalil Shakir couldn't bring in the go-ahead pass. And yet, for a team that barely earned a yard in the second half, with Jalen Hurts failing to complete a pass after halftime, the Eagles were able to play a clean contest, maintaining control of the game before Week 17 MVP Braden Mann played the field position game with Sean McDermott's squad.
In Week 15, the Eagles lost a close game to the Los Angeles Chargers in overtime due to a series of ugly turnovers and mistakes. In Week 17, it was the Bills who made the mistakes, and the Eagles were able to squeak out a win in horrible conditions as a result of their composure despite very few things breaking their way in the second half.
