Eagles 34, Packers 29 RECAP: Saquon Barkley has huge night in Eagles debut, Jordan Love injured in final seconds in Brazil

Hear from the running back post-game on the field at Corinthians Arena:

Baun polishes off the game with a sack for Philadelphia to give them a huge season-opening win in South America.

The Packers’ franchise quarterback had to be helped off the field after taking a big hit in the final seconds of Friday night’s season-opening game in Brazil. Malik Willis entered the game at QB for Green Bay.

A 33-yard gain on a deep pass from Jordan Love to keep the Packers’ hopes alive.

But a mishandled snap to Jalen Hurts forced Saquon Barkley to have to jump on the ball and recover... The Eagles settled for the 21-yard field goal to take a five-point lead with 27 seconds remaining.

In his first appearance with the Eagles, the former Raider has already made a splash:

Barkley is just the second player in history with three touchdowns in an Eagles debut, following Terrell Owens in 2004.

The first miss for rookie QB Brayden Narveson, on a 43-yard attempt in the final minute of the third quarter, means the Eagles carry a five-point lead into the final frame.

One of the biggest acquisitions of the offseason is paying off early for Philadelphia as Saquon tallies his third TD of the night (2 rushing, one received) to give the Eagles back the lead late in the third quarter.

It’s just the second time in his career that Barkley’s had three touchdowns in a game (he had 2 rush TD and 1 TD catches in a 2018 matchup between the Giants and Buccaneers).

Jayden REED was having a big night, so REED Blankenship needed to get in on the action. The Philadelphia safety picked off Jordan Love in the third quarter to set the Eagles up with great field position.

Christian Watson’s 6-yard touchdown catch from Jordan Love pushes the score to 26-24 and the over hits. Never a doubt!

• 102 total yards
• 2 total TDs
• 25.2 fantasy points

Christian Watson TD puts Packers back in the lead!

Eagles back on top thank to 67-yard connection between Hurts and A.J. Brown.

After a messy start marked by turnovers and penalties on both sides of the ball, the Eagles and Packers have kept pace with big plays through the first half. The Eagles trail by two heading into the second half, powered by a big performance from Saquon Barkley in his Birds debut.

Packers CB Keisean Nixon takes down the Eagles quarterback in the final seconds of the first half.

Jordan Love threw the longest touchdown pass of his career on this 70-yard completion to Jayden Reed, Reed’s second score of the game. Reed, a 24-year-old Chicago native, is doing his best to keep up with Saquon Barkley — both players have a rushing and receiving TD on the day.

Saquon’s debut with the Eagles has been everything Philly fans could hope for — Eagles take the 14-12 lead on Barkley’s second score of the day.

Great angle of the superstar running back’s first touchdown as an Eagle:

Great blocking on Reed’s 33-yard touchdown run puts the Packers back in the lead 12-7 early in the 2nd quarter. The Eagles defense continues to hold up in cliutch moments, however, stifling the Packers’ two-point conversion attempt.

Saquon snags the 18-yard pass from Hurts for his first touchdown as a part of the Philadelphia squad to put his new team in the lead in Brazil.

Green Bay’s new kicker is 2/2 to start his NFL debut with the Packers. He was signed off waivers from the Titans on Aug 28, after the Packers cut Anders Carlson and Greg Joseph following a kicker competition this summer.

It’s a bit of a mess for the Eagles offense early in Brazil. The Packers recovered a fumbled snap to Hurts and took over at the Philadelphia 13-yard-line.

Rookie kicker Brayden Narveson puts the first points on the board in Brazil with a 31-yarder in the first quarter.

Just a few minutes in, Jalen Hurts has his first interception of the season. Big play for McKinney in his first appearance as an Packer (he spent his first four years with the Giants).

Berry is going with Jordan Love to have OVER 7.5 rushing yards tonight (-120) for his best bet of the night, a total he hit 10 times last season. Love averaged 14.5 rushing yards per game in 2023.

Love said in an interview with Maria Taylor that his favorite QB growing up was Michael Vick and TMR thinks he will be RUNNING the ball tonight!

Brazilian gymnast Rebecca Andrade, who won four medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, was on hand for the performance.

The running back feels “blessed to be here” at the start of his career chapter with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Musical artist Zeeba was born in San Diego to Brazilian parents, spent much of his childhood in Sao Paulo, and began pursuing a career in music as a teenager.

Countdown to kickoff is on.

The NFL commissioner spoke with Kaylee Hartung ahead of tonight’s game in Brazil on his vision for the NFL as a global sport, and how close the league realistically is to an “international division”.

There’s been some pre-game consternation about the Eagles and Packers, two of the league’s greenest teams, playing at Corinthians, which has an informal ban on the color green (it’s the main color for the Corinthians soccer club’s archrival Palmeiras). But commissioner Roger Goodell wasn’t worried, as ProFootballTalk reports.

“Well, you try to pick the two best teams,” Goodell said on CNBC on Friday morning. “And I think we have we have two historic franchises. Yes, they wear green. But I think we’ve gotten over all of that. Everybody here understands. I think you’ll see the uniforms tonight. They won’t be insulting anyone. So that’s not an issue for us.”

QB Jalen Hurts leads the way onto the field in Brazil for the Eagles squad, including his brand-new teammate Saquon Barkley.

• The Packers covered the spread in each of their last 4 games last season
• After a red-hot start, the Eagles fell apart in the back half of last season. Their struggles hurt bettors who backed Philly as well. Over their last 7 games, the Eagles were 1-6 SU & 0-7 ATS
• Saquon Barkley has scored at least one TD in each of his last 2 games against the Packers
• 7 of Green Bay’s last 9 games have gone OVER the Total. The Total currently is 49.5 for tonight’s game
• Philadelphia has won 7 straight games as favorites vs NFC North teams. The Eagles are favored by 2 points tonight

• Fun Fact: In each of the Philly’s last 3 games, the 1st score has been an opponent FG

Here’s the view of the field in Corinthians Arena from the broadcast booth for Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge:

A few notable bets on Packers-Eagles, via DraftKings:

• $1000 on DeVonte Smith First TD Scorer (+1100) that would pay $12,000
• $1000 on Josh Jacobs First TD Scorer (+750) that would pay $8,500
• $980 on AJ Brown to Score 2+ TDs (+900) that would pay $9,800
• $18k on PHI Eagles ML (-142) that would pay $30,675

NBC Sports’ Maria Taylor sat down with Love ahead of the Brazil game to talk about his late growth spurt, his QB idols, and how he met his fiancée.

A Philly special twist on the Packers’ signature headwear:

The star running back spent his first six seasons with the New York Giants, but signed a three-year deal with the Eagles in March in one of the biggest moves of the offseason.

Both Philadelphia and Green Bay supporters are showing out for their teams in Sao Paulo:

Green Bay Packers

• 18 WR Malik Heath
• 32 RB MarShawn Lloyd
• 53 DL Arron Mosby
• 57 DL Brenton Cox Jr.
• 76 T Kadeem Telfort
• 79 T Travis Glover

Philadelphia Eagles

• 16 QB Tanner McKee
• 34 CB Isaiah Rodgers
• 45 LB Devin White
• 58 OLB Jalyx Hunt
• 72 G/T Darian Kinnard
• 79 G Trevor Keegan
• 94 DT Byron Young

NBC Sports football analyst likes these props as part of his Peacock Plays parlay on DraftKings:

• Saquon Barkley to score a TD
• Jayden Reed over 3.5 receptions
• Jordan Love 225+ passing yards

For NBC Sports Bet Best Bets and guidance from betting experts Brad Thomas and Vaughn Dalzell, click here.

For Thomas, Philly’s offseason improvements on defense give them the edge: “I’m just going to go with the Eagles on the Moneyline. Why? Because I like the changes they made in the secondary. That was their weak point bringing in Quinyon Mitchell, CJ Gardner-Johnson, and oh yeah, I know he is hurt and will miss Game 1, but I love another of their additions, Devin White to anchor that linebacker corps.”

The Eagles are 4-1 on the Moneyline in their last five season openers.

The Eagles have landed, and the Packers have arrived:

Sirianni isn’t ruling out the tush push as a part of the Eagles’ 2024 game plan:

London, UK:

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium:

• New York Jets vs Minnesota Vikings, Sunday, October 6
• Jacksonville Jaguars vs Chicago Bears, Sunday, October 13

Wembley Stadium:

• New England Patriots vs Jacksonville Jaguars, Sunday, October 20

Munich, Germany:

Allianz Arena:

• New York Giants vs Carolina Panthers, Sunday, November 10

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke this week about the possibility of adding more international games to the league schedule in the future (owners have currently approved eight per year). “We want the world to know we’re coming, that we’re bringing football,” Goodell said. “Our clubs have agreed to play up to eight regular-season games. We have expectations that will go well beyond that. We think we’ll be seven next year, we’re already going to Spain next year, we’ll be back in Mexico I hope by next year, so we’re really excited where the future is for us on an international basis.”

This year, Mike Florio and Chris Simms will be picking every game, and the selections will appear in a joint PFTPM/Chris Simms Unbuttoned picks podcast, delivered by Little Caesars. Here’s their take on Friday night’s game:

“The Eagles fell apart down the stretch last year. The Packers found the gas pedal. Those trends continue.”

• Florio: Packers, 34-31
• Simms: Packers, 24-20.

Here’s a look at PFT’s (never too early) playoff picture predictions:

The Eagles and Packers first played against each other in 1933, 91 years ago, when Curly Lambeau and Green Bay beat the Eagles at the Old City Stadium. Green Bay owns the overall regular season series advantage (27-16), but the Eagles are 2-1 in the postseason against Green Bay.

Their most recent meeting was a 40-33 Eagles win in Week 12 of 2022, with Philadelphia improving to 10-1 en route to a Super Bowl appearance. Jordan Love replaced an injured Aaron Rodgers in the third quarter and led two scoring drives to finish with a passer rating of 146.8, which still stands as his best in a regular season game.

McCourty has Jordan Love starting things off strong in 2024:

In his weekly “Optimal Flex Plays” article, Lawrence Jackson Jr. says to start Packers WR Jayden Reed in your fantasy football league tonight:

“I want to say “start any Packers’ receiver,” but for one, that would be cheating and two, it’s not realistic to believe all of them will gain 100+ receiving yards. What I do know is that Reed is coming off a rookie season in which he went 64-793-8. He added another 119 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. The Packers love to get their young playmaker the ball in a variety of ways. While the Eagles made it a point to beef up their secondary this season, they’ll have to show that they’ve improved their NFL’s second-worst pass defense ranking from a year ago. If they can’t get a pass rush, expect Jordan Love to find guys like Reed for big yards. This game has the third-highest O/U of Week 1 at 48.5, but are you really surprised? This game will have a lot of fantasy relevancy and it includes Reed.”

Eagles QB Tanner McKee, who lived in Brazil as part of missionary service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, helped his teammates practice the language.

“Jordan Love vs. Philadelphia (in Brazil): During the 2023 season, Philadelphia allowed the second-most fantasy points to quarterbacks. The Eagles also allowed passing touchdowns at the third-highest rate and were tied for the fifth-most receptions allowed on deep passes, which is worth noting because Jordan Love had the second-most deep attempts in 2023. Will the Eagles be better against the pass this season? Maybe. We don’t know. What we DO know is that Darius Slay is now 33 years old, James Bradberry is on IR and two rookies – Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean – will be getting heavy use right out of the gate. It’s hard to see this as anything other than a good Week 1 matchup for Love. The kind of matchup that gets you on the Love List. Or as they call it in Brazil, the “Amor Lista.” By the way, don’t forget this game is being played exclusively on Peacock (“pavoa” in Portuguese) on Friday night. On “Sexta-feira” night. Really. That’s what “Friday” is in Portuguese. I am also adding Portuguese to the Love List. It’s just an objectively more fun language. Sorry, English.”

For Berry’s full Week 1 Love/Hate article, click here.

There’s been plenty of change for the Eagles since last season, including a major shift on offensive line: Philly’s Pro Bowl center Jason Kelce retired at the end of last season after spending his entire 13-year career with the team.

QB Jalen Hurts said ahead of this game that Kelce’s absence opens up opportunities for him to grow. “I think in the end when you look at this upcoming season and what you have seen in years past, it’s just different autonomy in different places,” Hurts said. “We had a great player in Jason Kelce who took on a lot of responsibility and as a result of that I was told not to worry about a lot of things. And so my eagerness to learn over the years kind of was halted because of who we had, but now times are different and I’m excited for that journey and this opportunity.”

New city, new season, new look, no green – here’s what the Eagles will be rocking in Sao Paulo:

Coverage of the Green Bay Packers matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles from Corinthians Stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil is underway, streaming exclusively on Peacock. Click here to access or sign up for Peacock.

• Kickoff: 8:15pm ET
• Venue: Corinthians Arena
• Streaming: Peacock