“Our plan was to keep him in the pocket and get him to beat us with his arm,” defensive end Kenny Clark said. “A lot of our attacks were power rushes where we tried to contain him, not overdo him and get too far forward. We probably limited him until the fourth quarter.”

The game couldn’t have started better for new defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and his unit: Safety Xavier McKinney intercepted Hurts’ long pass to Smith and returned it to the Eagles’ 18-yard box.

The Green Bay Packers defense didn’t let up on the next series, as defensive lineman Devonte Wyatt broke through the Philadelphia front and recovered a Hurts fumble at the Eagles’ 13-yard line.

Although Green Bay got the ball in the red zone twice, the offense settled for two field goals. Philadelphia found its rhythm on its third series, when Barkley’s 18-yard touchdown catch capped an 11-play touchdown drive.

Philadelphia scored four straight times while Green Bay suffered through a variety of missed tackles and penalties. With the Packers leading 19-17 at halftime, Brown scored a 67-yard catch-and-run touchdown on the second play of the second half, giving the Eagles the explosive play they so desperately needed.

“I really don’t think we played well today and we just allowed little things that were very uncharacteristic of us,” McKinney said. “Overall, we missed a lot of tackles today in terms of communicating and executing what Haf is asking. There are just a lot of things we need to improve.”

The defense recovered a bit after Brown’s touchdown, forcing the Eagles into two consecutive three-and-outs, including a sequence in which Rashan Gary intercepted a pass from Hurts at the line of scrimmage on the first attempt before sacking him two plays later.

A Jordan Love interception deep in Green Bay territory gave the Eagles a four-play, 24-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter, but on Philadelphia’s next possession, Jaire Alexander intercepted a Hurts pass in the end zone to keep Green Bay in the game.

Any chance of a fourth-quarter comeback ended with a stunning 16-play, 67-yard drive by the Eagles that took 7 minutes, 25 seconds off the clock. After Jake Elliott’s 21-yard field goal extended Philadelphia’s lead to 34-29, Green Bay regained possession with 27 seconds left.

Barkley was a key part of that equation. After a slow start, the veteran running back rushed for 78 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries in the second half. A few unfortunate penalties, including questionable defensive holding penalties on Alexander and Clark, weighed heavily on this final Philadelphia series.

“We’ve got to be better at that,” Clark said of the defense not coming off the field on that drive. “They gave me a penalty for the holding call. I’ve got to look at that and see what they called. At the end of the day, I’ve got to be better, have to be better.”

Although Philadelphia ended up with 410 yards and 34 points, McKinney was still able to take something positive from the loss. The fifth-year safety said he spoke to his team in the locker room after the game and told them to quickly make the necessary corrections for next week’s home game against the Indianapolis Colts.

“I think we know defensively what we need to do to improve after this game,” McKinney said. “We’ll be self-critical on the way back when we watch this film, and next week we’ll be better, much better.”

“I think we know we haven’t maintained the standard we want to in defense, but we’ll fix that and I don’t think we’ll have a problem going forward.”