To sum up, in the NFC Championship game, the Philadelphia Eagles beat their division rivals, the Washington Commanders.
The victory puts the Eagles in their second Super Bowl appearance in as many seasons.
Then what?
The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will face either the Kansas City Chiefs or the Buffalo Bills.
With the Philadelphia Eagles’ advancement to the NFL championship game, mountain man Jordan Mailata is poised to make history as the first Australian to participate in two Super Bowls.
The Eagles cruised to a 55-23 victory over the visiting Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game, thanks in large part to three touchdown runs each from Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts.
The Eagles will face New Orleans in Super Bowl LIX on February 10 (AEDT) thanks to 118 yards on the ground from Barkley and 246 yards and a touchdown from Hurts.
For the sixth time in franchise history and the second time in three seasons, the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl, scoring eight touchdowns along the way.
Leaders’ Quarters The Washington Redskins were led by Jayden Daniels, who scored once passing and once rushing. Despite all the odds, the team won 12 games during the regular season and both playoff games played on the road. The Commanders’ lone touchdown throw was caught by Terry McLaurin.
Philadelphia had zero turnovers while Washington had four.
The Eagles had a 14-3 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to two touchdowns scored by Barkley. On the first play from scrimmage, he sprinted 60 yards for a touchdown for Philadelphia, then with 3 minutes and 43 seconds left in the first quarter, he scored again, this time from 4 yards out.
During the second half, the Commanders closed the gap to 14-12. Zane Gonzalez kicked his second field goal of the game from 46 yards out, and with 7 minutes and 5 seconds left in the half, McLaurin broke a tackle and scored a touchdown on a reception from 36 yards out.
After 65 seconds, the Eagles scored twice to go ahead 27-12. Hurts sprinted forward for a 1-yard touchdown with 1:44 remaining in the half, and Philadelphia capitalised on the Commanders’ mistake on the return of the kickoff, setting up a 4-yard touchdown pass from Hurts to AJ Brown.
With a 42-yard field goal just before halftime, Gonzalez reduced the lead to 27-15.
Hurts scored with 8 minutes and fifty-eight seconds remaining in the third quarter to put Philadelphia up 34-15. He snatched the shotgun’s trigger and snuck past defenders for a 9-yard gain.
On the subsequent play, Daniels got Washington within three points, 34–23. On top of scoring on a 10-yard run, he also completed a two-point conversion pass to Olamide Zaccheaus.
It was 41–23 with 12:24 left in the game after Hurts scored his third running touchdown. The ‘Brotherly Shove’ was successfully stopped by Hurts and the Eagles as teammates shoved the quarterback beyond the goal line for a second time, after Washington was penalised for encroachment many times for attempting to prevent it.
With 7 minutes and fifty-eight seconds to go, Barkley ran for four yards for his third touchdown.
With three minutes and three seconds remaining in the game, rookie Will Shipley completed the scoring with a touchdown run of two yards, following a 57-yard run. Running backs contributed to the Eagles’ 229-yard total.
Although he competed in last year’s 38-35 Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs, Mailata, a son of Samoan immigrants born in Sydney’s Bankstown neighbourhood, is making a triumphant comeback to the pinnacle of American football.
Mailata extended his contract with the Eagles last April for three more years, totalling $66 million (with a $US20 million signing bonus), ensuring his continued employment with the team until 2028.
The 27-year-old, who stands at 2.03 meters and weighs 166 kilogrammes, joins punter Ben Graham (2009), punter Mitch Wishnowsky (2020, San Francisco), and Arryn Siposs, who was Mailata’s Eagles teammate in their 2023 loss, as the fourth Australian to play in a Super Bowl.
Despite not playing a single snap that season due to injury, one Australian, Jesse Williams, does own a Super Bowl ring. Williams was a member of the Seattle Seahawks squad that won the championship in 2014.
The Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles will face either the Kansas City Chiefs or the Buffalo Bills.
In Monday morning’s second conference championship game, the Chiefs will host the Bills.
