“Our plan was to keep him in the pocket and (let him) beat him with his arm,” defensive lineman Kenny Clark said. “A lot of our rushes were power rushes trying to contain him, not get too crazy with our rushes and get forward too much. We probably limited him until the fourth quarter.”

The game couldn’t have started better for first-year defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and his staff. Safety Xavier McKinney intercepted a deep pass from Hurts to Smith and returned it to the Eagles’ 18-yard line.

Green Bay’s defense continued this on the next series, when defender Devonte Wyatt broke through Philadelphia’s front line and stopped a Hurts fumble at the Eagles’ 13-yard line.

Despite getting the ball into the red zone twice, Green Bay’s offense had to settle for two field goals. Philadelphia found its rhythm on its third series with Barkley’s 18-yard touchdown catch that capped an 11-play scoring drive.

Philadelphia would score on four straight possessions, with a slew of missed tackles and penalties hurting Green Bay. With the Packers still leading 19-17 into halftime, Brown hit a 67-yard, catch-and-run touchdown on just the second play of the second half to give the Eagles the explosive play they were desperately seeking.

“I really don’t think we did a great job today, and we just gave away little things that weren’t typical of us,” McKinney said. “Overall, as far as communication, execution of what Haf calls, we missed a lot of tackles today. Just a lot of things across the board that we need to improve on.”

The defense recovered somewhat after Brown’s TD, forcing the Eagles into back-to-back three-and-outs. That included a sequence in which Rashan Gary batted down a pass to Hurts at the line of scrimmage on first down before tackling him two plays later.

While an interception by Jordan Love deep in Green Bay territory saved the Eagles from a four-play, 24-yard scoring drive midway through the third quarter, Jaire Alexander intercepted a pass from Hurts in the end zone on Philadelphia’s next possession, keeping Green Bay in the game.

Any chance of a fourth-quarter comeback ended with a blistering 16-play, 67-yard drive by the Eagles that shaved 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 just 27 seconds left.

Barkley was a big 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 pair of ill-timed penalties, including questionable defensive holding penalties on Alexander and Clark, weighed heavily on that final Philadelphia series.

“We’ve got to be better there,” Clark said of the defense that couldn’t get off the field on that drive. “They gave me a holding call. I’ve got to look at it and see what they gave me. We’ve got to be better at the end of the day, we’ve got to be better.”

Despite Philadelphia finishing with 410 total yards and 34 points, McKinney still saw positives in the loss. The fifth-year safety said he addressed the team in the locker room after the game and told his teammates to have a sense of urgency to make necessary adjustments before next week’s home opener against the Indianapolis Colts.

“Defensively, I think we know what we need to do to improve this game,” McKinney said. “We’re going to take a hard look at ourselves when we watch this film on the road, and we’re going to be better, much better, next week.

“I think we know defensively we weren’t up to the standard we wanted to achieve, but we’re going to fix that and I don’t think we’ll have any problems going forward.”