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Eagles passing game springs to life against Steelers after week of narratives, accountability

16 December 2024Last Update :
Eagles passing game springs to life against Steelers after week of narratives, accountability

PHILADELPHIA — And there everyone was. Same locker. Same player.

How much a difference a week makes. How much a difference an uncomfortable conversation can have. Last week, A.J. Brown had put the parameters of his team’s offensive problems into a single word. Passing. Buried beneath the bogus narrative of personal conflict (worsened and elongated by the team itself) there was actually professional accountability. Brown said what everyone on the Philadelphia Eagles knew: If they were to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender, they needed a talent-laden passing game to be more than the limping limb to a historic rushing attack.

They needed Jalen Hurts to deliver the transcendent performance he’d yet to field. They needed to prove that by passing they could pick up the slack for other pieces that couldn’t always be relied upon to be dominant. They needed to do exactly what they did on Sunday in a 27-13 beatdown of the Pittsburgh Steelers at Lincoln Financial Field. They became a definitive contender to win the franchise’s second Super Bowl title, a playoff-bound 12-2 team that’s now tied with the Detroit Lions for the NFC’s No. 1 seed.

They punished an opposing defense that was counting on stopping the run. Hurts was 25-of-32 passing for 290 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday. He completed as many passes as he had the previous two games combined. The Eagles started out slinging: Hurts up the seam to Grant Calcaterra for 22 yards; Hurts to Brown on a 7-yard slant; Hurts to DeVonta Smith for a 20-yard crosser. A 34-yard Jake Elliott field goal put points on the board for only their third opening drive of the season. At 3-0, they seized control of a game their defense wouldn’t let go.

The Eagles outgained the Steelers 148-2 in net offensive yards during the first quarter. Hurts completed 12 of his first 13 passes for 146 yards. There was the timing and touch that had been absent for nearly a month. And how did the passing game improve? “We decided to water it,” Hurts said. In less metaphorical terms, they met over it. Extra. Brown said they had meetings together “on top of the meetings that we already have.” They ensured they’d all be on the same page. Hurts. Brown. Smith. The trio that had taken this regime to its first Super Bowl appearance.

There hadn’t yet been a game in 2024 when Brown and Smith had both totaled 100 yards receiving. Consider that atoned: Brown (110), Smith (109). Both caught touchdowns. Hurts found Brown on a 5-yard, first-quarter toss in which Brown slipped by cornerback Donte Jackson. Hurts pushed their lead to 17-3 in the second quarter on a 2-yard slant to Smith that’d been freed by a well-placed pick. Both required the repetitions that place the teammates on the same page. Consider Brown’s call-out a recalibration, a necessary catalyst between fierce competitors to inspire the measures they knew they needed to take.

“It’s easy for us to have these tough conversations, to call each other out, because we know what we want at the end,” Brown said. “It makes it easier when we’re close.”


Ask Smith, and it also was just a matter of time. The Eagles offense had been pummeling its opponents with a historic dosage of Saquon Barkley. When the Steelers arrived wielding the NFL’s fourth-best rush defense in terms of yards per game (91.5), the Eagles coaching staff knew they’d need to lean on a game plan in which Hurts was at his best. Previously indecisive, Hurts took aim with confidence. He averaged 3.37 seconds per throw — nearly a half-second faster than the average of his releases against the Carolina Panthers (3.79). Eagles coach Nick Sirianni has repeatedly branded Hurts as a “winner.” Indeed, the fifth-year quarterback delivered in a plan in which he was the prominent feature, despite playing through a broken ring finger on his left hand.

“Yeah, I mean, we always knew that it was going to come a time when we need to rely on throwing the ball, and it happened that we were there to answer,” Smith said. “… It was just a matter of getting that one team that just wanted to stop the run and wanted us to win the game through the air.”

Barkley totaled 19 carries for 65 yards, the second-fewest yardage of his stellar season. The MVP candidate was briefly sidelined just before halftime, dealing with discomfort he didn’t disclose. He played the remainder of a second half in which the Eagles lengthened their lead by shutting out a Steelers offense that had scored 71 points in its previous two games against the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns. Russell Wilson completed 14-of-22 passes for a season-low 128 yards. Much of it was gained on a 31-yard flea-flicker in the third quarter. No Steelers player rushed for more than 14 yards. They averaged a season-low 3.3 yards per carry. They didn’t gain a first down until their sixth drive of the game.

Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s unit has reached peak performance within the team’s 10-game win streak. He sets several goals for the defense each week, each supporting their main goal: Win. One of the goals, edge rusher Josh Sweat said, is holding their opponent to 17 points or less. Their last 10 opponents have averaged 15.1 points per game.

“We just want to impose our will on anybody that we can,” safety Reed Blankenship said.

The Eagles defense substantially increases its team’s margin of error. Hurts lost a fumble in the first quarter. Sweat subsequently had a three-and-out forcing sack that led to a punt rookie Cooper DeJean coughed up at the Eagles 11. The Steelers lost eight yards — partly due to a small dust-up after tight end Darnell Washington was penalized for blocking Eagles cornerback Darius Slay beyond the whistle — then kicked a field goal.

Leading 17-10 with 1:29 left in the first half, Braden Mann got off a punt from Philadelphia’s own 16 that traveled a season-low 29 yards. Edge rusher Nolan Smith sacked Wilson to limit Pittsburgh to a 49-yard field goal that drew the Steelers within 17-13 at halftime. After Elliott’s 41-yard field goal made it 20-13 in the third quarter, the Steelers had one final opportunity to tie the game. Wilson’s flea-flicker to Calvin Austin reached the Eagles’ 39, but, three plays later, Najee Harris muffed a toss that was recovered by Slay.

And this is where the passing game was once again required. Hurts completed two third-down throws on a 13-play, 74-yard touchdown drive that set the final score and took 6:33 off the clock. The Steelers punted a final time with 10:29 left in the game, and they never got it back. The Eagles drained the clock dry. There was 9:47 left in the game when Hurts hummed a third-and-6 from his own 7 that Brown took for 21 yards. Conjure any memory of the passing game from the past two weeks, and it’s not difficult to imagine Mann punting again near his own goal line to a Steelers offense that might’ve tied the game earlier had Harris not fumbled. But instead, the Eagles unfurled a demoralizing 21-play, 99-yard drive that ended with Hurts kneeling.

“The want-to to win games, the want-to to have time of possession is very high,” left tackle Jordan Mailata said. The Eagles offense played the entire second half with backup Tyler Steen replacing Landon Dickerson (knee). Still, they remained in sync, largely due to the extra time Hurts, Brown and Smith and the Eagles coaching staff spent “watering” the passing game during the week. Hurts admitted they’d largely been a run-oriented team that took advantage of defenses through play-action passes. They’d neglected an aspect that also makes them potent. Brown says their extra meetings will continue. They’ve now proven they can be a complete offense. They know they can’t let that part of their proverbial garden go dry.

“I think (our offense is) really just whatever we have to be,” Smith said. “We have to be a team that’s going to run the ball however many times? We’re going to do that. A team that’s going to have to throw the ball however many times? We’re going to do that. A team that’s going to have to throw the ball however many times? We’re going to do that. So whatever it takes to win, I feel like this team is going to do it.”

(Top photo of Jalen Hurts: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)

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