Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, the Philadelphia Eagles were in trouble.
The first half was a disaster for the Eagles and their passing game. Jalen Hurts connected on 4-of-8 passes for just 17 yards over the first two quarters, but with the Rams defense sacking him four times for a loss of 18 yards, the Eagles went to the locker room for the halftime break with -1 yard in the passing game.
Philadelphia trailed 19-7 at that point, and the boo birds were out at Lincoln Financial Field.
That deficit grew to 26-7 before Hurts saw the field again, as the Rams scored on a touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Kyren Williams to open the scoring in the third quarter.
The Eagles needed someone to step up in a big way.
Enter their quarterback.
When the Eagles offense took the field, Hurts connected with A.J. Brown on an out route to the left side for an eight-yard gain, a completion met with a roar of belated approval from the fans.
The next completion to Brown, however, was a sign of things to come:
Facing 2nd-and-13 at their own 29-yard line, the Eagles catch the Rams spinning into single-high coverage. Hurts takes advantage of the one-on-one matchup with Brown along the right side of the field, dropping in a perfect throw on the vertical route to get Philadelphia into Rams’ territory.
Hurts capped off that drive with a strike to Dallas Goedert on this four verticals concept for the Eagles’ touchdown:
On this play, Hurts catches the Rams spinning into an inverted Cover 2 look, and he spots Goedert splitting the two deep defenders in the middle of the field. An easy pitch-and-catch leads to the touchdown, and suddenly the Eagles have some life.
One of Hurts’ biggest throws in the comeback came on Philadelphia’s next drive. After the defense forced a punt from Stafford and the Rams, the Eagles too over on their own 13-yard line. But a pair of incompletions put Philadelphia into 3rd and long, and they needed a big play.
Cue DeVonta Smith:
The Eagles run a mesh concept with Brown and Jahan Dotson running the shallow crossers underneath and Goedert running a deep sit route over those two routes. But with Los Angeles dropping into a two-deep zone, there are not many options for Hurts.
But he gets to the backside dig from Smith late in the play, finding him in front of the deep safeties for a 16-yard gain, and a huge third-down conversion for the Eagles.
Philadelphia capped off that drive with a back-shoulder throw to Brown in the end zone for the touchdown, cutting the Rams’ lead to just five.
The comeback was not complete, as the Eagles needed another touchdown to take the lead. After the two teams traded drives that ended in fourth-down stops, the Rams marched downfield and set up for a 36-yard field goal that would have given them an eight-point lead with under nine minutes left.
But Jalen Carter blocked the attempt from Josh Karty, and while he was flagged after the play to pin the Eagles deep in their own territory, Philadelphia had a chance to take the lead.
Early in their ensuing possession, they just needed to pick up a first down, which they did on a completion to Brown, who bullied his way through multiple defenders on a 25-yard gain, with 15 of those yards coming after the catch.
Another catch-and-run connection between Hurts and Brown moved the Eagles deep into Rams’ territory:
Still, the Eagles needed one more play from their offense, which they got on fourth down a few moments later. Facing 4th-and-goal on the Rams’ 4-yard line, Hurts found Smith in the front corner of the end zone on a perfectly placed out route to put the Eagles ahead:
He connected on 17-of-24 passes in the second half for three touchdowns in the comeback effort.
But the job was not done, as the Rams drove into position for what might have been the game-winning field goal on the final play.
On the Eagles’ sideline, however, Hurts was not worried.
“There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that someone was going to make a play on their field goal, especially looking at those two Georgia guys [Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis] lined up next to each other,” said Hurts after the win.
That faith was rewarded as Davis blocked Karty’s attempt to preserve the win, before scooping up the loose football and returning it for the exclamation point to cap off a dramatic comeback.
After the game, Hurts talked about what changed in the second half.
“It was a matter of just figuring it out, I think,” began the Eagles quarterback.
“Let me just set the pace here. When you look at a game, and a game like that and you are able to find a way to win. I know we’re going to point the fingers and point our attention to what’s going on on the offensive side of the ball, but we won the game,” continued Hurts. “We were gritty in the game. We stayed together as a team. We did not quit. Nobody gave up in competitive sports. That’s what it’s about, and I’m very proud of that. I’m not proud of how we started the game; I’m not proud of the flow in which we played the execution and the focus that we had earlier in the game. I am proud of everybody not giving up, and everybody being determined to find a way to win the game.”
Late last season, a question emerged regarding the Eagles. While Philadelphia looked like one of the main contenders in the NFC, some questioned if the Eagles’ passing game was good enough. What, some surmised, if the Eagles trailed and needed to be one-dimensional in a comeback effort?
That theory was not tested until Sunday. But in the comeback effort Philadelphia showed they could throw their way back into a game if needed.
Hurts took note of that fact after the game.
“The beautiful part about it is we’ve been able to play and win in multiple ways. We’ve been able to play defensive games, play well on defense, and protect the ball and win games,” said the Eagles quarterback in his post-game presser. “We’ve been able to be very efficient and potent and have a lot of fireworks on offense over time and find ways to win games. We’ve been able to come back from very, very ugly situations and it’s a dangerous thing. And [Head] Coach [Nick] Sirianni, he talks about it’s a dangerous thing when the group never gives up, and this group never gave up.
“That’s what I’m very proud of.”
With good reason.