The reigning Super Bowl Champions the Philadelphia Eagles were 5-0 going into Sunday’s game. They played the 2-3 New York Jets and were the favorite to win the game. Philadelphia got up to an early lead and quickly had 14 on the board by the first half. However, they then completely disappeared for the second half, not scoring once. Meanwhile, the Jets climbed all the way back and took the lead at the end finishing the game at 20-14. This raises many questions for all Eagles fans. What happened to the offense? Did the defense lock up the receivers? Did Jalen Hurts perform poor?
Why Couldn’t they Score in the Second Half?
Credit: New York Jets
The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts threw three interceptions, the last one being returned by Tony Adams, and he returned it 45 yards. This allowed Breece Hall to run it in for an 8-yard touchdown with 1:46 remaining in the fourth. The worrisome part of the game is the poor quality out of Jalen Hurts with the 3 interceptions. He tied his career worst for interceptions in a game while being up against the Jets who were missing the starting cornerbacks Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed. This causes concern for wondering how his performance may be against a team with a stronger pass defense.
Interestingly enough it wasn’t because of lack of possession. The eagles had held possession for almost the exact same amount of time as the Jets. The Eagles had 30 minutes and 44 seconds while the Jets had 29:16. And the Jets also punted 3 times in the second half. Thus, there were plenty of opportunities to drive down the field and score. This also lets you infer that the problem then relies within the offense and not the defense as they provided multiple stops allowing scoring. Unfortunately, these stops weren’t used as effectively as possible by the Eagles Offense.
Does the Blame Fall on Jalen Hurts?
Credit: Philadelphia Eagles
When looking at the statistics you can see that the run game was about even between the rushing yards and results. The Eagles total amount of rushing yards was 80 yards with 1 touchdown and the Jets had 89 yards with 1 touchdown as well. Therefore, I think the run game was not to blame for the loss. Of course, it would have been nicer to see more than 100 total rushing yards for the offense, but they didn’t get many either.
Eagles’ Offense
Credit: Philadelphia Eagles
The Passing Game was a different story. Jalen Hurts seemed to put on a better performance with more yardage than Zach Wilson at 280 yards for Hurts with 1 touchdown, while Wilson only recorded 186 yards with no touchdowns. Hurts had three interceptions however, meanwhile Wilson was wise with his decision making and didn’t throw any interceptions. This shows that Hurts may have gotten more yardage, but he also made risky decisions that hurt the team.
Eagles’ Defense
Credit: Philidelphia Eagles
Defensively the linemen didn’t perform as well as the Eagles defensive line. They recorded 5 sacks with 10 quarterback hits. Meanwhile, the Jets only recorded 2 sacks and 4 quarterback hits. This shows that the defensive line was actually worse than the Eagles’ line. Therefore, the eagles probably could have relied on the run game more because their offensive line was handling the Jets defensive line pretty well. However, the pass game is different. The Jets pass coverage didn’t necessarily lock up the receivers, however when they needed to, they came in clutch with 3 interceptions and 1 fumble recovery. Which mentioned earlier 1 of the interceptions led to a touchdown along with the fumble recovery leading to a field goal. This shows that the only thing that really kept New York in the game was their defense.
Was the Jets Defense responsible for the win?
I think it is possible to say that the person who actually kept the Jets in the game was Jalen Hurts. At the end of the day, he ended a possible scoring opportunity by making a bad decision and throwing the ball to the opposing team. Not only does it stop them from scoring, but it creates opportunities for the Jets to score. At the end of the day, they ended up scoring 14 total points because of turnovers. Against a better team if the Eagles played this way, they would have gotten embarrassed.
It will be interesting to see if the Eagles continue this slump or if they turn the momentum and start playing like the reigning Super Bowl champions they are. I think if they do poorly next week as well it may be a time to reconsider different players for positions to see if they can spark something. As of right now, the Eagles are looking disappointing and continue to follow the trend of playing to the opponent’s ability instead of their own.