AJ Brown was asked on Dec. 8 what the Philadelphia Eagles need to improve on offense. He mentioned the passing game, an honest answer that got a lot of attention, but a disproportionate amount.
But Brown wasn’t wrong.
And in the wild card round, we found out what he was talking about. And why did he have time to read a book in the second half of the game? It’s not like he or the other Eagles receivers were busy during Sunday’s 22-10 win over the Green Bay Packers.
Jalen Hurts played two full games and returned after missing most of the third game with a concussion, but he wasn’t feeling well. Hurts stretched from the end of the first quarter until 4:41 left in the third, but was unable to complete a pass. The Eagles’ best pass play of the game was a poor throw from Hurts that Dallas Goedert caught thrown behind him at the line of scrimmage and then stiffened into the end zone.
The Eagles had just 121 net yards passing. Philadelphia had a very conservative game plan, but it wasn’t executed all that well either. It was fine for Philadelphia as their defense was great and they beat Green Bay, but at some point in these playoffs the Eagles are going to need more than 121 passing yards to win. That led to Brown’s frustration more than a month ago, considering Philadelphia has had a quiet passing game many times this season. Philadelphia has 12 games with 210 or fewer passing yards this season, and it’s fair to wonder if Hurts can be effective when needed. And at some point, Philadelphia will need it, whether it’s a close divisional round game against the Los Angeles Rams, the NFC Championship Game or a shootout against Detroit in the Super Bowl.
Hearts can do that. It wasn’t that long ago that he put on a show and almost led the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory over the Chiefs. But Hurts’ performance for the rest of the postseason could be the difference between Philadelphia returning to the Super Bowl or being eliminated early.
Here are the power rankings of the eight teams remaining in the divisional round of the NFL playoffs.
