Eagles Postgame Report: Eagles Win Dogfight Over Browns

What a game this one was.

The Eagles were coming off a by playing a Browns team that not only has an absurd amount of injuries, but is generally a terrible team with a 1-4 record on the year. Of course, that didn’t matter to the sad-sack Eagles, who had themselves in a dog fight with the bottom feeders.

The Eagles first two offensive drives saw them get some success when they ran the ball, but ultimately ended as they put the ball in Jalen Hurt’s hands, who took nearly the entire first quarter before he even managed to get the ball TO his receiver (and I don’t mean a catch, I mean the ball actually went far enough that a receiver could have stopped running and dove backwards to make a catch).

On defense, there was a strong first half with three punts to start off the game. Some missed tackles and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, for no apparent reason other than his incredible stupidity, tackling Quinyon Mitchell as he was about to make the interception let the Browns hang on for a field goal. Those were the lone points the defense allowed in the first half.

The offense finally got going as Hurts moved to short and intermediate passes that ultimately opened up a few deep passes later. With Hurts in a groove for the first time in weeks, the offense finally seemed to get going. They had a 58-yard drive for a field goal, an 84-yard touchdown drive (with an incredible catch by AJ Brown after he had to stop running and then fight off the DB to make the catch since Hurts didn’t hit him in stride), and then seemed to be heading for another touchdown to end the half.

Instead, on second and two, Saquon Barkley inexplicably ran out of bounds to stop the clock but didn’t get the first down before doing so despite the fact that he easily could have. Then he, I guess, decided to brush dust off the linebacker’s shoulder pads (whatever he did certainly isn’t classified as blocking) on third and one to allow a quick sack. That setup a 57-yard field goal that Myles Garrett blocked and Rodney McLeod returned for a touchdown to tie up the game.

Really, it could have been a 17-0 game had the Eagles players (namely Barkley, CJGJ, and Hurts) not screwed up huge plays to put the Browns in the game.

The defense came out of the half and gave up a few chunks, but forced a long field goal that was missed, giving the offense good field position. The offense, naturally, turned that momentum into a three and out. Braden Mann punted the Browns into tight quarters by their own endzone and the defense was able to handle the Browns as they were handicapped to running following a sack on first down.

Ultimately, the offense got the ball back with five yards of benefit in the field position battle. Penalties, poor blocking and poor passes forced them to settle for another field goal.

On a key play where the Eagles defense could have put away the Browns momentum completely, they allowed a 21-yard game on a screen pass on third and 10 that allowed Cleveland to continue the drive. They then proceeded to allow chunk after chunk until they finally stepped up and that tied the game back up with a 49-yard field goal allowed.

The Eagles went to Smith for the first time in the second half and Smith took it 45 yards to the house to put the Eagles ahead. The defense looked poise to give up the TD, but a goal-line stand and some penalties on the Browns forced them to settle for the field goal.

The Eagles were able to move the chains enough to burn all the Browns timeouts and run out the clock after a nice (underthrown) rainbow catch by AJ Brown for 40 yards. Now in the red zone, the Eagles offense was able to kneel down to end the game.

Offensive MVP: DeVonta Smith

The man who not only got the offense moving the ball in the first half that opened up the downfield touchdown to Brown also scored his own touchdown on a short catch and long run. He had three catches for 64 yards and around 55 of those yards came from his running the ball following the catch. The offense stalled repeatedly when he wasn’t targeted and it wasn’t until they hit him again for the first time in the second half that the offense got back into the endzone and could begin moving the ball well once again. He needs to be targeted with more regularity moving forward to ensure that the ball isn’t only going to one guy on the majority of targets.

Defensive MVP: Quinyon Mitchell

There probably wasn’t as good of an end-to-end performance on this defense than Mitchell in this one. He was a lockdown corner once again and even should have had an interception had he not had a self-centered moron for a teammate at safety. Not only did he play the top defense but he should have had the biggest splash play for the team and played well even after that was taken away from him by his own players.

Game Notes

• After all of this talk about how Hurts and Sirianni were working all during the bye week, the QB came out with five straight incompletions on balls that didn’t even get to his receivers let alone hit them in stride. I don’t know that you can have anything more damning regarding preparation than touting how hard you’re working and then failing to get the ball where it needs to go.
• What does CJGJ even do? How is he so stupid that he would willingly go over and try to take the interception that Mitchell has in the bag and screw the team in the process making sure two defenders took a hit and the Browns keep the ball? There needs to be a case study done on how someone so dumb has made it this far in life.
• Jahan Dotson had 13 yards on his only touch through three quarters and 10 on his lone catch. I don’t understand why they aren’t drawing up more plays intended to go to him, even in short yardage. Wasn’t part of the reason the team traded for him that defenses are focused on Brown and Smith? If that’s the case, guess who can frequently be running across the middle of the field against a linebacker/safety for easy catch and runs.
• DeVonta Smith is what really got Hurts into a groove. His short and intermediate passes that he’d take for an extra 5-10 yards got the offense humming for a short time but then he wasn’t targeted for the latter half of the second quarter or the entire third quarter as Hurts began to lock onto AJ Brown for many of the passes. It’s unclear why those routes to Smith stopped being used/targeted.
• You know what’s not a great look for a struggling QB? Your left tackle going down with an injury and walking to the sideline laughing. Seemed like the coach there was joking with him, but that seems like something that’s will get fans on Hurts beyond just the sub-par play.
• Strong play by Kelee Ringo in short bouts of relief, both from a coverage and a physicality perspective.
• Grant Calcaterra may be an awful blocker, but the offense finally used him as a real receiving threat where he can produce. Four catches for 67 yards in relief of Goedert was needed to keep drives moving.
• Strong play by Kelee Ringo in relief and Johnson at left tackle didn’t seem to be too large of a drop off. That’s good depth there.
• Nakobe Dean is just not it. Through these first five games, he’s had maybe one where he’s made the plays he needs to. He is in position and either gets pushed around like a ragdoll or gets to the play and whiffs on the tackle, the PBU, whatever play he’s in position to make. At this point, it looks like he may be a solid defensive coach for the team, but it may very soon be time to give Ben VanSumeren or Jeremiah Trotter Jr. some run at the position. There isn’t much to lose with the play you are getting from Dean most often.
• Barkley had just 54 yards in this one. It’s fair to put the lone Browns touchdown on his shoulders for two straight garbage plays and his one rush that should have been a huge gain he ran into Lane Johnson for no apparent reason instead of cutting to the wide open middle-right of the field. This was easily his worst game as an Eagle and his play (or lack thereof) was a large reason the Browns were able to keep this close.
• For the first time in what seems like forever, the Eagles and Jalen Hurts specifically did not turn the ball over in this game. That’s probably the difference between the win and the loss here. It’s a step in the right direction, but Hurts still isn’t close to the 2022 form he had.
• Those two deep catches to Brown were beautiful catches – and that’s part of the problem. Neither of them should have had to be incredible catches. AJ Brown was clean and had separation, but in both instances Hurts underthrew the ball to the point AJ Brown had to stop running and that allowed the defender to get into the play and make a play on the ball. It’s forcing unnecessary hits on brown and allowing defenders a chance on plays they shouldn’t have any at all. Those are just a few examples of what’s been happening for the past season of play from Hurts and it isn’t improving.

Injury Notes

• Dallas Goedert left the field following the first drive of the game and he did not return.
• Darius Slay exited with a knee injury and was replaced with Isaiah Rodgers.
• Jordan Mailata went down in the fourth quarter and was replaced by Fred Johnson. Mailata was carted to the locker room.
• Isaiah Rodgers went down with an apparent hand injury and was replaced by Kelee Ringo. Ringo played well but Rodgers was able to return.

Cleveland Browns @ Philadelphia Eagles – October 13, 2024