Eagles Postgame Report: Eagles Push Past Kansas City Chiefs For Ninth Win

For the first time since losing the Super Bowl, the Eagles played Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, this time on Monday Night Football.

The teams matched three and outs before the Chiefs put the first points on the board. The Eagles matched with their own long drive.

Despite a three and out forced by the Eagles defense, Jalen Hurts through yet another pick just outside field goal range to endanger losing the lead again.

Kevin Byard made an interception in the end zone to prevent a score and keep it knotted up, but Hurts then took two sacks to put the Birds behind the sticks and the special teams failed again with a 21-yard return allowed on a short punt.

This setup the Chiefs for a rather easy score to take the lead once again. They continued to fold behind Hurts as the signal caller stood motionless for what seemed like 10 seconds, threw a pass for about two yards then ran directly into a defensive linemen for another loss and handing the ball directly back to the Chiefs for a field goal.

The defense came to play in the second half, but Brian Johnson also brought his terrible play calling and Hurts whiffed on his only deep attempt putting it where it was uncatchable. This left the Eagles stuck trailing as the offense failed entirely to engage their best playmakers.

Crazily enough, once the Eagles ran plays to get the ball into the hands of players like DeVonta Smith and DeAndre Swift, they suddenly managed to move the ball and use the defense’s aggressiveness to score a touchdown and get within a reasonable striking distance.

The defense was crumbling but in his return game Bradley Roby forced a fumble that Nicholas Morrow recovered in order to prevent another score. Brian Johnson followed that up with two more head scratchers and Hurst chose to run rather than throw on third and 10 for a quick punt back to the Chiefs. The Eagles defense was able to hold and for the first time all night, Jalen Hurts seemed to get into a groove and see his open receivers as the Eagles pushed the ball 80 yards downfield for a touchdown and their first lead of the game.

Brian Johnson dialed up a QB run and then a 0-yard pass on back to back plays on second and 23 and, shockingly, the Eagles had to punt it away.

With the game in the hands of their defense, the Eagles benefitted from a huge drop by Marquez Valdes-Scantling that prevented a touchdown and then forced an intentional grounding by Mahomes that resulted in the Birds getting the ball back with the Chiefs having burned all their timeouts.

Despite a terrible first half, the Eagles get the win over the now 7-3 Chiefs as their defense allowed 0 points in the second half while the defense found their footing to the tune of 14 points. The Eagles are now 9-1.

Offensive MVP: DeVonta Smith

On a night where the Eagles basically didn’t throw the ball successfully for three quarters, it was the Slim Reaper who was effective for the Birds. While AJ Brown totaled eight yards as the next top receiver outside of Swift in the backfield, Smith added 99 yards on six catches. He was open far more and simply didn’t get the ball thrown to him as Hurts missed him numerous times. He also should have had a touchdown, but the underthrown ball by Hurts forced him down at the one-yard line, so Hurts got credited with the touchdown that Smith earned.

Defensive MVP: Reed Blankenship

If Josh Sweat wasn’t constantly jumping offsides to start the game, he’d be the MVP. Instead, the award goes to Blankenship. His sure tackling resulted in eight tackles (seven solo) and his coverage was outstanding. I can only recall one time that his man was even targeted and it was a deep incompletion where he gave the refs absolutely no chance to throw a flag as he didn’t even touch the receiver as he ran with him. Outside the run game, he was almost invisible or a forgotten man on the broadcast with how little the ball got thrown anywhere in his direction.

Game Notes

• Josh Sweat might want to try listening and watching for the snap itself. No idea what happened to him, but he was offsides multiple times in this game with no explanation as to why. It’s not an issue he normally has so frequently.
• It’s a mystery what’s happened to Jalen Hurts. The Eagles had an easy way to take the lead with AJ Brown blowing by his guy but for some reason Hurts still chose to throw it short and inside despite no indication Brown would be doing that. It resulted in a pick instead of the points. It was clearly a miscommunication, but it’s hard to imagine the Hurts of last seasons missing such an easy chance for points.
• Lots of complaints on the offensive line – most of these should be directed at Jalen Hurts. He failed to find the open man on blitzes, stood still far too often for far too long and many of his runs or roll outs were into a defender instead of away from them. The offensive line can’t improve Hurts making so many poor decisions. Luckily, Hurts did start to find the plays that were there in the fourth quarter, but it’s unknown why those same throws weren’t being made the whole game.
• Brian Johnson. I don’t think the Eagles can go forward with his play calling. It becomes brain dead at points in every game and should be flat out embarrassing. Particularly players like Brown, Smith and Goedert should be furious this guy is still limiting their abilities.
• As poor as the defense played, they gave up 0 points in the second half against one of the NFL’s top teams. That’ll win games.
• Kevin Byard certainly had his problems in this game, but his interception in the end zone was key to the win.
• In a similar boat is Bradley Roby. He was burned for what could have easily been a touchdown for the Chiefs had MVS not dropped the ball, but his punching the ball out from Travis Kelce also kept points off the board in the red zone. The Eagles were lucky to have gotten him back.
• AJ Brown had his worst game of the season statistically, however he should have had a 48-yard touchdown. Hurts missed that there was no one deep and threw the ball in a scripted way rather than meeting his receiver up field. Brown almost turned the interception into a gain after fighting the ball back from Sneed, but his shin touched Sneed while he was down with the ball so the Eagles did not get the ball back.
• For how effective Milton Williams was, even on quick plays where there wasn’t enough time to get home, it would seem he’s worthy of more playing time.

Injury Notes

• Grant Calcaterra exited in the third quarter with an ankle injury. He did not return.
• Milton Williams went down at the very end of the third quarter after taking a hit to the head.  He did not return.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Kansas City Chiefs – November 20, 2023