The food eventually got to the table, but, boy, were there plenty of shattered plates and busted chairs along the path. Jalen Hurts threw for his fewest passing yards (101) in a full game as a starter. A large chunk of it came on a 28-yard launch to DeVonta Smith that sealed the game. Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo blitzed Hurts on 12 of his 22 dropbacks. As a derivative, Smith and A.J. Brown saw more man coverage, which they relish. They relish it so much that they both said the Eagles erred in spending the early portion of the game \u201cchasing\u201d the big play, the moment when either of them would break free for the long ball.<\/p>\n
The big plays evaded the Eagles both through the air and on the ground. Hurts was truly sacked only once (the other occurred after tight end Grant Calcaterra recovered Hurts\u2019 fumble on the game\u2019s first play). The sixth-year quarterback spent most of the game scanning downfield with good protection, finding nothing and settling for shorter throws.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Chiefs and All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones stagnated Philly\u2019s inside zone runs. So, the Eagles switched to the outside and wrestled for results. Saquon Barkley, held under 100 yards rushing for the second straight week, broke through on a 13-yard touchdown for the game\u2019s first points. But he spent most of the game searching for that big lane that never opened. He later chided his lack of conditioning for heading to the sideline after the Eagles began a third-quarter drive by handing him the ball four straight times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI gotta do a better job of staying in,\u201d said Barkley, who finished with 88 yards on 22 carries. \u201cI gotta do a better job within that moment when we\u2019re leaning on them, to be able to stand in for those guys and crack a big one.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the Eagles chased \u201cthe big one,\u201d they traded punts with the Chiefs three times. Johnson called it \u201ca lot of stalemating.\u201d Confidence in the offense\u2019s potency waned. With two timeouts in his pocket and the Brotherly Shove in his playbook,\u00a0Eagles coach Nick Sirianni opted to let almost 30 seconds run off the clock and send Jake Elliott out on a fourth-and-1 at Kansas City\u2019s 35 to end the first half with a field goal that wound up being 58 yards after a false start penalty.<\/p>\n
Sirianni said he asked himself a question:\u00a0\u201cCan we score a touchdown on this drive?\u201d\u00a0The Eagles had to burn their first timeout to avoid a delay of game penalty. That left them with two timeouts. If they snuck Hurts, they\u2019d be down to one. They\u2019d still need to gain 30 yards \u2014 which they\u2019d failed to do on three of their first-half drives.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that point, I\u2019m thinking, \u2018I\u2019m probably not getting a touchdown on this drive,’\u201d Sirianni said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/USATSI_27085010-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Eagles haven\u2019t exactly picked up where they left off last season on offense, but it\u2019s still early in the season. (Denny Medley \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
That assessment doesn\u2019t reflect well on an offense that returned all but one starter from the system that won the city\u2019s second Super Bowl. The biggest distinction is at coordinator. It\u2019s fair to point out that it\u2019s only Patullo\u2019s second game. It took an urgent reassessment during the Week 5 bye for the 2024 Eagles to establish their identity under Kellen Moore.<\/p>\n
Hurts indirectly defended Patullo after the game by asking a pair of rhetorical questions: \u201cWho knows who they are in Week 2? Who knows who they are in Week 1?\u201d Such questions don\u2019t ring as hollow as they did during the 2023 collapse, partly because the players appear to be self-aware about the issue.<\/p>\n
Hurts also agreed that they spent too much time chasing the big play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I think when you come into a game, there\u2019s a level of patience you have to have, right?\u201d said Hurts, who was 15-of-22 passing for 101 yards and rushed nine times for 15 yards. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to take what they give you while being the aggressor and playing with aggression. And I think we were not as patient as we could have been earlier in the game. I\u2019d have to really assess the film to be able to follow that up. But I think in the second half, we kind of let things come to us, and we played with great instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith supplied both ends of the spectrum. The Eagles went chasing on a third-and-8 situation at the Chiefs\u2019 33 at the start of the third quarter, and Smith went down hard after a deep pass from Hurts fell incomplete along the left sideline. Smith briefly went into the medical tent while Elliott booted a 51-yarder that gave them a 13-10 lead. Then they let the big play happen.<\/p>\n
Rookie safety Drew Mukuba\u2019s goal-line interception of Mahomes gave the Eagles the ball at their 41. Six plays later, on third-and-10, Hurts anticipated Spagnuolo sending the house \u2014 and the Chiefs did. Hurts checked the play to Smith and got crushed as he unfurled the long ball Smith snagged at the Chiefs\u2019 3. Four plays later, Hurts snuck in for the two-score lead that sealed the team\u2019s second win.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came down on his back, but he came up in the clutch,\u201d Hurts said of Smith\u2019s two-play pairing.<\/p>\n
Sirianni is seizing moral victories for Hurts\u2019 efficiency as a passer and the offense\u2019s lack of turnovers through two weeks. Sirianni admitted ball-security \u201cis nothing sexy.\u201d He also acknowledged that the passing game must be more explosive. \u201cThat\u2019s going to open up everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He has defined explosive plays as runs of 10-plus yards and passes of 16-plus yards. The Eagles have totaled 10 such plays through two games, second fewest in that span only to the 2023 season (9) within the Sirianni era.<\/p>\n
The Eagles pride themselves on mastering the little things. And those things hardened their proverbial steak, too. Right guard Tyler Steen was driven back into Hurts during the offense\u2019s second drive, complicating a third-and-10 throw that fell incomplete. On the fourth drive, center Cam Jurgens was flagged for holding, negating a third-and-5 scramble by Hurts and leading to an eventual punt.<\/p>\n
Patullo will enter his third week with the undefeated Los Angeles Rams scheduled to arrive at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday. With another road trip to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers afterward, Patullo won\u2019t have the benefit of a Week 5 bye. The Eagles won\u2019t have a break until Week 9.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the expectation is that you\u2019re gonna pick up right where you left off,\u201d Sirianni said. \u201cThere\u2019s steps to this, right? There\u2019s steps for all the teams that are playing right now, and there\u2019s steps to get better. So as you\u2019re getting better, our goal is to play our best football by the end of the year. As you\u2019re getting better, find ways to win, get better, and then repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: David Eulitt \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2014 Let\u2019s look at this latest Philadelphia Eagles win like a food critic, shall we?…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":229005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,1105,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-229004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115208973736328410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}