Eagles’ A.J. Brown says lack of playoff production is circumstantial: ‘Right now, none of that matters’

While A.J. Brown watched film of the Eagles’ win over the Los Angeles Rams with his teammates earlier this week, the wintry mix occluding the footage served as a necessary reminder of what they contended with most of the evening.

The star wide receiver finished with just two catches for 14 yards and mishandled a couple of his targets, particularly as a few inches of snow descended onto Lincoln Financial Field. One of the biggest missed opportunities came in the second quarter, when Brown bobbled a possible touchdown pass near the sideline, securing the ball after he slid out of bounds.

When asked about the miscues in the lead-up to this Sunday’s NFC championship game against the Washington Commanders, Brown said the conditions were his primary takeaway from his uncharacteristically quiet performance.

“That damn snow,” Brown said, laughing. “Yeah, it was tough. A lot of opportunities left out there. I’m not the one to make excuses, but I hold onto that ball 99 times. But it happens, and when stuff like that happens, your attention to detail has to go up. In that moment, I slipped. I’m human, it is what it is, but I still have all the confidence in the world in myself and my guys, my teammates, my quarterback.”

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Brown’s confidence comes at a time when his production and the passing game as a whole have taken a dip. Brown had one catch for 10 yards in the wild-card round against the Green Bay Packers, receiving just three targets as the offense leaned heavily on running back Saquon Barkley. Despite having seven targets against the Rams, Brown was charged with two drops by Pro Football Focus in another lackluster performance.

After voicing his frustration with the Eagles’ stagnant passing game midway through the regular season, Brown has taken a different tune in the last couple weeks, though. On Wednesday, he reaffirmed that he’s prioritizing the team’s success and even his role occupying defensive backs in the running game over the individual stat lines he has finished with in each of the Eagles’ postseason wins.

“I can’t worry about what happened in the past or even these past two games,” Brown said. “I only can look at the film and learn from it. It’s just kind of how the games have been going. Like I said after the game, I’m OK, we won, I had some incredible blocks to spring touchdowns. Regardless of if the numbers are not there, I know people care about that, but right now none of that matters. It’s all about getting a win at the end of the day, so it doesn’t matter.”

Brown has been managing a knee injury since the end of the regular season. The team listed him as a limited participant on the injury report on Wednesday with a “knee/rest” designation, although Eagles coach Nick Sirianni elected to hold a walk-through, making the report an estimation.

Brown said his knee was “getting better,” on Wednesday, which could be an important development given the way the Eagles’ previous meeting with the Commanders finished. With Jalen Hurts leaving the Week 16 matchup early after suffering a concussion, Washington committed more resources toward stopping the run and bottled up Barkley to mount a second-half comeback and post a 36-33 win.

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Barkley, who had just 27 yards on 16 carries in the second half against Washington, said the offense will be prepared for the Commanders defense potentially using a similar approach in response to his postseason production.

“I think they sold out on the run,” Barkley said Wednesday. “It worked for them in the second half. In the grand scheme of things, we still put up [33] points and had an opportunity to win the football game. It ended up in our hands and we didn’t do that.”

“We’re prepared for whatever they’re going to bring,” Barkley added. “From here on out, any team going against us, with the explosive plays we’ve had running the ball throughout the season … we know it’s going to be a key focus for a lot of teams, especially Washington coming up, but whatever they want to do, we’re ready for it.”