Eagles film review: How Jalen Hurts, Kellen Moore unlocked the middle of the field vs. Bengals

By most statistical metrics as well as the eye test, the Eagles’ 37-17 win against the Cincinnati Bengals was one of the best games of Jalen Hurts’ career.

The 26-year-old quarterback finished 16-for-20 for 236 yards with one passing touchdown and another three rushing scores to go with it. Looking at his 80% completion rate, 11.8 yards per attempt, and 132.5 passer rating, each ranks in the top five of his career so far and his completion percentage over expected was the highest in his career as well, according to Next Gen Stats.

Especially considering Hurts was coming off an uneven performance against the New York Giants the weekend before, there were a few notable differences in the Eagles’ offensive approach against Cincinnati and Hurts’ play in general. To identify what changed, let’s review the film:

The Bengals scoring a touchdown on their opening series put the onus on the Eagles offense to start faster than it has at any point this season. After a Saquon Barkley 7-yard run got the Eagles into a manageable second down, Hurts did well to step up in the pocket and scramble for 7 yards, largely thanks to an impressive block by Lane Johnson picking up a late-blitzing linebacker.

After another first-down run from Barkley, the Eagles dialed up something we’ve seldom seen from them this year: a middle-field route concept off a play-action fake, read out and executed perfectly by Hurts.

» READ MORE: Have the Eagles found their offensive identity after pounding the Bengals? Jalen Hurts says he’s been pushing for it.

The second-and-8 play called by offensive coordinator Kellen Moore sent Jahan Dotson on a deep dig route with DeVonta Smith clearing space in the middle of the field on a skinny post route from a slot alignment across from Dotson. Dotson got jammed at the line, affecting the timing of the side Hurts read out first, leading to Hurts working back toward A.J. Brown running a deep dig of his own from the other side of the formation.

It’s subtle, but it’s also worth noting that Hurts kept a wide base while going through his reads, making it easier for him to time the throw to Brown as he shifted from one side of the field to the other.

Hurts’ pass to Brown was well-placed and well-timed, two things that are typically required for passes to the intermediate middle of the field. It’s an area he hasn’t targeted often, especially in the early going of the season. The decision also showed some necessary patience and caution from Hurts, who was picked off targeting Smith on a similar skinny post against a two-high zone defense in Week 1.

The opening series ended with one of Hurts’ four incomplete passes, a play the offense has leaned heavily on throughout the season with mostly positive results.

The Bengals came out in press coverage with their cornerbacks walked up to the line of scrimmage and two deep safeties. Hurts identified Brown’s one-on-one matchup against Cincinnati cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt and targeted Brown on a go route. The pass was a few yards long for Brown, who caught go balls in high-leverage moments against both the Giants and the Cleveland Browns the week before, but the play illustrates the drawbacks of being over-reliant on low-percentage downfield shots to sustain things.

The Eagles used a noticeably higher amount of play-action passes to unlock the middle of the field against the Bengals with success as well.

According to Pro Football Focus, seven of Hurts’ 22 dropbacks featured play-action fakes, which comes out to 31.8% of the time. By comparison, just 21.2% of his dropbacks this season have come on play-action concepts. On those seven play-action dropbacks, Hurts went 5-for-6 for 114 yards, five first downs and one touchdown.

With how dominant Barkley has been this season, it makes sense for the Eagles to leverage his impact on the second and third level of opposing defenses with run fakes, something that contributed to Hurts’ biggest throw of Sunday’s game.

Taking a deep shot midway through the third quarter, Hurts faked the handoff to Barkley out of the shotgun and drew Bengals safety Jordan Battle a few yards toward the line of scrimmage as a result. Running a post from the slot once again, Smith was the benefactor as he got isolated with Battle as the safety scrambled to regain the depth he’d given up at the start of the play.

» READ MORE: DeVonta Smith’s improbable TD catch for the Eagles underscores a bounce-back day vs. Bengals

The 45-yard touchdown required an accurate pass from Hurts and an acrobatic contested catch by Smith, but the one-on-one matchup favored the star wideout in part because of Barkley’s influence. According to Next Gen Stats, Hurts’ pass traveled 59.3 yards, which was the longest of his career.

One of the Eagles’ best play designs also started with a fake handoff to Barkley and Smith on a post route. Facing first-and-10 early in the third quarter, the Eagles lured Cincinnati’s linebackers underneath first with a run fake and then with a crossing route from Jack Stoll paired with a flat route from Barkley going the other way. On the back end, Smith drew the attention of the middle-field safety in Cincinnati’s three-deep zone coverage while Brown occupied the cornerback responsible for his outside third.

On the opposite side of the field, Smith’s post route also generated enough traffic for the other outside-third defender and created a massive void in the middle of the field for Grant Calcaterra to occupy on a deep crossing route situated between Brown’s go route and Stoll’s shallow cross.

Take note of Brown blowing by a slipping Taylor-Britt, but it’s hard to fault Hurts for targeting Calcaterra for a 28-yard completion on the perfectly drawn-up and executed route concept.

While there were some notable developments for the offense, the outside-the-numbers concepts the group has leaned heavily on this season were still there when needed against the Bengals.

Hurts hit Brown on a stop route against Cover 3 early in the third quarter when the game was still hanging in the balance, taking advantage of the one-on-one matchup Brown got against Bengals corner DJ Turner.

Brown’s stop route gave the Bengals trouble earlier in the game as well, with the Eagles converting a third-and-16 against a seemingly blown zone coverage by Cincinnati.

Even with the confounding amount of space Brown found, the conversion still required Hurts to place his throw between two layers of the defense.

Overall, the Eagles are starting to build effective punches and counterpunches behind their dominant running game and play-action game off of it. It’s worth mentioning Hurts was pressured on just three of his 21 dropbacks, but the rhythm he found midway through the game and the middle-field completions especially are an encouraging sign going into the second half of the season nonetheless.