DeVonta Smith’s frustration boils over as questionable offensive choices lead to Eagles loss at Giants | Jeff McLane

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — DeVonta Smith wanted the ball. On the seven previous plays of the Eagles’ final drive, all of which were passes, the wide receiver wasn’t targeted. Jalen Reagor, meanwhile, had two Jalen Hurts’ throws come in his direction, the first he dropped.

The Eagles had one last gasp, though. And before the fourth down, Smith went over to coach Nick Sirianni and requested a play in which he would be the No. 1 option. The rookie’s animated gestures suggested he really wanted this to happen.

“He wants the ball in a critical situation like that,” Sirianni said.

Smith didn’t get it, Reagor did, and he dropped it. The Eagles didn’t lose to the New York Giants, 13-7, on Sunday solely because of the last-second miscue. Hurts’ reluctance to throw to his preferred receiver played as much a role in the fateful end, as did arguably the worst performance of his young NFL career.

The quarterback tossed three interceptions and that may be explanation enough for why the Eagles fell to 5-7 on a day in which they again rushed for over 200 yards. But Sirianni strayed early from the run game and what had been a mostly-winning formula over the last month, placing again, too much stress on Hurts’ arm.

» READ MORE: Eagles-Giants instant analysis: Costly turnovers from Jalen Hurts, Boston Scott doom offense in ugly loss

The coach corrected his early play-calling, but Hurts didn’t improve. And neither did well to involve their top two ball catchers — Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert — when the Eagles went to the air. Reagor had as many targets as the pair combined — seven — an indictment of the play-calling and execution.

When Hurts’ last gasp pass to Reagor went through his hands and to the turf at MetLife Stadium, Smith was visibly upset as he ran off the field. He chucked his helmet to the bench and the normally-reserved rookie yelled, apparently at no one in particular.

“I’m sure he was upset. I was upset, too,” Hurts said. “People express themselves differently. We came up short in the game, and it hurts.

“We had so many opportunities in the game to take advantage of.”

Indeed. But Hurts’ final pass should play on repeat in his head as the Eagles wheel back down the New Jersey Turnpike. Smith’s play of choice wouldn’t have worked well against the Giants’ two-deep coverage, according to Sirianni. But the coach’s call did have Hurts eyeing the short-crossing receiver as his first read.

Smith had a step, and then two as he circled up field. He even raised his right hand, and then his left as he flipped his hips. But Hurts was trigger-shy and moved to his left. And by the time he cocked, a Giants safety was over top. So he looked off Smith and tossed to Reagor over the middle just short of the goal line.

Several plays earlier, Reagor couldn’t pull in a deep heave that hit him in the claws, although Hurts’ slightly underthrown pass was contested by Giants cornerback Aaron Robinson.

“Just two drops,” Reagor said of his last two chances. “I would say very uncharacteristic.”

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Jalen Reagor takes ownership of late-game drops against Giants, saying he’ll ‘take the heat’

Drops haven’t exactly plagued the second-year receiver. But he hasn’t, for various reasons, lived up to being drafted in the first round. That is a Howie Roseman mistake, and is part of the equation when assessing why the Eagles lost to a beatable opponent.

Sirianni could find other options to take Reagor’s snaps, but the Eagles’ depth at receiver isn’t great, partly because of another failed early-round selection — JJ Arcega-Whiteside.

But the Eagles’ biggest issue, at least long-term, is Hurts’ deficiency in throwing. He had shown minor signs of improvement in throwing from the pocket. Fewer drops lowered the odds for poor decision-making or inaccurate passes.

He was exposed on Sunday, though. It didn’t help that the Eagles went 5 to 11 in terms of run-pass ratio on their first three, non-scoring drives.

“We saw some things in the play-action game and a couple things in the dropback game we wanted to expose,” Sirianni said, before agreeing that he may have drifted too far from the run early on.

The Giants schemed a few things up front and added an occasional body in the box to stop the run, according to running back Boston Scott. If so, Sirianni fell into their trap because when he did emphasize the run, and Hurts in it, the Eagles were productive.

The quarterback rushed eight times for 77 yards (9.6 average). Scott and Miles Sanders combined for 128 yards on 24 carries (5.3 avg.). But Hurts was an inconsistent mess by that point.

He missed open receivers. He threw into double coverage. His mechanics were sloppy. He inexplicably threw a pass just before the half that everyone watching knew he should have simply thrown away to preserve a field goal. He heaved his third when he checked to a deep Reagor route that he was late to recognize.

“It’s never going to be an A, B, C, or D if you turn it over three times,” Sirianni said of Hurts. “Obviously, he didn’t play good enough. And we didn’t coach good enough. It’s on all of us. It’s never just one guy.”

Hurts’ future in Philadelphia isn’t over just because of one bad game, just as it wasn’t certain because of his previous four-game stretch. He has five games left this season to further his cause. An argument could be made that he deserves more time to develop.

But how much patience will Roseman, Sirianni and owner Jeffrey Lurie have? They know as well as anyone that a run-heavy attack with a run-first quarterback isn’t sustainable if they want to be title contenders again.

They have to look inward at their own mistakes, though, in terms of personnel and play-calling. Is Reagor helping the cause? Was having Greg Ward as the No. 1 option on the goal line sprint out pass that he dropped the best use of personnel?

“We really felt confident in that play,” Sirianni said. “Didn’t work.”

Can’t Smith run that route, as well, or even better? There’s no way to double him in that situation, not that the Giants were devoting more bodies to the receiver aside from cornerback James Bradberry. The same mostly applied to Goedert.

“They doubled Dallas a couple times on third down,” Sirianni said.

But Goedert saw only one target on the Eagles’ final drive, and Smith saw zero.

“I love the fact that he wants the ball in crunch time,” Sirianni said of Smith, “and wants it on his shoulders when the game’s on the line.”

That he didn’t get that opportunity probably falls on both the coach and the quarterback. But it needs correcting.