The Eagles’ loss to the Jets, and the way it happened, felt like more than just a hiccup.
They made the kinds of mistakes that they don't usually make. They were hobbling anyway, then lost Lane Johnson. This felt like an outcome with ripples and repercussions.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Eagles weren’t supposed to do this. They were the team that doesn’t make dumb mistakes, that makes sure the little things are taken care of, that is buttoned up and zipped up and doesn’t beat itself.
The Eagles were not that team Sunday here at MetLife Stadium. They weren’t close to that team. They made one error after another against the Jets, who generally do everything they can to prevent their own quarterback, Zach Wilson, from undermining their own chances of victory. They dropped passes and were guilty of untimely penalties and committed four turnovers — the last of which, an interception of Jalen Hurts by safety Tony Adams, Hurts’ third of the game, led to the winning touchdown. This was a 20-14 loss that felt like more than just the Eagles’ first loss of this season. This felt like an outcome with repercussions.
Yes, the Eagles are 5-1 now, but by the time this one ended, they were without eight starters, plus two fill-ins, because of various injuries. The good fortune that smiled on them last season, when they entered Super Bowl LVII with their complete starting lineup, has vanished this season. And here come the Miami Dolphins, 5-1 themselves, with the fastest, most souped-up offense in the league, to Lincoln Financial Field next Sunday. The most challenging stretch of their schedule has only just begun.
Start with the obvious and most important injury and problem: Lane Johnson left the game in the first quarter with what was described officially as an injury to his ankle. He didn’t return, and his absence rippled down the rest of the offensive line and throughout the Eagles’ entire offense. Sua Opeta was already in for Cam Jurgens, and Jack Driscoll was not nearly as stout as Johnson usually is. When Hurts waited too long to throw the ball on a play early in the fourth quarter, taking a hit from Jets linebacker Jermaine Johnson that led to a Bryce Hall interception, it was easy to picture him forgetting that Johnson wasn’t out there at right tackle, building a wall to protect him.
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That one was bad, but a problem much worse was to come. The Jets have one of the NFL’s best defenses, fast and nasty, and they pushed Hurts and Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson to the limits of their creativity. And that trio came up short. Hurts began telegraphing throws — that late pick by Adams was nothing if not a throw that a smart defensive back knows is coming — and Brian Johnson and Sirianni struggled to dial up plays that freed receivers and created holes for D’Andre Swift.
“It would be unfair to say the injuries caused that,” center Jason Kelce said. “Obviously, Lane’s an incredible player. But Sua and Jack played a lot of good ball for us, and we feel pretty confident when those guys are in there for us. … It felt like the guys who are always in had their fair share of mistakes.”
When the Eagles did have those openings, they themselves closed them up again. The sequence that said everything about what kind of game this would be played out in the third quarter, with the Eagles holding in their hands both an eight-point lead and the chance to put the Jets away. First-and-10 at the New York 44-yard line, and an illegal-shift infraction pushed the Eagles backward 5 yards. Then Hurts made one of his sharpest throws of the game, stepping up in the pocket to find DeVonta Smith … only Smith dropped the pass. Then Hurts was sacked for an 8-yard loss. Not even a field-goal attempt out of a promising possession.
Everything turned then. The Jets were still in the game. Worse for the Eagles, the Jets knew they were still in the game, and they knew, based on the Eagles’ ragged performance, that they could chip away. They could call plays to minimize, as much as they could, the potential for Wilson to make a backbreaking mistake. They could settle for Greg Zuerlein field goals time after time, all the while keeping the pressure on the Eagles to pull away. It’s a common tale in the NFL, an underdog hanging around, hanging around, waiting for the favorite to mess up.
And mess up, the Eagles did. Jake Elliott missed a short field goal. Despite sacking Wilson five times, they never forced a turnover from a notoriously skittish quarterback. “All three phases,” wide receiver A.J. Brown said, “we didn’t play today.”
Yet there they were, with the offense on the field with two minutes to go, with Hurts seemingly in control. Running the ball to melt the clock? That would have been hard enough to do had Lane Johnson been healthy. Without him? Against this defense? It was never much of an option. “We were never at a point where it was like, ‘Hey, bleed the clock,’ right?” Sirianni said. As it turned out, trying a handoff would have been better than the horror that unfolded when Hurts dropped back on third-and-9 from the Eagles’ 46, misread the Jets’ coverage, looked too long at Dallas Goedert, and threw this season into a new light.