‘Everybody shut up’: A.J. Brown, Eagles passing game do the talking after a week of ‘uncomfortable conversations’

A.J. Brown spotted the light aircraft circling over Lincoln Financial Field on his ride over to the stadium. Attached to the plane was a banner that read in all caps, “ENOUGH FAKE NEWS! PHILLY STANDS WITH 1 & 11.”

“That was cool,” Brown said with a chuckle. “That was cool.”

A few hours later, Nos. 1 (Jalen Hurts) and 11 (Brown), hooked up for the Eagles’ first touchdown in their eventual 27-13 victory over the Steelers, and after the receiver scored he beelined to his quarterback and the pair celebrated like Kid ‘n Play in House Party.

“That was our moment,” Brown said, “to tell everybody to shut up.”

There were other moments more important than the dance — and plenty of them — to show that Brown and Hurts were simpatico. But the former’s role in drawing attention to what ailed the passing offense a week ago — and caused Brandon Graham to initially declare the tandem no longer friends — shouldn’t go unnoticed.

Graham walked back his comments, but he gave speculators the ammunition they needed to question Brown and Hurts’ relationship. But Brown wasn’t apologizing for cracking a few eggs if it meant fixing the Eagles’ air attack.

On a day in which Hurts had his best passing performance of the season, and the Eagles’ top two receivers caught a combined 19 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns, Brown agreed that his public airing helped lead to Sunday’s result.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I said it for a reason. I didn’t have ill intentions behind it. It wasn’t for me to get the ball. It was just for us to all get on the same page and put our best foot forward. We know what we’re capable of, and last week wasn’t our standard.

“It’s just crazy, though, because everybody in the locker room said the same thing and I kind of got crucified for it. But it was cool.”

DeVonta Smith, Jordan Mailata, and Hurts also weren’t satisfied with last week’s passing performance in a lackluster win over the Panthers. But the frustration from Brown had been building for weeks as the Eagles kept winning behind the strength of Saquon Barkley and the running game.

Sure, he wants the ball and wants to have an impact. Smith has the same confidence in his ability to affect the outcome. But they knew there would come a time when Hurts would have to drop more than hand off and that time, fittingly, came against one of the NFL’s better defenses in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers devoted additional defenders in stopping Barkley. But the Eagles knew that was likely to happen coming in, and they knew that Hurts would have opportunities to take advantage of coverages that could be predictable.

“We’re going to focus on what we need to do, not what everybody else thinks we need to do,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “Our focus and our main thing for each and every week is how do we win this football game? Today we had to pass for 290 yards, and that was just a great job by our guys.”

» READ MORE: Eagles grades: Nick Sirianni kept the team focused vs. Steelers amid drama, and the passing game thrived

It was clear from the get-go, though, that Sirianni and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore were going to try and rebuild Hurts’ confidence in his arm. On the very first play, the Eagles opened with an empty backfield and the quarterback hit tight end Grant Calcaterra on a seam route for 22 yards.

Three of the next four plays went to Brown or Smith. The offense stalled and settled for a field goal. Moore went heavy on the ground on the next series, but that’s when it became clear that the Steelers often had an extra man in the box.

The Eagles were forced to punt for Braden Mann’s lone boot of the game. And for the next 2½ quarters, Hurts and his receivers carved the Pittsburgh back seven up. They didn’t do so on downfield throws, however. Calcaterra’s catch was Hurts’ longest in terms of air yards.

It was short-to-intermediate routes that exposed the Steelers — early in the game and early on downs vs. man coverage. and later on and later in downs vs. zone. Brown pulled in throws on slants and back shoulders near the sideline, while Smith did much of his work on crossing routes and grabs over the middle.

All told, the receivers were targeted 23 times — the most since over a year ago vs. the Cowboys. And their combined 19 catches — Brown had eight for 110 yards and Smith 11 for 109 yards – were the most they’ve had in three years together.

Hurts, overall, completed 25 of 32 passes for 290 yards.

“So that’s what you all wanted to see, huh?” Hurts said as he sat down at the podium before any questions were asked at his postgame news conference.

He could have posed the question to Brown, as well. But, yes, it answered some of the doubts that had crept in — really, since the end of last season — about Hurts’ ability to see the field and get the ball out in rhythm.

He wasn’t perfect. He had an early fumble on a scramble and took three sacks over a span of four plays before the half. But this was Hurts executing the offense and taking what a defense was giving him. The Eagles had multiple third down conversions after he checked the ball down.

“He played a great game,” Brown said of Hurts. “He took what they gave him, and the wideouts and tight ends and everybody was just good with yards after the catch. And that’s needed.”

Hurts confirmed that he had broken his left ring finger last week and said that it had affected his performance. He wore a glove on his non-throwing hand with tape and a splint on his finger. It was unclear when the injury occurred or if it played a role in his inefficiency against Carolina.

But Hurts’ struggles had predated the injury. The Eagles have run more than most offenses since he became the starter in 2021. But the imbalance this season was at an all-time high and it was fair to wonder if the passing game had become atrophied as a result.

Sirianni said that notion was overplayed.

“I think it kind of gets a little bit blown out of proportion,” Sirianni said. “Jalen’s quarterback rating has been over 100 most of the games. I don’t know what he was today [125.3], but most of the games he’s been over 100. We’re averaging 8.5-plus in the pass game.”

And yet, Brown and Smith said the Eagles had “repetitive” meetings last week to clean up details and that there were “uncomfortable conversations” between the receivers and Hurts about being on the same page and in sync in their communication.

“Very uncomfortable,” Brown said. “First of all, I didn’t call anybody out, but behind closed doors, yeah, we talk about that, we call each other out. And that’s very uncomfortable because you don’t want to feel like you’re getting attacked.

“But we’re not in this for feelings. We’re trying to get on the same page. We trying to win, most importantly.”

It was one of the stranger weeks in recent Eagles history, even if the team insisted that speculation about potential turmoil was much ado about nothing. Clearly, there was something. But how much often depends on who’s doing the telling.

“For me, it’s like, I’m gonna skip the Real Housewives of [bleeping] Philadelphia channel. I’m gonna go to something else,” Eagles tackle Lane Johnson said Sunday after being absent from open locker room last week. “But the way I see it, man, brothers fight sometimes. We put a lot into this. Emotions run high.”

He added: “You have a lot of talented guys. I think coming together tonight showing, especially throwing the ball, what we’re able to do, I think that maybe it done some healing. Hopefully, it did.”

The Eagles’ victory gave them a franchise-best 10th straight, and at 12-2 they are just one game behind the Lions, who fell to the Bills on Sunday, in the NFC. The No. 1 seed is still very much in the conversation with three games remaining.

Brown has only one objective. He got there two years ago, along with Hurts and Smith, and the Eagles nearly won the Super Bowl behind the explosiveness of their passing game. They know what it will take to get back there and win.

“We know the end goal is, especially me, DeVonta and Jalen,” Brown said. “We’ve been here, and like I said in the past, we trying to get to the end, and we trying to finish. It’s good we won 10 [straight] games, but we’re not satisfied with that.

“Honestly, in our mind, we haven’t done nothing.”

They’ve done more than nothing, but there’s something about setting the bar at its highest rung.