National Football League

Eagles coaches run away from their strength in surprising loss to Jets

Published Oct. 15, 2023 10:14 p.m. ET

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — It was already Saturday when word got out that the New York Jets would be without their top cornerback, Sauce Gardner, in their game against the Philadelphia Eagles. And they already knew they'd be without their other corner, D.J. Reed.

Nick Sirianni swears his eyes didn't get wide when he heard that news. And he insisted he didn't change up his entire gameplan.

It only felt like he did.

For reasons that defy explanation, the Eagles — the second-best running team in the NFL — decided to basically not bother running at all in their game against the Jets on Sunday. Whether it was to take advantage of Gardner's absence or not, it was clearly by design, and was definitely very costly. Their ill-advised air assault resulted in an out-of-synch offense and three interceptions from quarterback Jalen Hurts in what became a shocking, 20-14 loss.

It seemed very much like a case of a coaching staff out-smarting itself, seeing a hole so big they felt like they had to try to power through it. But sometimes, football is much simpler than that, especially with a team as good as the Eagles. They had won 21 of their last 25 games by dictating how the game is played, by daring their opponents to try and stop them.

They weren't playing from behind. They were leading in this game from the end of their opening drive until there was 1:46 remaining. And the Jets only took the lead then because of another ill-advised throw.

Why in the world wouldn't the Eagles, one of the best teams in football, just line up and do what they do best?

"The lead, I mean, I don't think it ever got to the point where it was like ‘Hey, bleed the clock,'" Sirianni said. "We were up 14-3 but there was a lot of time left in the game there. You don't take the air out of it there. In the four-minute drive we were up 14-12 knowing that a field goal could beat us, so we had to continue that drive and try to convert on that third down. It's what we thought was the best available for us at that particular time."

None of that is much of an explanation, because this was never about trying to "bleed the clock." This is about the Eagles coming into the game as the second-best rushing team in football averaging 164 yards per game on the ground, facing an aggressive Jets defense that nonetheless ranked 29th in rushing defense, giving up 146.2 yards per game.

That seems like a pretty obvious advantage — and maybe if Gardner and Reed were there, both Sirianni and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson would've been forced to see it. Instead, they saw gold in the Jets' secondary and called for 47 passes out of 69 plays. And Hurts actually dropped back to throw 50 times — on an astonishing 72.5 percent of the Eagles' plays.

But it was fool's gold. And they bought it all in a game the Eagles were leading the entire time, where the Jets' anemic offense couldn't find the end zone with compass until the Eagles were forced to let them score with 1:46 remaining, and in a game where Hurts wasn't particularly sharp (28 of 45, 280 yards) and the Jets picked off three of his passes.

The third one was the killer, and it was particularly egregious. It came as the teams came out of the two-minute warning. The Jets were out of timeouts. The Eagles had a 3rd and 9 from their own 46. Yes, they were only up 14-12, knowing a field goal could beat them. But if the Eagles run there, even if they don't pick up the first down, they kill another 40 seconds off the clock and then punt to pin the Jets deep in their own territory.

Instead, they throw and Hurts forces a pass to a well-covered Dallas Goedert in the middle of the field. Jets safety Tony Adams picks it off and returns it all the way to the 8-yard line, setting up the Jets' go-ahead score.

It was a terrible throw by Hurts, who said "I didn't do my job." But his job on that play should have been a much safer pass or, even better, to run.

"We thought if we got the first down there in that particular case the game was over," Sirianni said. "The worst thing that could happen, happened. I don't think in that particular case we thought running was the right thing."

They didn't think running was the right thing the entire game, despite having one of the best running quarterbacks in the NFL (8 carries for 47 yards and a touchdown in this game), despite having a running back (D'Andre Swift) who ranked fourth in the NFL with 434 yards rushing, and despite having one of the NFL's best offensive lines.

Yes, they were already playing without right guard Cam Jurgens, and yes they lost right tackle Lane Johnson to an ankle injury in this game, too. But those losses obviously affected their pass-blocking too. According to NextGen Stats, Hurts was pressured on 42 percent of his dropbacks (21 of 50). Running the ball could have alleviated some of that pressure. And they still could've been pretty effective running up the middle or to the left.

What really makes their strategy crazy, though is this: Whenever the Eagles offense has struggled under Sirianni, whenever they've had turnover problems, they have always leaned heavily on their running game to get things right. They even did it earlier this season, after an erratic opener and an ugly first quarter in their Week 2 game against the Vikings. They jumpstarted their offense by running 13 times on a 16-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, on their way to 133 rushing yards in the first half and 259 in the game when they beat Minnesota 34-28.

They run better than any team in football. The only team that's ever really been able to stop them has been themselves.

And that is what they did on Sunday. Give a ton of credit to the upstart Jets and Robert Saleh, who may win the NFL Coach of the Year award if he can squeeze six wins out of that team. The Jets play hard and fast on defense and they create havoc, even with Gardner and Reed not in the game.

But those two not playing was like a rope-a-dope for the Eagles coaches. They saw a secondary with Bryce Hall and Michael Carter at corner and envisioned huge games for receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. And those two were great. Brown had seven catches for 131 yards and Smith had five for 44.

Those numbers just came at a high cost.

"We're going to trust our guys to make plays," Sirianni said. "Looking at it, we'll have to put them in better spots to succeed."

When they look it, you can bet they'll see the error in their ways, how they strayed from their strength against a team they might have been able to steamroll. And then they'll fix their offensive problems with the simplest of solutions.

They'll go back to doing what they do best, just like they should have done against the Jets.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.