PHILADELPHIA — “So that’s what y’all wanted to see, huh?” Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts said Sunday with a smirk as he pulled himself up to the mic for his postgame news conference.
Hurts had passed for a season-high 290 yards and two touchdowns to help lead his team to a 27-13 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was an impressive day against one of the NFL’s most vaunted defenses, and an authoritative response to a week’s worth of scrutiny over a previously anemic passing attack.
Sunday’s aerial assault began early as Hurts completed all eight first-quarter passes for 104 passes and a touchdown to wide receiver A.J. Brown, who a week earlier had voiced displeasure with the inconsistent production of Philadelphia’s passing attack.
After catching the 5-yard scoring strike over the middle — a play that gave the Eagles a 10-3 lead with 1:13 left in the quarter — Brown made a beeline for his quarterback, and the two celebrated by performing the old House Party Kid ‘n Play dance to send a public message that all is well in the City of Brotherly Love.
This TD celly from Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown 🔥 pic.twitter.com/TN2CRihTqJ
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) December 15, 2024
By game’s end, Hurts again looked like one of the better quarterbacks in the league, just as he did two years ago during Philadelphia’s Super Bowl run. Brown recorded eight catches on 11 targets for 110 yards and the touchdown, his most productive outing since Week 5, his second game of the season. Fellow wide receiver DeVonta Smith recorded 11 catches and 109 yards and a touchdown on 12 targets, the first time since Week 13 of last year that both had double-digit targets. Meanwhile, the Eagles, who gained a total of 401 yards, extended their win streak to 10 games — the longest in franchise history — to improve to 12-2 and tie Detroit (also 12-2) for the NFC lead.
Reflecting on the celebration, Brown declared after the game, “That was our moment to tell everybody to shut up, you know? Honestly.”
Like his quarterback, Brown seemingly sported a huge chip on his shoulder. The two, along with other members of Philadelphia’s locker room, chose to direct their frustrations at outsiders like inquisitive sports reporters and distressed fans, who in the days leading up to the Pittsburgh game searched for insight into an apparent locker-room rift and the source behind a passing game that has failed to complement a dominant rushing attack despite boasting top-flight talent at all of the necessary positions.
But in truth, this was nothing more than a Jordan-esque self-contrived source of motivation. The Eagles never were victims of an outside attack. They had generated the controversy on their own.
It was Brown who raised eyebrows after his team’s Week 14 victory by deeming the passing game an area of weakness. And two days later, injured defensive teammate Brandon Graham said in a radio interview that Brown and Hurts’ relationship had reached a rocky point because of offensive shortcomings. Otherwise, no one would have ever known how deeply frustrations over a 31st-ranked passing attack ran within the locker room of one of the league’s top teams.
The Eagles did, however, also clean up their own mess. Sunday’s output reflected a maturity and unity that could wind up propelling the Eagles closer to their goal of hoisting a Lombardi Trophy in February.
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Collectively, Brown and Graham’s statements set off all kinds of alarms and raised questions about the soundness of the Eagles’ foundation. Usually, the airing of dirty laundry can prove derisive. In this case, friction helped Philadelphia’s offensive players recognize a need for improved accountability, and that application paved the way for one of the team’s most well-rounded outings of the season.
There’s a commonly held belief that strong teams steer clear of conflict and division. They maintain the company line, never go off script and keep family business under wraps. The Eagles broke the rules in this regard. Graham broke the locker-room code by revealing that the dynamics of Hurts and Brown’s relationship had changed. And Brown followed up his criticism of the passing game — and by extension, his quarterback — by saying last week he would accept the role of the bad guy if it produced the desired results.
The wide receiver saw a need and had faith that his teammates would eventually understand the motive behind his words. He wound up being right. Rather than take offense and let criticism cause fractures, the Eagles dug in. Instead of pointing fingers, they conducted self-inventory while also being willing to help teammates recognize their shortcomings.
“First of all, I didn’t call anybody out (publicly),” Brown said, “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. … We’re not in it for feelings, and we’re trying to get on the same page. We’re trying to win, most importantly.”
The accountability conversations took place in the locker room, on the practice field and in the meeting room. Meetings ran long, Brown and teammates said, because players, like their coaches, understood the only way to fix the passing game was to give greater attention to detail and try to see plays and responsibilities through others’ eyes. The hope was that stronger recognition and communication would lead to sharper execution in areas where the Eagles were falling short.
“You know the grass would be green where you decide to water it, and today, we kind of saw the fruits of our labor,” Hurts said. “Obviously, we’ve been watering the running game a good bit, and it’s kind of natural to put an emphasis on one thing. Kind of take an emphasis off of another. … So we want to just continue to be well-rounded. Push to be well-rounded, and water all areas of our yard. … You want to make sure that all of your tools are sharp when you need them.”
The passing game tool was certainly needed against Pittsburgh, which entered Sunday holding teams to less than 100 rushing yards per game. So, despite the banner year running back Saquon Barkley is having, success on the ground was going to be challenging. (Barkley, who missed most of the second quarter with an undisclosed injury before returning after halftime, finished with 65 yards on 19 carries.) Philadelphia’s players also understand that to match Detroit and other playoff teams, they have to regain the well-rounded explosiveness that carried them in previous seasons.
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Coach Nick Sirianni never sensed that his locker room was splintering as signs of frustrations manifested themselves. Reading his players, he saw hunger rather than a lack of respect.
“When you have everybody in the room that just wants to improve and do the things they know that we’re capable of, that’s special,” Sirianni said.
He later added: “I’m not for one minute saying that all the turmoil on the outside was a good thing. We want to make sure that we’re locked into what we’re doing, and that’s what I felt. … And I thought our guys just came to work every single day. … I just felt extremely locked in and focused through the entire week, through what could have been a time where people could say, ‘Oh, what’s going on in Philadelphia?’”
Now the challenge for the Eagles is to maintain that same sense of urgency and avoid the complacency that led to the one-dimensional funk they had slipped into. Because as they moved the ball at will and through whatever mode they desired during key junctures against Pittsburgh, they showed they are capable of elite — and championship-level — production.
(Photo of Hurts and Brown: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
