October 05, 2025
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Philadelphia Eagles wide receivers A.J. Brown (11)] and Devonta Smith (6) reach for an incomplete pass on the final play of the game against the Denver Broncos at Lincoln Financial Field.
Once again, the Eagles left the key under the mat. This time, they couldn't change the locks in time.
Up by 14 points in the second half and moving the ball efficiently Sunday against the Broncos, the Eagles suddenly imploded both offensively and defensively over the final 28 minutes of the game as Denver rallied for a 21-17 win and sent the Birds (4-1) to their first loss of the season.
This came one week after the Eagles nearly blew an 18-point lead to the Buccaneers in Tampa Bay before holding on for the 31-25 win as their season-long inconsistency continues to be a storyline.
The Eagles looked in control as they went up 17-3 in the third quarter on a Saquon Barkley 47-yard TD catch but the Broncos' dormant offense suddenly awoke as Bo Nix led Denver to consecutive long touchdown drives – a 64-yard and 72-yard marches – the second of which was capped by a two-point conversion that put the Broncos ahead for the first time with seven minutes, 36 seconds left to play.
That's plenty of time, but the Eagles' offense was without answers. They went 3-and-out – a big fourth-down catch by DeVonta Smith was negated by an illegal shift from Barkley – and the Broncos again went down the field. A questionable unnecessary roughness penalty on Zack Baun, of all people, on a third-down stop gave the Broncos a fresh set of downs deep in Eagles territory, leading to a field goal for the four-point lead.
With 71 seconds to play, the Eagles still had a chance and drove into Denver territory. The refs didn't call what appeared to be a pass interference on Dallas Goedert inside the Denver 3-yard line, forcing a Hail Mary attempt on the final play that didn't connect.
Let's get to the observations:
To have just 128 total yards in the second half with all the talent they have on offense, at home, against a Broncos team that looked dead on arrival can't be dismissed.
The second-year Broncos quarterback was terrible for the first half. He didn't even complete 50 percent of his passes. In the second half, Nix looked like Patrick Mahomes.
Nix completed 14 of 18 passes in the second half for 163 yards and tossed both of his TD passes after the break, as the Eagles struggled to keep him contained in the pocket and to disrupt the timing between Nix and Courtland Sutton, who had 2 receptions for 11 yards before the break and finished with eight receptions for 99 yards.
It almost appeared that he'd finally have one of his signature back-breakers when Barkley jetted through the left side on the Eagles' second possession and got 17 yards with a lot of green ahead before Broncos EDGE Jonathon Cooper chased him down and dragged him down from behind. Still, Barkley did show that he can still shift into high gear if he's got enough space.
Barkley was definitely second-fiddle for the offense against Denver, with just five carries through the first three quarters. You could make an argument that he should've seen a few more carries late in the third, as the Eagles were wearing down the Broncos defense and struggling to suddenly pass the ball.
However his 47-yard touchdown catch on a wheel route early in the third was the perfect storm for the Eagles of excellent play call against the coverage, nifty double move by Barkley against Alex Singleton, and a perfectly placed ball by Hurts that let Barkley made an over-shoulder catch for the TD and 14-3 lead.
Hurts' yards-per-attempt average was skewed by a bomb to DeVonta Smith and a perfectly thrown wheel route TD to Saquon Barkley that accounted for about 43 percent of his passing yards, but he carved up Denver's defense with a steady diet of RPO quick hits and pop passes reminiscent of an Eagles offense from years ago
The game plan made a ton of sense given the Broncos' ability to rush the passer and disrupt passing games, but credit Hurts for his accuracy and timing throwing against a Denver secondary that featured last year's Defensive Player of the Year in Patrick Surtain and opposite corner Riley Moss. Hurts wasn't afraid to throw at Surtain, as Brown had the most targets.
What happened in the second half will be discussed in the coming days, but Hurts took six sacks, many of which stalled drives in the second half.
We all know how much defensive coordinator Vic Fangio loves the Phillies. Fittingly, Fangio threw a changeup at the Broncos by reducing his extra-man pressures and going mostly with a four-man rush and some potent SIM pressures. This is more like the Fangio we saw last year.
That he decided to dial up less pressures against a good Denver offensive line showed his faith in the scheme, which was rewarded in the first half as the Eagles persistently pressured Nix, but the Broncos converted 4 of 8 third downs after the break compared to 1 of 8 going into the half.
Fangio will have a take a long look at the breakdowns, especially against the run, as Denver moved the ball on the ground in some critical moment, and in contain, as Nix got out of the pocket a few times to keep plays alive.
It's been a really rough post-Super Bowl for the three-time Pro Bowl left guard who limped into the locker room late in the first quarter with what the team termed an ankle injury. He's had two knee surgeries since the end of the Super Bowl, has dealt with a back injury earlier in the season, and now an ankle is added to the list.
Brett Toth again filled Dickerson's void and allowed an early pressure. It's hard to tell if Toth was a major factor in the offense's issues in the second half, but long term, if Dickerson doesn't get healthy, the offense surely will be worse for it.
After a week of semi-controversy fueled by an A.J. Brown postgame tweet last Sunday and continued with various reports of Eagles pass catchers being unhappy along with the typical weekly criticism of play calling, both Brown and DeVonta Smith saw a healthy diet of targets.
Smith was targeted 10 times and cracked the 100-yard receiving barrier, and Brown was targeted eight times. Despite some nice deep balls to Smith, including one called back by a questionable review, Hurts still wasn't able to drive the ball to Brown, who managed just 43 yards on 5 receptions.
Should be another interesting few days at Novacare.
Especially if the opponent thinks it. Twice in a Week 3 home game against the Rams, the Eagles handed the ball off to Saquon Barkley when backed up close to their own end zone – a 3rd-and-16 and 3rd-and-18. So you can understand why the Broncos might exepct the Eagles do it again on 3rd-and-16 from their own 22-yard line in the second quarter, and why the Eagles might have expected that the Broncos were expecting it.
The Broncos played a basic zone with a four-man rush, and a well-protected Hurts rifled a picturesque spiral deep down the right seam for DeVonta Smith, who caught the ball in stride for a 52-yard pass, the longest of the season for the Eagles – nearly a mirror image of the 51-yarder Jahan Dotson caught from Hurts in the season opener.
Jahan Dotson could've really hurt the Eagles when he fair caught two punts in the first half deep inside Philadelphia territory when it appeared both punts likely would've gone out of bounds for a touchback. The first, he caught at the 10. The second, right before half, was a line drive right that he fair caught at the 5 that almost certainly would've gone into the end zone. The trajectory of the punt alone made it nearly impossible for that ball to stay in the field.
The Eagles claimed receiver/return specialist Xavier Gipson off waivers Sept 22. He averages 8.9 yards per return for his career, more than Dotson's 8.5. Dotson's longest return this year is 14 yards. Gipson had a 19-yarder with the Jets earlier this year. He's been on the 53 for enough time to at least make a difference in punt return, no? Dotson fair caught another punt at the 5 in the third
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