October 05, 2026
Eric Hartline/Imagn Images via Reuters Connect
; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) runs of the field after loss to the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field.
"Just frustrated," Cam Jurgens said, something he'd repeat a few times. "Really frustrated."
He was standing in the home locker room at the Linc, shaking his head, almost in disbelief.
He and many of his Eagles teammates had the look – and sound – of a defeated ball club Sunday, moments after they had blown a 10-point lead and lost 24-20 to the Rams.
What irked the Eagles' left guard and others wasn't so much the massive stockpile of injuries and issues that left the Eagles without their left tackle, top wide receiver, top tight end, top linebacker, and starting safety going into the game, and then losing their top running back, top cornerback and top pass rusher during the game.
It's that against all those odds, they still had the Rams against the ropes and couldn't deliver the knockout punch.
They led by 10 in the fourth quarter, with time starting to work against the Rams, and stood six yards shy from getting into the end zone and pulling off what would've been considered a major upset.
At that point, a 17-point lead with less than nine minutes to play would've been a death knell for a Rams offense that had turned the ball over twice, punted twice, missed a field goal and got stuffed on fourth down on eight of their 10 possessions .
The Rams were there for the taking, barely on life support, and Nick Sirianni knew it.
"In that situation right there, I want to try to make it a three-score game," he said, explaining his decision to leave his offense on the field on 4th-and-2 after a botched third-down play call.
Everything that happened after validated Sirianni's decision to prioritize the three-possession game over a 13-point lead.
The Eagles blew their fourth-down play, the Rams then drove 98 yards for a touchdown, the Eagles responded with their fifth three-and-out of the afternoon, the Rams waltzed to another touchdown for the lead, and the Eagles were cooked.
All because they couldn't punch it in from two yards away when they most needed to.
"You get two shots from the 2-yard line," right guard Tyler Steen said. "You got to get in there."
"We've got to be better there," Jordan Mailata said. "Third-and-2, 4th-and-2, you gotta punch that in."
Instead, they got punched in the mouth.
The Eagles didn't lose Sunday because Sirianni suffered some kind of sudden brain lapse and made a wonky decision to go for it on fourth down. Had they kicked the field goal, they would've merely lost by one instead of four.
Yipee.
They lost because because their play calls, like many that afternoon, and like many others throughout their first four weeks in a new offensive scheme, failed spectacularly.
On 3rd-and-goal at the 2, Hurts and Jurgens appeared to collide after the snap, dooming the play-action bootleg from the start, as Hurts bobbled the ball before getting smothered for no gain.
On the next snap, Hurts felt the pressure and tried to hurry a pass to Darius Cooper, who already had two touchdowns but wasn't in position to make another miraculous grab,.
And there went the best chance for the Eagles to put all of the injuries, all of the failed third down conversions (12, to be exact), and Monday night's humiliating blowout loss to the Bears in Chicago all behind them.
They could have been 3-1, but instead the best play call they could manage in the most critical moment was another combination of ineptitude, inefficiency and, ultimately, incomplete.
"We finally strung together a really good drive, we're running down on them, we get to the goal line, we don't capitalize," Jurgens said, like someone trying to rationalize the irrational.
"Just in general, I'm sick to my stomach."
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