In their Week 1 win over the Dallas Cowboys, the Philadelphia Eagles played 63 snaps on offense and 61 on defense. Let's just get right to the snap counts, some notes, and some special recognition.
Quarterback
• 63 snaps: Jalen Hurts
Notes: Jalen Hurts had four incompletions in this game. Three were throwaways, one was a drop by Saquon Barkley. Otherwise he was 19/19 for 152 yards (8.0 YPA). Both Hurts and Nick Sirianni praised the Cowboys' defense for pattern matching well, which explains the lack of shots down the field, other than the deep ball to Jahan Dotson, which oh by the way was a dime.
Will it be a concerning trend if Hurts only throws the ball down the field once per game? Sure, but it's not as if he can't or won't let it rip, as we saw in the Eagles' most important games during their Super Bowl run last season. He made good decisions, didn't turn it over (as usual), and put the ball on his receivers all night, even if it was mostly short stuff. Not bad for a Week 1 win.
Running back
• 50 snaps: Saquon Barkley
• 8 snaps: A.J. Dillon
• 5 snaps: Will Shipley
• 3 snaps: Cooper DeJean
Notes: Barkley carried 18 times for 60 yards (3.3 YPC) and a TD. He had four catches for 24 yards, including a phenomenal play in which he made a one-handed catch and then stiff-armed a linebacker to the ground. I thought Barkley looked like he was in 2024 form, but he was just unable to find any breathing room to rip off big runs. Credit the Dallas defense for limiting him to a long run of 16 yards.
Shipley left the game early with a ribs injury. I got a glimpse of him postgame, and he didn't look super comfortable walking down the corridor. He had three carries for 26 yards, 20 of which came on a swing pass that was considered a lateral. Expect him to be on the Eagles-Chiefs injury report.
It appears Cooper DeJean has replaced Reed Blankenship as the deep guy in the Eagles' victory formation. What can't he do?
Wide receiver
• 56 snaps: DeVonta Smith
• 55 snaps: A.J. Brown
• 29 snaps: Jahan Dotson
• 2 snaps: Darius Cooper
• 1 snap: John Metchie
Notes: One of the stories of the night was that Brown didn't get a target until there were under two minutes left in the game. At a certain point in the game when Brown hadn't yet had the ball come his way, I started paying a little more attention to his routes. Hurts looked his way quite a bit, but it just wasn't there, and he had to move on to his next receiver in the progression. You can bet the Eagles will be mindful of Brown's lack of touches in this game and they'll try to manufacture some targets for him early Week 2 in Kansas City.
It's probably also fair to wonder if Brown is still hampered in any way by the hamstring injury that kept him out for almost the entirety of training camp.
Smith was also relatively uninvolved. He only had three targets. He caught all three, but for only 16 yards, and a long reception of seven yards.
Dotson caught all three of his targets for 59 yards, 51 of which came on the deep ball shown above.
Tight end
• 52 snaps: Dallas Goedert
• 37 snaps: Grant Calcaterra
• 17 snaps: Kylen Granson
Notes: Goedert caught all seven of his targets, but they were mostly underneath. He had 44 yards. Granson had a catch for a yard.
Offensive line
• 63 snaps each: Jordan Mailata, Cam Jurgens, Tyler Steen, and Lane Johnson
• 52 snaps: Landon Dickerson
• 11 snaps: Brett Toth
Notes: Dickerson injured his back, and did not return. He was visibly shaken up and seemed to try to play through pain, but eventually gave way to Toth.
I'll have to rewatch to get a better idea, but it felt like Mailata and Johnson played well, while the interior gave up penetration in the run game.
Edge defenders
• 52 snaps: Nolan Smith
• 39 snaps: Jalyx Hunt
• 19 snaps: Josh Uche
• 12 snaps: Patrick Johnson
Notes: Smith made some plays in the run game, but was also flagged for what seemed like a kinda weak taunting call. Still, he has to be smarter. I did notice one play in which big ol' Tyler Smith came pulling across the formation hunting for a pancake, and Smith hit him with bad intentions and stood the big man up, narrowing any kind of lane the back could have run through.
Smith is giving up nearly 100 pound to that guy. He's such a tough player who seems to love doing that kind of dirty work.
Hunt got close on a few dropbacks, but couldn't get home. Uche had at least one really nice pass rush in which he smoked Terence Steele on an inside move.
But generally speaking, the edge defenders did not get the favorable one-on-ones they are accustomed to with Jalen Carter not there to draw double teams all night. That's a concern.
Azeez Ojulari and Ogbo Okoronkwo were healthy scratches.
Interior defensive line
• 55 snaps: Moro Ojomo
• 53 snaps: Jordan Davis
• 22 snaps: Byron Young
• 5 snaps: Gabe Hall
Notes: With Jalen Carter ejected before the first play from scrimmage was run, the rest of the Eagles' interior defensive linemen were left to pick up the slack. I'll be curious to get a look at Jordan Davis' play, since he played way more snaps than usual. In his first three seasons, Davis had only played 45 or more snaps once (62 snaps vs. Buffalo in 2023). He did have one near-sack, but couldn't finish:
Ojomo was a beast in training camp all summer, but he had a quiet night.
Young combined with Jihaad Campbell to punch the ball out of Miles Sanders' hands for what was probably the biggest play of the night.
This unit just isn't nearly the same without Carter.
Linebacker
• 61 snaps: Zack Baun
• 56 snaps: Jihaad Campbell
Notes: Baun and Campbell are going to be a very fun, athletic, versatile duo to watch for at least the next three seasons. We'll have more on their games in a film breakdown later, I think. Baun led the team with nine tackles. He had a TD-saving tackle on Miles Sanders, and he had great coverage on a shot play to the end zone.
Campbell had the aforementioned forced fumble, and he too had an impressive PBU down the field as well.
Cornerback and safety
• 61 snaps each: Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Reed Blankenship
• 51 snaps: Andrew Mukuba
• 42 snaps: Adoree' Jackson
• 14 snaps: Sydney Brown
• 7 snaps: Jakorian Bennett
Notes: Mukuba was surprisingly a starter at safety, with Brown mixing in at times in the base defense.
Mitchell dropped an INT, and gave up his share of completions. He was also flagged for pass interference. He had a sneaky shaky game, at least relative to the expectations coming in.
Jackson was abysmal. He gave up a bunch of completion, but more alarmingly, the Eagles just can't have this kind of effort from one of their 11 in the run game:
That's just not good enough.
We'll see if Bennett gets consideration for starting duties Week 2 against the Chiefs.
Three stars 🤩
⭐⭐⭐: QB Jalen Hurts: He just didn't make any mistakes.
🌟🌟: LB Zack Baun: Baun's incredible 2024 season doesn't seem like a one-year mirage.
✨: K Jake Elliott and P Braden Mann: Elliott drilled a 58 yarder, and Mann frustrated KaVontae Turpin on his four punts.
Game ball 🏈
Week 1, vs. Cowboys: Jalen Hurts
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