PHILADELPHIA — A.J. Brown, Jalen Hurts and members of the Eagles’ offense have talked for the last month about needing to get on the same page. Well, Brown and Hurts were clearly not on the same page during a pivotal moment in Sunday’s loss to the Denver Broncos.
The Eagles collapsed in the of Sunday’s 21-17 defeat to Denver, picking up their first loss of the 2025 season. But Philadelphia had a 17-3 lead and a chance to potentially put the game away late in the third.
Hurts and Brown nearly connected for a 61-yard touchdown that would have put the Eagles up by three touchdowns.
The play would have likely secured a 5-0 record — and it would have helped put to bed the frustrations that have surrounded Brown and this offense for weeks.
Brown ran his route and beat safety Talanoa Hufanga, but the ball didn’t come from Hurts, who briefly hesitated in the pocket. By the time Hurts uncorked a deep shot leading Brown, the three-time All-Pro receiver had stopped running his route long enough to throw everything off.
“From my point of view, it was just missed,” Brown said at his locker postgame.
Asked if he stopped running because he didn’t think the ball was coming his way, Brown added: “It’s not that I didn’t think the ball was coming. When I looked up, I didn’t see the ball. When I looked back, I didn’t see the ball. And then the ball was thrown. We just missed.”
Asked if the two discussed the missed connection after the fact, Brown said: “No.”
“I have to watch the film to be able to assess that,” Hurts said. “That’s one that you want to hit.”
Hitting that deep ball definitely would have helped. The Eagles ended up punting on that drive and failed to score the rest of the game. The Broncos, meanwhile, rattled off 18 unanswered points and handed Philadelphia its first loss since last December.
The Eagles are 4-1. But that play was emblematic of an ultra-talented offense that’s currently out of sync.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo didn’t have enough answers on Sunday, which falls on him. It didn’t help that Saquon Barkley, the reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year, had only six carries.
But right now, there’s a disconnect between Hurts and Brown, one they tried to work out early and often vs. Denver by force-feeding the three-time All-Pro wide receiver.
Brown finished with eight targets, bringing his total to 36 targets on the season. Brown has 19 catches for 194 yards and one touchdown after a five-catch, 43-yard showing vs. Denver.
Hurts, meanwhile, attempted 38 passes, completing 23 of them for 280 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. The quarterback didn’t play poorly by any means with a 100.8 passer rating.
But there were missed opportunities all over the place for the offense. And none was bigger than that long touchdown that wasn’t.
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