Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had it rolling early. Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix got it going late. “Better late than never” turned out to be the applicable adage for their NFL game in Philadelphia on Sunday, and the Broncos’ 21-17 victory ended the Eagles’ 10-game winning streak.
Philadelphia held a 17-3 lead after Hurts’ second touchdown pass of the game – a 47-yard connection with running back Saquon Barkley with 13:23 left in the third quarter.
“I wasn’t happy about, you know, how the first part was going,” Nix said. “Six straight punts is not what anybody wants. So, yeah, we handled it how we handled it, and we went out and won the game.”
When Denver took possession at its 36-yard line with 2:38 left in the third quarter, Nix had completed 12-of-25 passes for 106 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions in the game. As the Broncos scored on their final three possessions, Nix completed 12-of-14 passes for 136 yards with one touchdown.
“Listen, he’s a competitor,” Denver coach Sean Payton said. “There were a handful of plays in the first half that I know he’d want back. …
“But that all being said,man, you can feel his leadership when it matters. And then you can feel the confidence with his teammates when it matters. So he played exceptional in the second half.”
Three of Nix’s completions in that span were third-down conversions, and immediately after he had a 34-yard completion to wide receiver Courtland Sutton on third-and-15 at the Philadelphia 45, Nix had an 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end Evan Engram with 7:36 remaining.
When the former Pinson Valley High School and Auburn QB followed his TD pass with a 2-point conversion toss to wide receiver Troy Franklin, Denver had an 18-17 lead.
Nix said he wasn’t surprised Payton chose to go for 2 instead of a game-tying extra point.
“Next thing I knew, he was just giving me the hash, giving me the call and knew we had one play to go get the job done,” Nix said. “And Troy ran a great route. We’ve been practicing that for a couple weeks, and he got in the end zone. I mean, just trust in his players and we got the job done.”
Hurts followed the loss of the lead with consecutive completions of 9 and 8 yards to wide receiver DeVonta Smith to start the Eagles’ comeback. But guard Tyler Steen was flagged as an ineligible player downfield on the second completion.
The next two snaps gained 2 yards and left Philadelphia facing fourth-and-4 at its 49-yard line with 5:23 to play. Hurts and Smith, who already had connected for a 52-yard gain in the first half, clicked again for 30 yards. But the second big play by the Alabama pair was wiped out by an illegal-shift penalty against Barkley, and Philadelphia punted with five minutes left.
“I think there’s a level of focus to that,” Hurts said. “I think there’s a level of situational awareness and the level of preparation we have in those moments. And, again, I can be very critical of myself. I have to watch the tape. Second-and-1, could have very easily handed that ball off, and I threw the bubble.”
The Eagles didn’t get the football again until 71 seconds remained after the Broncos added a field goal to their lead to cap an 18-point fourth quarter.
“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Nix said of how Denver got going. “We just got in some tempo. We found successful plays, first down after first down. Got some rhythm offensively and started making plays work and then scored a touchdown, and once we scored the first touchdown, it kind of felt good for our rhythm and momentum, and we did it again.”
Now needing a touchdown to win, Hurts overcame Denver’s sixth sack of the game with the help of a defensive pass interference penalty and a 24-yard completion to wide receiver Jahan Dotson to put Philadelphia on the Broncos 29 with nine seconds to play. But two throws for the end zone proved fruitless for Philly as the Eagles suffered their first home loss since Dec. 31, 2023.
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Hurts completed 23-of-38 passes for 280 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. His first TD pass was a 2-yard toss to tight end Dallas Goedert that gave the Eagles a 10-3 lead with 7:20 left in the first half.
In building the 17-3 lead, Hurts completed 15-of-23 passes for 216 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Among his incompletions after that productive start was an overthrow of AJ Brown after the wide receiver had gotten behind the Denver defense on a deep route from the Philadelphia 39-yard line. The Broncos started their comeback on the next possession.
“In that moment in the game, it’s about finding a way to put the dagger in them,” Hurts said. “And that definitely could have been a dagger in the game.”
Denver (3-2) is scheduled to fly to London on Sunday night for its next game at 8:30 a.m. CDT Sunday against the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. NFL Network will televise the game.
“It’s a great win,” Nix said. “It proves that we can go on the road and beat these tough teams and we can be a tough team to play. So that’s good for our confidence. It’s good for going into this trip. A lot of teams struggle before they go to London, but we focused on this trip. We focused on this game, and we went out and got it done. It was good for us.”
Philadelphia (4-1) plays the New York Giants at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Prime Video will televise the game.
“I look at this as an opportunity in itself,” Hurts said of Sunday’s setback. “You play the game to win. And when you don’t, you learn from it.”
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