After defeating the Detroit Lions 44-6 last Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles(3-6) were a confident bunch heading into Sunday’s showdown against the Los Angeles Chargers(5-3). After 30 minutes of action, Philadelphia had a 10-7 lead.
However, the Chargers would tie the game at 10 in the third quarter and ultimately take a 16-10 lead in the third. The two teams would go back and forth from there. In the end, it came down to who had the ball last, and fortunately for Los Angeles, they had it last as Justin Herbert led them down the field and Dustin Hopkins made a game-winning 29-yard field goal with two seconds left to give the Chargers a 27-24 win at Lincoln Financial Field.
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts was solid on Sunday. Hecompleted 11-of-17 attempts for 162 yards, 1 TD, and a 115.3 passer rating. Hurts also added 62 yards rushing, but all he could do was watch as the defense could not get the Chargers off the field.
“It was very tough,” Hurts said postgame about having to watch the Chargers score on their last drive. “I think for me, I always look at it like, ‘What could I have done better to change the outcome of the game?’ That’s how I look at it all the time…. Ultimately, in the end, we didn’t get the ball back and didn’t get an opportunity to go out there and score. It’s a really good football team we just played. I have a lot of respect for [Chargers QB] Justin Herbert, a guy that came out the same year I did. I have a lot of respect for him and a lot of respect for the team.”
After rushing for a season-high 236 yards against Detroit, Philadelphia had another strong performance on the ground and finished with 176 rushing yards against Los Angeles, including 71 yards from Jordan Howard and a touchdown.
“When you’re running the ball like that, again, there are different answers that defense has to come with,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “Because you just never, as a defense, want to get the ball pushed down your throat. So, they end up doing different things, which ends up naturally opening up some different avenues.”
Philadelphia appears to have committed to the run game, but the defense was a problem on Sunday; they allowed the Chargers to rack up 445 yards of total offense. Herbert was 32/38 for 356 yards and three touchdowns(one rushing). However, the defense did have two big stops on fourth down in the first half, which they can build on going forward.
Next week, the Eagles go on the road to face the Broncos, who defeated the Cowboys on Sunday, so we’ll see if Philly can bounce back in Denver.
