The Philadelphia Eagles head to the NFC Championship Game with a passing offense still lost in the wilderness.
On Sunday, Philly bested the Los Angeles Rams, 28-22, thanks to an explosive rushing attack that generated 285 yards. Saquon Barkley galloped for 205 yards and two long touchdowns. The Eagles pass game, however, struggled to find any traction. Jalen Hurts completed 15 of 20 passes for 128 yards while taking seven sacks. Philly ended with 65 net passing yards.
A.J. Brown, who had just two catches on seven targets for 14 yards, blamed the wintry, blustery conditions for the Eagles' lack of passing attack -- even while admitting that Matthew Stafford had some success, throwing for 324 yards and two TDs.
"You've got to give this a pass," Brown said of the lack of an aerial attack. "You've got to give this game a pass. It was just tough. The conditions were tough. I keep getting this question, but can't do nothing about it. The conditions were crazy. We couldn't even see out there, so imagine throwing the ball and catching the ball, even though they were doing it at the end. The game's on the line, they didn't have a choice. I don't think that would've been their first choice."
Hurts generated 66 yards passing in the first half before the real heavy stuff came down in the final two quarters -- for comparison's sake, Stafford had 126 yards and a TD in the first half.
Brown said the streaking snow disturbed all aspects of the tilt.
"Absolutely, it affected everything," he said. "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. That was not fun, honestly. That wasn't fun at all, man. Tough game. Tough conditions. You make the most of it, try to get the win, and I'm glad we did it."
Perhaps the weather could explain Sunday's pass-game struggles, but it's not as if it's a one-game hiccup. Hurts threw for 131 yards in the Wild Card Round win over the Green Bay Packers. Not counting Week 15, when he exited early with a concussion, in his last six starts, Hurts has thrown for 200-plus yards a single time (290 versus Pittsburgh in Week 15). In 17 starts, including playoffs, Hurts has thrown for 250-plus yards four times and breached the 300-plus yard barrier once (Week 3 versus New Orleans).
Hurts misfired a ton, but Brown also dropped a perfect deep shot late in the first half that could have gone for 40-plus yards.
"It's tough. No excuses," Brown said of the bobble. "I just wish I could've held onto it. The conditions kind of play a part, but it's just tough. I try to do my best just to hold onto it."
Brown has not led the Eagles in receiving yards in any of his five playoff games with the club.
"We just didn't connect," Hurts said of Brown. "Just didn't connect this time around. It's been a minute in general since we've done that as a whole. So, holistically, as an offense, we just want to go out there and take advantage of all the opportunities we have at hand and continue to learn from them."
With Hurts battling a knee injury on Sunday and Brown still not looking totally right from his own knee issue, the Eagles' passing game has been a herky-jerky affair. It's fair to question some of the deep drops Philly asked Hurts to take against a good Rams pass rush, particularly with the knee injury.
"We did what we thought we needed to do in that particular case," Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. "Again, we'll always look at play calls. It's everything. It's going to be play calls. It's going to be that the defense made a play. There are a lot of things to attribute to that. Again, we found a way. Defense found a way to get a stop. That's good team football. There's going to be times the offense has to pick up the defense and times the defense has to pick up the offense and times that special teams gets a fumble to start game. Whatever we've got to do to move on and then fix the mistakes from there."
With Barkley and the running game there to pick up the slack, the lack of passing hasn't foiled the Eagles' season. In the rubber match against Washington in the NFC Championship Game, Philly will once again lean on the ground game. In the two meetings with the Commanders this year, the Eagles averaged 219.5 yards on the ground.