A Quick Look at the Eagles' Struggling Passing Game

After the Eagles escaped Week 14 with a 22-16 win over the Panthers, wide receiver A.J. Brown’s post-game interview brought some extra attention to the lack of production in the passing game.

The Eagles currently rank second-to-last in the NFL in passing yards per game and were unimpressive against Carolina, with Jalen Hurts only throwing for 108 yards.

To this point in the season, it hasn’t been a problem. The Eagles have Saquon Barkley, a dominant O-line, a great defense, and are 11-2. But there were a lot of completions left on the field Sunday. And Jalen Hurts didn’t look comfortable. Of late, he’s not seeing the field well. He’s not pulling the trigger on open throws. He’s too slow getting the ball out.

Some of these issues have just been a part of the story with Hurts throughout his career. But there are times when they’re more pronounced. The end of last season comes to mind. And right now, he’s in one of those stretches.

On Sunday against the Panthers, the troubles started on Hurts’ first pass attempt of the game.

Here was the route concept:

The Panthers would play cover-3, which meant cornerback Jaycee Horn was responsible for the deep third of the field:

This was a great route concept for breaking down cover-3 because of the formation and route stems. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith released vertically out of a stack inside the numbers. More importantly, they didn’t define where they would break until late in the play. Take a look at where they were by the time Hurts got to the top of his drop:

Would Brown break out or go to the post? Would Smith be Horn’s responsibility? It still wasn’t entirely clear.

That said, Horn wasn’t hauling ass to get deep. He was starting to slow his drop. Just a beat later, after Hurts took one hitch, Horn would sit on Smith’s out-breaking intermediate route. That left room for Brown to run freely behind him with no defender near: