Eagles Postgame Report: Broncos Embarrass Eagles With 18-Point Fourth Quarter

The Eagles entered week five as the last remaining undefeated team and set to host the Denver Broncos.

The teams started off by trading three-and-outs, then the Broncos broke through with a long field goal (55 yards).

The Eagles offense responded by moving the ball 70 yards, but for the first time this season they stalled out in the red zone and settled for a game-tying field goal.

The defense forced another punt and a deep pass to DeVonta Smith gained the chunk yardage to a 90-yard touchdown drive capped off by a two-yard Goedert reception to put the Eagles ahead.

The rest of the half was filled with a combination of good defensive plays and poor offensive plays by both teams, almost alternating. Five punts in about seven minutes took the game to the half. The lone notable play to bring up was a deep pass that targeted Dotson where it was determined he didn’t yet have control when his first foot was down. It was an excellent throw by Hurts and there’s really no reason that option shouldn’t be available against other teams that almost all have worse defenses than Denver.

The halftime did good for the Eagles offense as they came out looking better than they had at any point earlier in the game. Driving 74 yards on just four plays, it was key receptions to Smith (21 yards) and Barkley (47 yards, TD), that powered the drive and gave the Eagles a two-possession lead.

The defense didn’t benefit from the half so much, as they allowed a pass over 10 yards and two separate runs over 10 yards that allowed the Broncos to work their way into potentially long field goal range, but an intentional grounding penalty kept them just out of range and they opted for a punt to pin the Eagles at their own 9-yard line instead.

The Eagles had two quick-hitting passes for 19 yards that seemed to be the start of another strong drive before they gained just four yards on the next three plays and had to punt the ball right back. The defense forced a three-and-out, however, and a 16-yard return by Dotson setup the Eagles at their 44-yard line – by far their best starting position of the day.

The Birds had a chance to put up points right away, but Hurts missed AJ Brown, who was wide-open deep and may have slowed up. Then Hurts nearly threw a pick six right into the lap of the oncoming rusher before he stood in the pocket to get sacked, marking a three and out based solely on Hurts’ poor throwing and decision making.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, Denver’s quarterback didn’t reciprocate that poor play and the Broncos had just one play that didn’t go for 5 or more yards that wasn’t the two-yard touchdown run to bring the Broncos within one score.

A nice run was negated by a holding penalty and then Jalen Hurts spent about three minutes in the backfield on two plays just to miss his receivers again for a quick three and out. 

The Eagles took an OPI penalty that would have forced a 4th-and-1 to make it 3rd and 15 and they evidently didn’t try to stop that, giving up an embarrassing 34-yard catch and run that led to a touchdown and a two-point conversion to take the lead.

A nine-yard screen pass was erased when Hurts took far too long on an RPO and the ineligible man downfield penalty put the Eagles behind the chains once again. Ultimately another penalty for an illegal shift on Barkley erased a 20+ yard catch on fourth down and forced another punt.

On 3rd and six, when they could get the ball back, the defense allowed a 16-yard reception where Mitchell’s hand was in the arms. That forced the Eagles to burn every timeout they had and then Zack Baun AFTER the stop had been made, took a stupid personal foul to basically seal the game. Overall, a picked-up intentional grounding penalty could have been the difference among several key mistakes. Ultimately, they Broncos tacked on another field goal and got the ball back with 1:06 to go, no timeouts, and 75 yards needed.

Naturally, Hurts took the sack because that’s what you want to do in two-minute offense. They followed that up with a 7-yard pass and then a dropped interception. A pass interference moved the ball to the 47 with 15 seconds left then Dotson made the 24-yard grab to bring it to the 29 with nine seconds left. Missed PI at the two-yard line left it with a single hail mary as the Eagles only option.

AJ Brown went up and dragged down Smith as Smith tried to make the touchdown grab, so the ball fell incomplete and the Eagles lose to a team they had no business even being in a dogfight with.

The defense was trash and gave up every single play and penalty they possibly could to power a three-score quarter for the Broncos to win it while Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown stepped on the field after the half seemingly with the idea that their best options were to do everything they could to keep the offense off the field.

Offensive MVP: DeVonta Smith

Smith produced despite his QB once again disappearing for an entire half of the game. He somehow managed 114 yards and had at least another 20 taken off the board due to a penalty.

Defensive MVP: No One

This team was straight garbage all around. This is an offense that managed only 28 points against the Bengals last week. The BENGALs – the very same defense that Tanner McKee put up 24 points against in a single half of a preseason game with backups on offense. This defense just allowed 21 points to that same team. To be one touchdown better than the Bengals defense? You have to be just short of trash to allow that and everyone from Zack Baun and Jalen Carter to Quinyon Mitchell and Kelee Ringo contributed to it with garbage penalties, poor tackles, and failing to complete plays right in front of them.

Game Notes

• The Broncos could have put up a TD early and the Birds are lucky that Sutton dropped the deep pass in the first quarter that would have put the Eagles down early.
• Kelee Ringo has really stepped up at outside corner and has been far better than he showed in preseason this year. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough in the second half today.
• Jahan Dotson not being more involved has been a continuing surprise. Hurts appears to have the confidence in him and he draws the weak coverage, so it’s odd that he doesn’t get more targets naturally.
• The quarterback scrambles from Nix were far too effective. The Eagles defenders needed to hit harder on some of those plays where it seemed like the fear of a potential penalty allowed for an extra 5-6 yards.
• Some fans will probably have a problem with the call that turned a potential fumble by Cooper DeJean and recovered by the defense into a forward pass. It was close, but Tom Brady has made it a thing for any QB to just flail their arm forward regardless and get that call, and this wasn’t even that scenario, so it’s tough to be upset with that call.
• Also important to remember what could have been worse: Jalen Hurts basically threw an easy pick-six after he botched the easy one-play touchdown strike. That could have made this game much more ugly. One of two easy interceptions Hurts threw but was lucky to have dropped in the second half.
• The AJ Brown needs touches crowd must be having themselves a day as he did virtually nothing on his catches, helped botch the games easiest possible touchdown, then forced the incompletion on the hail mary at the end of the game.
• Hurts needs to change something. It is not possible for this team to repeat if he’s going to spend the second half of every game regressing to a guy who stands still in the pocket for over a minute on each play and never throws the ball. Even the one he threw to Dotson after some ridiculous amount of time was off – had he thrown it to anywhere Dotson could have gotten, it was another explosive deep pass to Dotson who had no one behind him and his man beat. But instead it was another poor play.
• I get the line isn’t as good, but how is Barkley a total non-factor. One 40-yard catch and six total carries before the one-minute drill to end the game? What are we even doing here? Barkley averaged five yards per carry and AJ Dillon six, but instead every play in the second half was “let’s see how long Jalen can stand in the backfield and make a late decision or no decision at all”.
• Zero turnovers from the defense against this pathetic squad. Again, this offense just played a team whose starters the Eagles backups destroyed. You could hire 27 random people from their couches off the waiver wire and they’d be about as good as Cincinnati’s defense – and even that pathetic excuse for a team managed an interception.

Injury Notes

• Landon Dickerson exited in the first half and was replaced by Matt Pryor at guard. He did not return.
• Grant Calcaterra exited with a leg injury in the second quarter.

Denver Broncos @ Philadelphia Eagles – October 5, 2025