Eagles Postgame Report: AJ Brown And Co Fumble Away Game Against Cowboys

The Eagles were hoping to get a bad taste out of their mouths from last week. Or that was at least what fans would have thought. Evidently it was not the plan the offense. Different from much of the rest of the season, however, the issues in this game were not with coaches. There were sufficient opportunities to put up points – it was just that the punter and OZ were the only players to execute any plays.

In fact, Brown, Hurts and Smith all fumbled the ball away in this game.

Instead, they came out flat. The defense was dealt some tough cards with a clear holding call having the flag picked up to allow a touchdown instead of field goal and the next drive having a PI that didn’t exist called to give a conversion on 3rd and 17 and allow Dallas to kick a field goal. Essentially, they played well enough in the first quarter to allow just three points and force a punt but had the referees spot the Cowboys seen extra points.

The offense didn’t come to play at all, or at least the dynamic duo didn’t. AJ Brown had two balls basically hit him in the hands and didn’t catch either while Jalen Hurts fumbled away yet another ball (after the Eagles had a first and goal wiped away by a ticky-tack OPI on a play that Dallas lined up offsides but wasn’t called).

The only points in the first half came off Braden Mann throwing for 28 yards on a fake punt. AJ Brown then proceeded to drop a ball that hit his hands and would have setup first and goal, to it was the punter who got the team the yardage they needed for a field goal.

Jalen Hurts really rallied his offense for another pitiful showing and settled for a field goal while the defense allowed two touchdowns, including one that started with less than two minutes left in the game (this time where the defense was entirely trash but wasn’t helped by refs again).

The Eagles offense came out firing and actually ran the ball, but then AJ Brown struck yet again by fumbling the ball away on his third catch, marking his fourth instance of ending an offensive drive due to his terrible play.

The defense came out firing, too. They forced a three and out and, despite the offense going three and out and losing field position for the Eagles, Fletcher Cox came up with a strip sack that Jalen Carter ran in for a touchdown. It put the Eagles defense up with more points scored than the pitiful excuse for an offense.

The defense managed to keep things tight and allow only a long field goal, but a deep miss through the hands of Smith setup a third and 11. The Eagles called two straight two-yard passes but surprisingly, four yards was not enough to get the needed 11. Maybe Brian Johnson could hire a mathematician to let him know that sort of thing or Hurts could throw it to the guy at the sticks (Goedert) instead of the one well behind it.

In any case, the Eagles offense once again sucked so bad that they setup the Cowboys in a position where they only needed two first downs to kick a field goal and a field goal is what they got, putting Dallas up three scores and essentially putting the game away.

They could have made it close and maybe gotten back into the game when Smith decided it was his turn to fumble the ball away. Then Ringo got the spotlight one last time to surely lose the game.

It was an utter offensive embarrassment and AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith and Jalen Hurts all took turns failing to execute plays that were there and sabotage their own drives (though Brown did it more than the other two).

The Eagles are now tied with the 49ers and Cowboys in the NFC and they do not have the tie breaker over San Francisco, leaving the top seed and division up for grabs.

Offensive MVP: Braden Mann

Mann is a punter and that was the offense’s best weapon in this game – it meant they could punt the ball away instead of fumbling it to a defender. Not only that, but he completed a 28-yard pass that setup a field goal and got the Eagles half of the points that would supposedly be credited to the offense. He had a 118.8 rating and didn’t do anything to screw up drives, something the rest of the star skill players outside Goedert can’t say.

Defensive MVP: Fletcher Cox

Fletcher Cox was about the only player on the defense in the entire first half that showed any fire. He then forced a strip sack that resulted in more than double the points than Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown and their pitiful company could put up on the offensive side of the ball. 

Game Notes

• Officiating is ridiculous. It’s like the seventh game in a row that the officiating has been lopsided (for or against the Eagles) and it’s really embarrassing. At this point there needs to be extreme consequences for the blind folks they have making these calls before the league losses fans.
• Kelee Ringo got his name spoken. The guy experts once thought to be a first-round talent really screwed the Eagles by not only allowing a catch for a first down in that two-minute drill before the half, but he committed a foul in the process and then committing a personal foul on top of it. The Eagles could have had someone like Boston Scott line up with 25 yards of cushion for the receiver and they’d have been better off. He sort of improved by allowing every pass in his direction after that but not committing multiple fouls each time – he was only hurdled instead. This is, indeed, the same guy AJ Brown talked up this week.
• The defense had one good drive and it was undermined by the officiating, who made them keep playing for no reason. Then the offense sucked so bad that they spent no time on the field. No surprise the defense looked gassed given the fact that neither Hurts nor AJ Brown could hold onto a football at any point in the first half.
• Speaking of AJ Brown, I’ve never heard a player who was praised so much by the announcers for a half where he registered just two catches for 38 yards with an OPI to take away first and goal, a drop to take away first and goal, a drop to force a punt and a catch where he stepped out of bounds before making the catch in crunch time. An absolute embarrassment, especially since Brown didn’t fight for yardage on his catches and instead quickly ran out of bounds. Then he came out at the half and fumbled the ball away on the first drive. Leave it to the diva to speak so loud during the week to watch their play and then put the worst performance of any Eagles receiver this year out on the field.
• AJ Brown was absolute trash in this game, but Smith didn’t help too much, either. He missed hauling in a touchdown pass and had at least one other drop while the team had at least
• Worth noting that the referees called fouls on two of the Cowboys three touchdowns in the first half then inexplicably decided they were not egregious enough and allowed the plays to stand.
• No idea what Bradberry was doing on that near-touchdown play to Cooks. It appeared that Bradberry was in great position, but he stopped for an unknown reason when the ball was thrown. He honestly appeared to be in a great position and probably could have jumped the route but that stopping for a second left way too much space for him to recover.
• In the first half, there was a PBU by Morrow that I am just not sure what his thought process was. Of course, a PBU is great, especially by the Eagles linebackers, but in this instance it looked like the ball was thrown to him and there was no receiver around. I don’t understand why he seemed to make no attempt to catch the ball since it seemed like about the easiest pick he might be offered at the NFL level.
• The Eagles had 13 points in this game. Of those, seven were from the defense and three were from the arm of the punter, so the offense mustered a total of three points in three quarters. It was a number that matched what their special teams put up and less than half of what the defense put up.
• Milton Williams had a PBU on Tony Pollard in this one that might have been the best coverage by any defender on the Eagles covering a running back all season and that’s not an exaggeration. An excellent play.
• For the third time this year, the NFL flagged Jason Kelce for having a left arm. You’d think in 13 weeks these morons could figure out that players have two hands.
• Sydney Brown got some run in this game as some fans wanted. It did not turn out well as he failed to break up passes he was in position to and was dragged by runners multiple times.

Injury Notes

• Reed Blankenship went down after a tackle in the second quarter due to a concussion. He did not return, robbing the defense of their best tackler.
• Nicholas Morrow was out for part of a series in the third quarter, but re-entered the game a few plays later.
• Cam Jurgen left in second half but was able to return again in the fourth quarter.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Dallas Cowboys – December 10, 2023