Will the Hurts-Brown episode change the balance of the Eagles offense?

PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia Eagles receiver AJ Brown couldn’t have anticipated all the drama that would stem from his terse postgame comments about the passing game last week, but his decision to air his frustrations in front of the media was deliberate by his account.

In short, he says he wanted to bring everyone’s attention to the air raid so the problem can be fixed before it comes back to bite them.

“I said that for a reason, honestly. Because we went to the Super Bowl (during the 2022 season) and lost. We tried again next year. It was a (10-1) record (in 2023) and there was a landslide,” Brown said, referring to the Eagles losing five of their last six regular-season games before bowing out in the wild-card round. “And here we go again. It’s something we can fix right now while we have the chance.”

That’s been the focus this week, now that questions about Brown’s relationship with quarterback Jalen Hurts have subsided.

The sentiment expressed by key members of the passing game — namely Hurts, Brown and fellow receiver DeVonta Smith — is that the operation lacks rhythm and congruence. That’s to be expected to an extent given the amount of time on assignment compared to the rest of the league.

The Eagles have leaned into Saquon Barkley and the ground game. They lead the league in rushing attempts (473) and yards (190.5 per game). The downside is that they are last in pass attempts (328) and 31st^St in passing yards (180.6 per game).

The offensive approach changed dramatically during their Week 5 bye. Through the first four weeks of the season, Hurts dropped 39 times per game. match average. In the nine games since, it has dropped significantly to 27 dropbacks per game. game.

It’s hard to argue with the results. Hurts tied for second in turnovers with seven over the first four weeks as Philadelphia started 2-2. He has just two turnovers since (falling all the way down to 21^St in turnovers) as the Eagles have rattled off nine straight wins.

Hurts plays a much more efficient ball. He has 12 touchdowns to one interception during the nine-game streak and has been sacked 23 times (2.5 per game) compared to four touchdowns, four interceptions and 13 sacks (3.25 per game) before the went down.

“I’ve submitted to whatever it takes to win,” Hurts said. “I don’t care what it looks like. It’s kind of my game and it’s something that people have to accept that it’s going to look the way Jalen Hurts wants it to look, but he will win.”

But the Eagles are going against the grain when it comes to championship style. They are averaging 25.2 pass attempts per game this season, the fewest of any team in the league. Since 2000, there has only been one team to reach the Super Bowl that averaged fewer than 26 passing attempts per game. game during the regular season, according to ESPN Research: 2005 Steelers, who won the Super Bowl that season.

Since 2015, there have been four teams to reach the Super Bowl that averaged at least 30 rushing attempts during the regular season: 2015 Panthers, 2022 Eagles, 2019 49ers and 2016 Patriots. The ’16 Patriots were the only one of those teams to win the Super Bowl.

There will almost certainly be a time in the postseason when the run game slows down, and it will fall to Hurts and the passing attack to carry the day. The talent is certainly there to get it done, but the consistency hasn’t been for much of the season.

Lately, Hurts has turned sharply towards the conservative. He has thrown for under 180 yards in each of the last three games and ranks 31st^St in air yards per attempts (5.7), with only two of his 62 pass attempts traveling 20-plus yards downfield over that stretch. And yet he is number 32^n.d over that span in average time to throw (3.24 seconds), which speaks to the sometimes clumsy, arrhythmic nature of the passing game recently.

Brown has felt the effects: He has only received one target of 20-plus yards down Hurts’ last 90 pass attempts. The sequence that helped spark the frustration last week was the Eagles’ second offensive play of the game, with Hurts opting to check it down instead of letting it rip to a wide-open Brown along the right side — an example of how Hurts has been turning down pitches. Brown didn’t have the ball his way until the waning moments of the second quarter.

Brown averages 6.6 goals per game. match, down from nine goals per game during his first two seasons in Philly. He boasted a 29.4% field goal percentage over the past two years, trailing only Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill; it has dropped to 19^th in the league with a rate of 22.2%.

After the Carolina game, Brown said “passing” was the area that needed fixing on offense and called it “incredibly tough” to get into a rhythm as a receiver when options are limited.

“At the end of the day, he’s a guy that’s a competitor, he wants to win, he definitely wants the ball and he wants to have an impact in the game, and I respect that,” Hurts said of Brown. “It’s like all of us.”

Even amid the drop in opportunities, Brown still ranks No. 1 in the league in yards per carry. goal (12.5).

“I’m going to focus more on trying to find different ways to increase the likelihood of the ball going to him,” offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said. “For us, we’re always going to evaluate how we can get it to him faster and create those opportunities.”

Brown slammed his helmet on the sideline after a three-and-out against Carolina and finished with four catches on as many targets for 43 yards. A similar scene unfolded last year during a Week 2 win over the Minnesota Vikings when Brown, who had four catches for 29 yards in the game, went to the sideline and had an animated exchange with Hurts.

The next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brown was targeted 14 times and had nine catches for 131 yards, the start of a record-setting six-game streak in which he posted 125-plus receiving yards.

Perhaps it’s a foreshadowing of what will unfold Sunday as the Eagles look to get their passing game on track against a staunch Pittsburgh Steelers defense (4:25 p.m., FOX).

“I’m not saying the sky is falling with our passing game,” Brown said, “but it’s something to bring awareness to it, to focus on it, to get better in the moment we have.”