Here’s the flip side to Saquon Barkley’s monster day in the Eagles’ 28-3 beatdown of the New York Giants on Sunday – the receiver’s production, or lack thereof.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts only attempted 14 passes. He’s had games where he’s thrown that many times in one quarter. He was 10-for-14 for 114 yards.
Half of those completions went to A.J. Brown, who had 89 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown catch to make the score 14-0 with 4:27 to play in the second quarter. The rest of the pass-catchers totaled five receptions for 25 yards.
DeVonta Smith had one catch for minus-2 yards. Tight end Grant Calcaterra did better than Smith, but not by much. He had one catch for five yards. Barkley had two for 11, and Kenny Gainwell one for 11. Jahan Dotson and Parris Campbell had one target but no catches.
Asked about just 14 pass attempts, Brown laughed then laughed again during his answer. He’s not making any waves. Not in a butt-whipping the Eagles unleashed on a Giants team that dipped to 2-5 with the loss.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “It’s like a good and bad thing. We’re happy the guys ran the ball. But we want the ball, too. I wish there was a few more attempts. But it happens. You’re onto the next game. You take it. So, it’s all good.”
The next game for the Eagles is again ono the road, their fifth road trip in their first seven games, against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Hurts’ take on the run-heavy game plan that included 45 rushing attempts?
“You want to be able to win in multiple ways,” he said. “And as we continue to build, I think we’ll continue to see that even more. That’s what the good offenses have. They’re capable of doing both. They’re not one-dimensional. So, we just want to continue to build, build our toolbox, build our portfolio, if you will, of what we can do, and how efficiently we can do all these different things.”
