The Eagles are 2-0 and Jalen Hurts had to throw the ball 37 times to get them there. That's the part of Sunday's 24-20 win in Tennessee the standings won't tell you.
Hurts finished 26-of-37 for 264 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He was sacked three times for 12 yards of loss. His QBR was 83.1, his passer rating 85.9. Those aren't unbeaten numbers. Those are numbers that say Philadelphia's offense is being carried by one arm and one receiver, and that whatever running game was supposed to be the foundation of this team has quietly disappeared.
Saquon Barkley ran the ball four times for nine yards. Four carries. Tank Bigsby led the backs with 13 carries for 33 yards and a touchdown, which works out to 2.5 yards a pop. Will Shipley got 7 carries for 24. Hollywood Brown, a wide receiver, took two carries for 12 yards and averaged 6.0, the best mark of anyone in that backfield who touched the ball. When your most efficient rush comes from a receiver, you don't have a running game. You have a rumor of one.
What Philadelphia does have is DeVonta Smith, and the Eagles should be honest with themselves about how much they're leaning on him. Ten catches on 13 targets for 117 yards and a touchdown. Dontayvion Wicks chipped in 5 for 74 on 6 targets. Darius Cooper caught two balls for 26 yards, and the second one is the only one anyone will remember.
Trailing or tied with the clock bleeding, Philadelphia got the ball with the game on a two-minute clock that officially stopped at 1:56 in the fourth quarter. Then Hurts went short middle to D.Cooper for 3 yards, TOUCHDOWN. J.Elliott's extra point was good, center R.Underwood and holder B.Mann doing their jobs, and the game ended at 0:00. A three-yard throw decided it. Not a shot downfield, not a Barkley run. A three-yard throw, because that's the offense now.
Give the defense its due in this one, because it's the reason the Eagles aren't 1-1. Jihaad Campbell made 10 tackles, 6 of them solo. Quinyon Mitchell had 6 tackles and 5 solo. Andrew Mukuba finished with 6. Tennessee got Cam Ward, Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears, Nicholas Singleton and Ward again onto the rushing leaderboard, and still couldn't turn that into a lead worth protecting. The Titans are 0-2 and they lost this game by four points to a team that ran for almost nothing.
Here's my read, and I'd rather say it plainly than hedge it: Philadelphia's record is a week ahead of its offense. Hurts throwing 37 times with two interceptions while Barkley gets four carries isn't a game plan that survives a better opponent, and the Eagles just needed a walk-off three-yarder to beat a team that's now 0-2. That's not a warning about Tennessee. That's a warning about Philadelphia. Fix the run game or the 2-0 becomes 2-3 in a hurry.
