DeVonta Smith saves the day but misses 100 in Eagles' win over Chiefs

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Not much was going right for the Eagles on offense on Monday night.

But DeVonta Smith helped change all that.

After tough sledding for three-plus quarters, Smith caught back-to-back passes to spur the Eagles’ go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. First, he caught a 13-yarder to convert on 3rd-and-5 and then followed it up with a 41-yard catch out of the slot to set up a Brotherly Shove to give the Eagles the 21-17 win.

“I told him he was the MVP, man,” A.J. Brown said. “He is the MVP. He got a dime. He made a great catch and should have got into the end zone. He played a really good game.”

That 41-yard catch was the longest play in this Super Bowl rematch but the fact that Smith was stopped at the 1-yard line did rob him of a 100-yard game.

Smith finished the game with 6 catches for 99 yards. He admitted after the game that finishing with 99 does bother him a little bit, especially after he finished with 99 yards against the Commanders a couple games ago.

“Yeah, it does. Second time,” Smith said. “Can’t keep happening. I’d rather finish with 98 than 99."

In Eagles history, there have been just 11 games where an Eagle finished with exactly 99 yards. The last guy to do it before Smith was DeSean Jackson in 2012. And Smith has now done it twice in the span of three games.

Oh well.

Maybe he couldn’t squeeze out one extra yard but that 41-yarder went a long way in sealing this win.

“We knew it was a lot of single high safety coming down so just took advantage of the matchup,” Smith said.

Head coach Nick Sirianni revealed that the long pass play was actually a check by quarterback Jalen Hurts, who liked the matchup and heaved it deep. The lasting thought for Smith was that the Eagles should have had more chances like that.

“We just got to go out there and communicate better,” Smith said. “There could have been a lot more of those. We just need to communicate better on offense. If we do that, no telling what it would have been.” 

But Smith’s big game is a good example of why this Eagles offense is so dangerous. In a game without Dallas Goedert (who is out with a forearm fracture) and in a game where superstar A.J. Brown was held to 1 catch for 8 yards on 4 targets, Smith came through.

While Brown is obviously the top target in this Eagles’ passing offense, Smith has shown up in big moments. Through 10 games, Smith has 48 catches for 632 yards and 4 touchdowns. He’s quietly on pace to finish with an 82/1,074/7 season.

By the way, Smith becomes eligible for a contract extension at the conclusion of the 2023 regular season.

The Eagles on Monday night had 12 offensive possessions (including going to victory formation at the end of the game) and they punted on seven of them. And four of those seven were 3-and-outs.

But when the Eagles needed a big play on Monday night, Smith was there to deliver. That’s why Brown called him the MVP of the game.

“Smitty made an awesome play,” Lane Johnson said. “It was a hell of a catch. It was one of those plays that changed the game.”

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