They didn’t draw the play up in the dirt, but it wasn't far off.
Just before halftime at FedEx Sunday, the Eagles led Washington 17-0 and after Jalen Hurts’ 44-yard bomb to DeVonta Smith, they found themselves with a 1st-and-goal on the 1-yard-line just before halftime.
Nick Sirianni called the Eagles’ final first-half timeout with 26 seconds on the clock, but two plays netted minus-one yard and facing a 4th-and-goal in a loud stadium with no timeouts and the clock ticking toward zero, Hurts went rogue.
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SIGN UP HERE He reached back to a play that wasn’t in the game plan.
It worked.
Hurts liked the matchup between Smith and corner Kendall Fuller and fired to Smith in the deep left corner of the end zone. Fuller had decent coverage, but it didn’t matter. Touchdown Eagles.
Ballgame.
NFL
“It was a play that we necessarily haven’t talked about in a minute, but everybody (was) just on the same page,” Smith said. “We ran it before, but it wasn’t necessarily in the game plan. …
“You just gotta be ready. You never know what is going to come up. I mean everyone was on the same page and I think we executed well.”
Smith’s touchdown made it 24-0 before halftime, and the Eagles coasted from there to a 24-8 win and a 3-0 start.
Hurts finished with 340 yards and three touchdowns and Smith had a career game with eight catches for 169 yards.
And one of his biggest catches wasn’t even in the game plan.
“We’re in a situation in the game where we didn’t have any timeouts,” Hurts said. “We just had to make sure we were on the same page. Kind of loud in the stadium. To him saying it probably wasn’t the intended call, all 11 guys on the field (were) on the same page and making the play work that was called from the quarterback, so made a great catch. He made a really great catch.”
That touchdown just goes to show you the level of communication and trust these guys have with each other.
They’re operating at an extremely high level on the field because they’ve put in the work at an extremely high level off the field.
“We kind of put ourselves in these situations all the time,” Hurts said. “One thing I’ve talked about all week is being on the same page with the coaches and making sure everybody’s on the same page, seeing the game the same way. When there is a situation where communication is maybe not the best, maybe I’m not getting the play in because of how loud it is or whatever, they expect me to make it work with something that I know will put us in an advantageous position to execute the play. That was one of those plays.
“Again, not having any timeouts, I think it was a really big-time play by him to go up there and snatch the ball out the air, high-point the ball and get us points before halftime.”
The touchdown was the Eagles’ first on a fourth down in the final minute of a first half since … does anybody remember Trey Burton to Nick Foles?
A.J. Brown finished with eight catches for 85 yards. The last time two Eagles receivers gained more yards in a game was in a loss at Arizona in 2014, when Jeremy Maclin [187] and Riley Cooper [88] combined for 275.
Smith surpassed his career high of 122 yards set against the Chiefs last year at the Linc, and his 169 yards are most by an Eagle since that Maclin 187-yard game eight years ago.
The only Eagles with more yards in a game before their 24th birthday are DeSean Jackson once and Ben Hawkins twice.
“That was crazy,” Brown said. “That boy definitely had wings on. He was flying in the air. He had a great day.”