Roob's Eagle Stats: Terrific A.J. Brown and Jalyx Hunt numbers amidst the rubble
Roob's Eagle Stats: Terrific A.J. Brown and Jalyx Hunt numbers amidst the rubble originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The tradition is that when the Eagles lose I stuff the first half of my weekly Eagles Stats column with positive stats and then move on to the negative (but equally fascinating) stats.
Full disclosure: There just aren't very many positive ones this week. I'm trying. But after that game? They just don't exist. But I found a few!
So here we go. The positive stuff, then the sickening stuff.
1. With his second 100-yard game in a row and third this year, A.J. Brown increased his total since he joined the Eagles in 2022 to 21 games with at least 100 receiving yards. He now trails only Pete Retzlaff, who had 23 in nine years with the Eagles from 1958 through 1966. Harold Carmichael, DeSean Jackson and Mike Quick also have 21.
2A. With his second interception this year, Jalyx Hunt became the first Eagles defensive lineman with two INTs in a season in 38 years, since the late Jerome Brown picked off Jay Schroeder of Washington and Neil Lomaz of the Cards as a rookie in 1987. The only other edge rusher / defensive ends with multiple interceptions in their entire Eagles career are Clyde Simmons and Reggie White. Clyde picked off Phil Simms in 1989 and Jim Kelly in 1993 (and had a third interception in 1995 as a Cardinal off Stan Humphries). Reggie got Humphries in 1990 and Boomer Esiason in 1991 (and had a third INT in 1996 with the Packers off Rick Mirer).
2B. Hunt is one of four players in the NFL with at least two sacks and two interceptions and the first Eagle since linebacker Nate Gerry in 2019 with two of each.
3A. With two touchdown passes Friday, Jalen Hurts increased his total combined touchdowns in 78 career starts to 166 - 103 passing and 63 rushing. Only five quarterbacks have had more combined TDs in their first 78 career starts: Patrick Mahomes (200 - 188, 12), Aaron Rodgers (188 - 170, 18), Dan Marino (182 - 179, 3), Josh Allen (180 - 142, 38) and Andrew Luck (169 - 155, 14).
3B. In their 3 years together, Hurts and Brown have connected on 28 touchdown passes, the most by an Eagles QB-WR duo in nearly four decades. The top Eagles QB-WR touchdown combo is Ron Jaworski and Harold Carmichael with 47 touchdowns, but within range for Hurts and Brown this year are Jaws and Mike Quick (33), Sonny Jurgensen and Tommy McDonald (30) and Norm Van Brocklin and McDonald (29). Hurts and DeVonta Smith are seventh on that list with 26 TDs.
3C. With his two TD passes Friday, Hurts increased his career total to 114 and passed Carson Wentz for fourth place on the all-time Eagles list. Wentz had 113 TD passes in his five years with the Eagles. The top three on the list are Donovan McNabb (240), Ron Jaworski (184) and Randall Cunningham (153). (Wentz still has nine more regular-season TD passes as an Eagle than Hurts. Hurts has 10 playoff TDs and Wentz had none.)
4. Opposing quarterbacks have completed only 52.1 percent of their passes in the Eagles' last five games. That's the lowest completion percentage against the Eagles in a five-game span in 14 years, since the Eagles held the Bucs, Jaguars, Washington, Titans and Colts to 51.4 percent in 2011. Over the Eagles' last eight games, they've allowed just seven passing TDs and held QBs to 56.2 percent passing, the first time they've done that over an eight-game span since 2007.
5. When the Eagles stopped Kyle Monangai on 4th-and-1 on the Lions' first drive Friday, it was the Eagles 10thconsecutive 4th-down stop going back to the Packers game, extending the club record (since the NFL began tracking 4th-down attempts in 1991). Opposing teams are only 7-for-23 on fourth down against the Eagles for 30.4 percent. That's 2nd-best in the NFL behind the Chiefs (27.4 percent.
OK, this is where it gets bad. I'm really sorry. Make sure you're sitting down before we start:
5A. The Bears' 281 rushing yards (it was 285 before their last two drives) are tied for the 10th-most ever against the Eagles. Tied with the 1935 Bears, who had 281 rushing yards against the Eagles in a 39-0 win at the Baker Bowl. It was the 6th-most rushing yards against the Eagles in Philadelphia and the 2nd-most since 1962.
5B. The 281 rushing yards are the Bears' 3rd-most since 1984 but 2nd-most this month. They had 283 earlier in November against the Bengals in Cincinnati. The last team with two games in the same month with 280 rushing yards was the 2013 Eagles, who ran for 299 against the Lions in a 34-20 win and 289 vs. the Bears in a 54-11 win, both at the Linc.
5C. The Cowboys' 125 rushing yards combined with the Bears' 281 made this the first time the Eagles have allowed 400 rushing yards in a two-game span in 19 years, since the Titans (209) and Colts (237) combined for 446 in November of 2006.
5D. The Bears' 17 rushing first downs are the most recorded against the Eagles since the NFL began tracking rushing and passing first downs in 1999. The previous high during that 27-year span was 15 three times, most recently by the Giants in a 42-7 win in 2012 at MetLife. The Bears' 17 rushing first downs are the most by any NFL team this year.
5E. Only two teams have had more rushing attempts vs. the Eagles in the last 40 years than the Bears' 47. In 2004, the Steelers had 56 in a 27-3 win at Heinz Field and in 2022 the Commanders had 49 in a 32-21 win at the Linc.
5F. The Eagles are the first team with a winning percentage over .700 to allow 280 or more rushing yards in a game since the 11-3 Panthers gave up 301 in a 34-28 loss to the Giants in East Rutherford in 2008. Derrick Ward ran for 215 yards for the Giants in that game.
5G. The Eagles rushed for just 87 yards Sunday, and the 194-yard differential in rushing yards (and rushing yard differential is one of our favorite Stathead search criteria) is the 3rd-largest against the Eagles in the last 40 years. In that 2004 Steelers game, Pittsburgh out-rushed the Eagles by 229 yards and in 2014 in Santa Clara the 49ers out-ran the Eagles by 196 yards. Last time the Eagles were out-rushed by this many yards at home was 1983, when they had 10 rushing yards and the Giants had 215 in a 23-0 Giants win at the Vet. That would be a 205-yard differential.
6A. D'Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai became only the eighth duo in NFL history to both rush for at least 125 yards, average at least 5.5 yards per carry and score a touchdown in the same game. They're the first duo to do that since Frank Gore and Colin Kaepernick of the 49ers did it in 2014 against the Chargers and the first RB duo since Chris Johnson and LenDale White of the Titans did it against the Chiefs in 2008. The last duo with 125 yards, a 5.5 average and a TD against the Eagles in the same game was Jim Brown (24-for-153-1) and Bobby Mitchell (14-for-156-2) in the Browns' 41-24 win over the Eagles at Franklin Field in the 1960 opener. The Eagles won their next 10 games and beat the Packers in the NFL Championship Game that December at Franklin Field.
6B. The Eagles had only allowed one back to rush for 125 yards with a 6.5 average in 87 games during Nick Sirianni's coaching tenure before allowing two in the same game. The previous one to do it was Swift, who was 15-for-144 (9.6) with the Lions in a 38-35 Eagles win at Ford Field in 2022. Swift is the only the fourth player with multiple games against the Eagles with 125 rushing yards and a 6.5 average or higher, the first since Deuce McAllister of the Saints in 2003 and 2006. The others are Jim Brown, who had five such games from 1958 through 1965, and Emmitt Smith twice in 1993.
6C. In the first 48 Eagles-Bears games going back to 1933, no Bears player ever rushed for 125 yards with a 5.9 average or better. Then two did it on Friday.
6D. Monangai became the first rookie with 130 rushing yards and at least a 5.5 average against the Eagles since Saquon Barkley of the Giants in 2018. His 130 yards are 3rd-most by a player drafted in the seventh round or later against the Eagles in the last 40 years. Darick Holmes of the Packers had 163 in 1998 and Rashad Jennings of the Giants had 170 in 2016.
6D. Swift's 125 yards are the most ever by a former Eagle against the Eagles. Clarence Peaks, the seventh pick overall in 1957, had 101 yards against the Eagles for the Steelers in 1964 at Pitt Stadium.
6E. Swift now has a 6.6 career average vs. the Eagles (it actually went down Friday). Among running backs who've faced the Eagles at least three times, that's 3th-highest all-time, behind McAllister (7.5) and Chick Jagade of the Browns in the 1950s (7.5).
(Deep breath.)
7. The Eagles have scored just 62 points in their last four games, their fewest in a four-game span since the nightmare 2012 season, when they scored 59 in losses to the Falcons (30-17), Saints (28-13), Cowboys (38-23) and Washington (31-6).
8. The Eagles are on pace to allow 4.5 yards per rush and record just 34 sacks. Since sacks became an official stat in 1982, they've never allowed 4 yards per run and recorded 34 or fewer sacks in the same season. The closest they've come was in 1993, when they allowed 4.5 yards per carry and had just 36 sacks. If they finish with 34 sacks, that would be the 6th-fewest in franchise history. And 4.5 yards per carry would be tied for 4th-worst during the sack era.
9. The Eagles are ranked 24thin the NFL in offense and 23rdin defense. Last time they ranked in the bottom 10 in both offense and defense for a full season was 1999, Andy Reid's first year as an NFL head coach and Donovan McNabb's rookie year. They were 30thin offense and 24thin defense that year.
10. With the Bears out-gaining the Eagles by 108 yards, the Eagles have been outgained in 10 of their 12 games this year. Last time they were outgained more often in their first 12 games was 1999, when it happened 11 times.
11A. Bonus Zach Ertz stat: Zach Ertz had 10 catches for 106 yards in the Commanders' loss to the Broncos. It was his 12thcareer 10-catch game, which is tied for 2nd-most in NFL history behind Tony Gonzalez's 15. It was his first 10-catch regular-season game in almost exactly six years. He had 12 against the Seahawks for the Eagles in 2019. The 100-yard game was Ertz's 14th, which is tied for 11th-most ever. It was his first regular-season 100-yard game since he had 103 yards against the Bears in 2019 and it was his most yards since he had 110 against the Texans in 2018. Ertz, 35 years, 20 days, did have 11-for-104 yards in the NFC Championship Game at the Linc in January. Only three tight ends older than Ertz have had a 100-yard game (Gonzalez, Kelce and Pete Retzlaff). Only four tight ends older than Ertz have had 10 catches in a game (Gonzalez, Kelce, Jason Witten, Wesley Walls).
11B. Ertz is the oldest player in the Washington franchise's 94-year history with 10 catches in a game. He's about six months older than tight end Don Warren was when he had 10 catches in a game against the Giants in East Rutherford in 1990. He's the 2nd-oldest Washington player with a 100-yard game. Henry Ellard had three in 1996 at 35 years and 84, 91 and 154 days.
11C. Ertz, whose first 100-yard game came for the Eagles against Washington in 2014 with Mark Sanchez as his quarterback, has now had 100-yard games 11 years apart. The only two tight ends to have 100-yard games farther apart are Gonzalez (13 years) and Witten (12 years).
11D. Ertz's 10 receptions gave him 878 in his career and moved him past Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe (877 catches) and into fifth place in NFL history among tight ends. Next on the list is Antonio Gates with 1,006.
11E. The most career catches by players who played for the Eagles at some point?Cris Carter 1,164, Terrell Owens 1,132, Art Monk 1,009, Julio Jones 991, Jimmy Smith 902, Irving Fryar 881, Ertz 878, James Lofton 805, Golden Tate 730, . Note that Smith was in training camp with the Eagles in 1995 but never played in a regular-season game.