Kellen Moore answers for subpar passing performance in playoff win

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Kellen Moore answers for subpar passing performance in playoff win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Even Kellen Moore had to admit it.

The Eagles won on Sunday, advancing to the NFC divisional round, but their passing offense just wasn’t very good.

“The passing game, obviously, wasn’t our best performance,” the Eagles’ offensive coordinator said on Tuesday. “Certainly, every person involved would love to have it be cleaner, play better in that aspect of the game. I thought our guys, again to [Jalen Hurts’] credit, played clean football as far as protecting the football. He gave us opportunities.

“We made plays in some situations when we had to. Sometimes that’s the way games go unfortunately. Obviously, something that we’re all excited to navigate and find better answers moving forward.”

The Eagles beat the Packers 22-10 on Sunday in the wild-card round and advanced to host to Rams in the divisional round on Sunday at 3 p.m. The ultimate objective was to stay alive and the Eagles are one of eight teams left fighting for the right to play in the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t some concern about the passing game after Sunday’s performance. And it’s not like some of the questions we’re asking about that element of this team are new.

Against the Packers, Hurts completed 13 of 21 passes for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns and had a passer rating of 111.4. And he didn’t turn the football over.

But the passing game basically disappeared in the middle of the game. After Hurts completed a pass with 1:20 left in the first quarter, he didn’t complete another until the 4:41 mark of the third. In between, Hurts was 0-for-7 with two sacks.

At the most basic level, the Eagles’ passing game just doesn’t pass the eye test right now. It’s not terribly creative or multiple. While there are some new elements this season, it still looks an awful lot like the static passing offense they agreed needed to be better after the 2023 season.

Does the Eagles’ passing game have enough variety right now?

“I think that’s always something you’re trying to strive for,” Moore answered. “Just different presentations, different challenges to stress the defense and give yourself different opportunities. Something we’re trying to do each and every week. As the season progresses, that’s the balancing act of flavor and different looks and presentations with an identity and an ability to do things that you’ve repped a lot of times.”

Despite playing a Packers team without its top cornerback, Jaire Alexander, the Eagles had a conservative approach in the wild-card round.

Hurts averaged just 6.2 yards per attempt on Sunday, which was the second lowest yards-per-attempt in the wild-card round among the 12 quarterbacks who played. The only guy below him was Vikings QB Sam Darnold, who averaged 6.1 yards per attempt. Additionally, Hurts had a deep pass percentage of just 4.8% and his average of 6.0 intended air yards per attempt was his lowest of the season.

Was this a conservative game plan by design?

“I think certainly you’d love to have more opportunities downfield,” Moore said. “You’d love to have those explosive play opportunities and sometimes they didn’t present [themselves]. Obviously, we were able to grind it out as the game progressed with some run game emphasis as the run game ended.

“Obviously, there’s things each and every game that you come out of it that you’d love to do different things, love to call things here or there that are different. You come out of every game that way.

“At the end of the day, we accomplished the No. 1 goal, which was advance in this tournament. Obviously, there’s things that we look back and say, ‘We want to improve on that, improve on that.’ And that’s the beauty of this group that they’re ready to do that.”

In a way, you can argue that the conservative approach worked. The Eagles’ defense held the Packers to just 10 points and the Eagles won the turnover battle 4-0 — Jordan Love threw three interceptions and the Eagles forced a fumble on the opening kickoff.

Because, on one hand, it makes sense to play this style when your defense is this good. But there’s a chance the Eagles will need more out of their passing game at some point in these playoffs if they want to keep advancing and it’s a legitimate fear that they might not be able to flip the switch.

Like we mentioned, these questions about the passing game aren’t new. At this point in the season, the Eagles’ defense has proven itself and so has the rushing offense.

That last element from a complete team is the passing offense. And with a good offensive line, two stud receivers, a really good tight end and a talented quarterback, there’s no reason the Eagles shouldn’t have a good passing game. It has become a tad exhausting this season trying to divvy up blame for the passing struggles. Is it Hurts? Moore? Nick Sirianni? It’s always hard to say, but these questions have persisted.

And those questions about the passing offense arose in a big way after the Panthers game in Week 14. Even though the Eagles won that game, their passing offense struggled and plenty of players brought it up in the postgame locker room. Then the next week, Hurts threw for 290 yards with 2 touchdowns against the Steelers in a really encouraging performance.

But then in Week 16 against the Commanders, Hurts suffered a concussion in the first quarter and we didn’t see him again until the playoff game. Those questions are back.

“I thought Jalen responded really, really well,” Moore said. “Coming out of that thing, not having played for a few weeks, it wasn’t perfect, but I thought he settled in. And in that second half, we were able to play with some tempo, play with some pace. He was able to play some clean football and give us some opportunities to score down the stretch.”

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