What the heck is going on with Eagles' passing game?

From 1:20 left in the first quarter until 4:41 left in the third quarter, Jalen Hurts didn’t complete a pass.

Not one.

He was 0-for-7 with a three-yard sack during that stretch of 26 ½ minutes of football that probably spanned about 90 minutes in real-life time.

The Eagles ran 19 plays without a pass completion.

That’s not ideal.

Hurts bounced back and made enough plays to help the Eagles beat the Packers 22-10 in their wild-card game at the Linc, but you’re not going to win many games when you don’t complete a pass for half a game.

And they know that.

“It was execution, it was rhythm,” Hurts said. “We have to find our rhythm earlier in the game.”

The Eagles won despite netting just 121 passing yards, 5th-fewest in Eagles playoff history and 3rd-fewest since 1950.

Hurts did complete three straight passes on a pivotal 3rd-quarter drive - 28 and 9 yards to DeVonta Smith and 24 yards for a touchdown to Dallas Goedert.

He finished 13-for-21 for 131 yards, TDs to Jahan Dotson and Goedert and no turnovers. A.J. Brown caught just one pass for 10 yards.

Hurts has now thrown 158 consecutive postseason passes without an interception, the 7th-longest streak ever. 

Those are the positives. But the Eagles know they’re not going to win many games without a more productive passing game.

Hurts' 13 completions are fewest by an Eagles quarterback in a playoff game since Ron Jaworski was 9-for-29 in the 1980 NFC Championship Game against the Cowboys at the Vet.

“We kind of got stagnant, but I thought the second half we battled, we steadily improved,” Lane Johnson said. “It was a tough, grinding game. Nothing really pops out as far as significant, huge plays. But we battled. 

“I felt like we in some ways under-performed. We’ve got to be more consistent. I felt like we had a lot of ups and downs. There wasn’t a whole lot of steadiness.”

Hurts only completed two passes longer than 11 yards and they came in the span of three snaps in the third quarter to Smith and Goedert. 

Hurts said his layoff after suffering a concussion against the Commanders on Dec. 22 wasn’t a factor in his performance, but he sure looked rusty.

“As an offense, we struggled a little bit,” Nick Sirianni said. “I don’t think we had the game that we wanted to have on offense, but Jalen I think did a lot of good things. 

“First of all, Jalen is a winner. He wins. I mean, no one can argue that. The other thing is we know when we take care of the football, the things that happen when we take care of the football, and Jalen’s on this pace of the efficiency that he’s played with this year with his quarterback rating, with his yards per attempt, and all those different things, to be able to do that while also taking care of the football is huge.”

When you’re plus-4 in turnover margin it overcomes a lot of deficiencies. Bottom line is in the postseason all that matters is winning and moving on.

The Eagles are in the conference semifinal round for the fourth time in the last eight years and 11th time since 2000.

“You know it doesn’t matter (how we win),” Hurts said. "It’s all about winning. That’s the only thing we’ve got to the point we are. So, it’s about finding ways to win.”

The Eagles are now 4-1 this year when they have fewer than 125 passing yards, which is insane.

They’re the first team to win four or more games with 125 net passing yards since the 2009 Browns.

“A lot of plays that we left out there,” Jordan Mailata said. “I don’t want to call it rust. Just execution.”

The yards didn’t come easily much of the game for Saquon Barkley, but when all was said and done he had hammered out 119 yards in his first postseason game with the Eagles.

That’s 4th-most in Eagles postseason history and the most since Brian Westbrook - who was at the game - had 141 vs. the Giants in that 2006 wild-card game (the Eagles’ last home wild-card win). 

“We got out here and we survived,” Barkley said. “We won a football game against a really good team. It’s playoff football. We did what we needed to do. Things we can improve. No matter what, even if we came out here and won 40-3, there's still so much stuff we can improve on. We'll find out who we've got next and get ready for them.

“In the end, stats don’t matter. We’ve got to be our biggest critic and that’s what we’re going to be and we’re going to see what we can improve on, but the only thing that really matters is that we win. Throw for 400 yards, rush for 400 yards and win 3-0? I don’t care. I just want to win. And I know that’s the mindset of the team.”

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