2025 Game Review – DEN 21, PHI 17

This was a game of mistakes. Some were dumb, others were sloppy. All were costly. The Eagles played well enough to build a 17-3 lead heading into the fourth quarter, but then fell apart. The lead should have been bigger. This was a game they should have won. Instead we focus on the mistakes.

• AJ Brown slows down on a deep route. The ball comes his way and is a step out ahead of him. Should have been a TD.
• Zack Baun dives on a player just after he went down. That turned fourth down into a new set of downs at a critical part of the game.
• Quinyon Mitchell grabbed the jersey of a receiver on a crossing route into the end zone. The Broncos were about to be in third down and instead got a first.
• An illegal shift penalty wiped out a deep ball to DeVonta.
• Tyler Steen got a penalty that wiped out a gain that would have put the Eagles in FG range in the early fourth. They ended up punting on that series.
• Jalen Carter jumped offside on fourth down.

I’ll stop there. I think you get the point. This wasn’t one player or one side of the ball. This was a team effort.

COACHING

Nick Sirianni got out-coached by Sean Payton in the fourth quarter. The Broncos were more aggressive. They played with a sense of urgency. Going for 2 sent a good message to his team and put the Eagles on their heels. Payton had the right messaging and got his guys to come through in the clutch. The Eagles still had a chance at the end, but couldn’t make the winning play.

This is rare for a modern NFL game…not one fourth down attempt. The Eagles tried one, but had it wiped out by penalty so no official tries. Sirianni did challenge a deep ball to Dotson. It was close, but the call didn’t get overturned. Stayed an incompletion.

Kevin Patullo was up and down. He mixed in more RPOs than previous games. They worked okay, when penalties weren’t an issue. The Broncos were mainly a man coverage team, but they played more zone than usual and the Eagles didn’t have consistent answers for it. Jalen is better vs man. One of the key criticisms was Barkley only getting 6 carries. He actually had more, but multiple plays were wiped out by penalty. Making that worse, if he gets 3 or 4 yards on those runs, there is a good chance the next play is a run. Insted 1st & 15 is a pass. Ugh.

Vic Fangio’s defense was very good in the first half, allowing 102 yards on 32 plays. Things went sideway after that. The Broncos started making plays and the Eagles just didn’t have answers. Give Denver some credit. Still, it was frustrating to see the Eagles not make the key play they needed. That’s what this defense did in the first month.

Michael Clay’s STs didn’t make any huge plays. They did have a couple of good KORs.

OFFENSE

The offense was hurt by poor field position. Every drive in the first half started at the 20 or worse. The Eagles had better field position after that, but couldn’t take advantage of it.

Jalen Hurts finished 23-38-280 with a pair of TDs. He made some good throws. Hurts did struggle at times when trying to find where to go with the ball. Sometimes there weren’t guys open. Other times he made questionable decisions. The Eagles threw quite a few deep balls. They hit on one to DeVonta and one to Saquon. Those plays led to 14 points. Great. The Eagles missed on deep balls to Dotson and Brown, and a couple of medium throws to DG. They could have been chunk plays, but ended as incompletions. Deep balls are great when they work. But they are low percentage.

Saquon Barkley was 6-30 on the ground and 3-58-1 as a receiver. He had a 17-yard run that got everyone excited. Maybe this would be the breakout game. Didn’t happen. Denver wanted to take away the run when they could and force Hurts to throw.

DeVonta had his best game, going 8-114. He had a long play of 52. That came on 3rd & 17. It was fun to see the Eagles take a chance and go deep in that situation. AJ Brown was 5-43, but only caught one pass after halftime. The deep ball was highly frustrating. That was a well-designed play. The Eagles got the look they wanted. AJ just slowed down a bit. Ugh.

Incompletion to AJ Brown

➡️ 12p vs base; 1st Empty snap all day. AJ positioned to get matched vs SS Hufanga

My personal read on it?

When OLB re-routes AJ before his stutter, he thinks timing is dead and QB will go elsewhere

Gotta run this out – but I do get how this happened pic.twitter.com/ibmgkrOXwc

— Fran Duffy (@FDuffyNFL) October 6, 2025

Jahan Dotson had 1 catch for 24 yards and that came on the final drive. He almost made a terrific catch along the sideline, but couldn’t get both feet down inbounds.

Dallas Goedert went 3-18. Grant Calcaterra went 2-19. I wish both guys would catch and run full speed. They both seem to anticipate contact and want to make moves. You’re TEs, not WRs. Goedert should have had a PI call inside the 5-yard line on the next to last play, but the officials swallowed the whistle. So frustrating. That was obvious PI. The Eagles weren’t guaranteed to win, but a final play from that close would have made a world of difference. Calcaterra hurt his back/side and left the game early.

The OL looked good at times. Hurts was sacked 6 times, but at least a couple of those came when he ran out of bounds. The Broncos used some creative blitz looks that gave Hurts and the blockers trouble.

#Eagles continue to struggle against 4-man exchange pressures. On 3rd & 13, Saquon stays in to block rather than release as a checkdown, but it’s only a 4-man rush (with an exotic spin to Cover 2 behind it).
Denver hadn’t run a single 4-man exchange all year before this game. https://t.co/owKfSfP78r pic.twitter.com/QHjqSsLUaJ

— Deniz Selman (@denizselman33) October 6, 2025

The OTs were good in pass pro for part of the game. There were several plays where Hurts had a lot of time.Landon Dickerson got hurt and Brett Toth took over. I thought Toth was actually okay. He did have a costly holding penalty. Tyler Steen looked good at times.

Saquon Barkley’s longest run of the season, brought to you by a Tyler Steen pancake pic.twitter.com/4CgGPT1iyc

— JP Acosta (@acosta32_jp) October 6, 2025

He also had a costly penalty. Cam Jurgens got blown up on a run play.

DEFENSE

The Eagles didn’t come up with a takeaway. They did have 2 sacks. I thought they did a good job of affecting Bo Nix in the first half. He couldn’t get comfortable in the pocket. He had one grounding penalty in the game and should have had 2. Azeez Ojulari played his first game and looked good. He had 3 tackles, a TFL and QB hit. Za’Darius Smith had 3 tackles and a sack. That came when he looped inside and got free.

Jalen Carter had 4 tackles and a QB hit. He was disruptive but couldn’t make plays. Moro Ojomo was active and finished with 4 tackles. He had one really good stop on an inside run. Jordan Davis seemed quiet.

Zack Baun led the team with 12 tackles. He added a sack and forced a grounding penalty. If Baun has a weakness it is inside runs. There were some plays where he didn’t get to the ball quickly enough. He had a chance to hit Nix in space but took a poor angle and let the QB run for a first down. Baun’s biggest mistake is when he dove on a RB after a third down stop. That drew a flag and kept the drive alive. Huge moment in the game. It certainly was close, but as soon as he did it I knew a flag would fly.

Jihad Campbell had 11 tackles and aTFL. I was impressed by his range. He covers a lot of ground.

Reed Blankenship was terrific vs Tampa, but quiet in this game. He had 3 tackles. Didn’t make any coverage plays. Drew Mukuba was quiet as well. He finished with 6 tackles, but most came down the field. Didn’t make any key plays.

Quinyon Mitchell was terrific vs Tampa, but got picked on in this game. He had 7 tackles and a PD, but Courtland Sutton caught several passes on him. Q had good coverage. He just couldn’t get to the ball. His holding penalty in the end zone was dumb. Gave Denver a new set of downs. Ugh. Kelee Ringo had another solid showing. He had 6 tackles. Ringo gave up catches, but closed to the ball quickly. He had good downfield coverage on one pass, forcing the WR to go out of bounds. He might have gotten away with PI on another play. It was borderline.

Cooper DeJean had 3 tackles, a TFL and a PD. He almost had a strip sack. The officials called it a fumble on the field. Replay overturned. So close. And that would have been a huge play.

ST

Jahan Dotson had a PR for 15 yards.

Will Shipley had a KOR that went for 37 yards.

Braden Mann averaged 51 yards per punt. The bad news is that 2 of them were touchbacks and none were downed inside the 20. The coverage units could be better.

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