Eagles QB Jalen Hurts Was Blitzed 16 Times by the Rams, and the Weakness He Buried Is Back on Tape

Every defensive coordinator who has game-planned for Jalen Hurts has asked the same question at some point: what happens when you send more rushers than he can account for? For a couple of seasons Hurts looked like he had answered it for good. Against the Rams the question came back louder than he has heard it in years, and this time the answer slipped.

The postgame noise in Philadelphia went elsewhere, and with reason. A blown fourth-quarter lead, a failed fourth-and-goal the head coach pinned on himself, an offensive line stripped to the studs. Inside that wreck sits a quarterback story the Eagles cannot file under bad luck, because the same pressure had already come from Chicago a week earlier, and every defense left on the schedule now has the tape.

The numbers behind the pressure

ESPN’s Ben Solak counted 16 blitzes against Hurts in the 24-20 loss, the most he has faced since the 2024 season. The Rams sent extra rushers on half of his dropbacks, the highest rate of any game called by defensive coordinator Chris Shula. Hurts was pressured on nine of those 16 snaps, completed 4 of 14 throws with one first down, and finished at minus-9.3 expected points added on blitzed dropbacks, the worst such game of his career by a comfortable margin.

The exact count depends on who did the charting. Next Gen Stats, as cited by Pro Football Network, logged 18 dropbacks with extra rushers and a 5-for-16 line, and NBC Sports Philadelphia put the blitz rate at 60.6 percent. Every version lands in the same place: the heaviest blitz plan of Shula’s three years running the Los Angeles defense.

Third down, where it broke

The Rams blitzed on 11 of Philadelphia’s 12 third-down snaps, the only exception a third-and-17, and turned them into six pressures and a sack. The Eagles converted none. NBC Sports Philadelphia found only two other games in franchise history without a single third-down conversion, both on fewer attempts, nine and eight. Five of the misses came with four yards or less to go. Counting the end of the loss in Chicago, Philadelphia has now failed on 17 straight third downs.

Hurts finished 12 of 27 for 93 yards and two touchdowns, both to Darius Cooper, and was sacked four times, twice by Byron Young on the final drive. Net of sacks, the offense managed 68 passing yards on 31 dropbacks. The Eagles led 20-10 entering the fourth quarter and did not score on their last six possessions while Kyren Williams ran in two touchdowns for Los Angeles.

The case for an aberration, and why it is thin

The defense of Hurts is real. He played without DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, lost Saquon Barkley to a hamstring injury after four snaps, and saw right tackle Lane Johnson scratched late for what Nick Sirianni called a personal matter. The Rams kept a running back home in protection and went after rookie right tackle Markel Bell, who was making his first career start. PhillyVoice singled out center Cam Jurgens for the pressure he gave up on passing downs.

Solak himself grants that the game is easy to read as an aberration. He also notes that the blitz was the book on Hurts as a younger passer, that it featured heavily in the game plans behind Philadelphia’s postseason losses, that the Bears blitzed him on 43.3 percent of his dropbacks the week before, and that Shula already leaned on it against him last season. Two opponents in a row looks less like a coincidence than a scouting report.

Part of the answer sits with the quarterback. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s read of the film is that defenses are sending more than the Eagles can account for “and the pre-snap calls aren’t helping to set protections,” while former Eagles quarterback Nick Foles said Hurts needs to take the next step in his progressions. Setting the protection and finding the hot answer before the extra rusher arrives is quarterback craft, and it matters more while Sean Mannion, a 34-year-old first-time offensive coordinator, is still working out what this offense wants to be.

What Hurts said, and what comes next

Hurts did not reach for the injury report. “Poor execution. I don’t think there’s any other way to put it,” he said, according to Pro Football Network, and asked whether the system was the problem, he answered: “I would say it’s an executing thing.” Sirianni took the fourth-and-goal from the 2 with 7:31 left on himself: “We didn’t get it, so that’s on me.”

The Eagles, now 2-2, face the 3-1 Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sunday, Oct. 11. Smith is expected to miss more time, and Barkley’s hamstring was still being evaluated at the start of the week.

Jacksonville’s staff gets the same film the Rams just wrote. The first third down in London will show whether Hurts has a new answer to the old question, or whether every defense after it starts asking it the same way.

Tags: NFL, Los Angeles Rams, Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles, Chris Shula