Eagles Start Strong, Fade Late in 24-21 Loss to Jets in Preseason Opener

The first team offense and defense shined in their one series as the team opened a 14-0 lead with Jalen Hurts playing a perfect series and Kyzir White notching an interception

PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles won the coin toss in Friday night’s preseason opener against the New York Jets and Nick Sirianni pulled the first surprise of the night.

The head coach elected to receive. Typically, he defers.

Sirianni had another stunner moments later. He did not dial up a target for A.J. Brown, despite a training camp full of targets.

There was an even bigger surprise hours later, when Reid Sinnett led an 18-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a two-yard throw to undrafted free agent Kennedy Brooks with 1:40 to play to rally the Eagles to a four-point lead.

It didn’t hold up, though, as Michal Clay’s special team units surrendered a 52-yard kickoff return to Zonovan Knight. New York marched 56 yards in 1:24 to score a 5-yard touchdown from QB Chris Streveler to Calvin Jackson in the back of the end zone from five yards out with 16 seconds left.

The TD gave New York a 24-21 win in the preseason opener Friday night at Lincoln Financial Field.

The Eagles, though, held a 14-0 lead with two touchdowns in the first quarter and a 14-3 lead at halftime as both the first-team offense and defense clicked in their one series of work.

Linebacker Kyzir White notched an interception and returned it 27 yards to set the Eagles offense up at the New York 20 and Philly up 7-0 on a perfect opening drive from Jalen Hurts.

“Oh man, (it meant) everything,” said White. “First game. Getting my feet wet. Family and friends in attendance, (from nearby Emmaus), so I always want to go out there and put on a show. It felt good. It’s definitely a good start for me, but I’ve got to keep building and keep getting better each day.”

Before White’s pick, Hurts marched the offense down the field on his one and only series of the game, completing all six of his passes for 80 yards, his last one a 22-yard touchdown to Dallas Goedert.

The QB also overcame a vicious late hit from Quincy Williams on the drive. Williams belted Hurts about five yards out of bounds.

“It happens,” said Hurts. “I’ll let ya’ll say whatever. He hit me late. We caught the flag and moved on.”

Sirianni was irate, yelling an expletive across the field to Jets coach Robert Saleh.

“I wasn’t bad at coach Saleh, I was mad at the situation,” said Sirianni. “I was more mad at the player than coach Saleh. Coach Saleh is a great guy. I have so much respect for him. It was just the motions of the game. I was just sticking up for Jalen. I’ll never apologize for sticking up for my players. I should have handled it a little bit better than I did.”

Saleh called the late hit “egregiously awful.”

At least Hurts popped up.

Sirianni said he never saw his QB get right to his feet.

“Yeah, I was just yelling, so I guess I didn’t see him pop up,” the coach said.

Hurts hit Quez Watkins with his first throw for 28 yards and found Miles Sanders twice for 20 yards on the drive.

No Brown, though.

“It just didn’t go his way tonight, it’s OK,” said Hurts. “He’ll get his.”

The QB added, “I always talk about the trust I have in everybody on the field, so just going through my progressions doing my job and let my playmakers make plays.”

The Eagles led 14-3 at halftime, but the third-string offense struggled mightily in the third quarter, with four three-and-outs.

One of them was costly for Britain Covey.

The undrafted free agent receiver/punt returner was making a strong bid in camp to win a roster spot, but he tore ligaments in his right thumb on a fastball fired by Sinnett near the Eagles’ 15.

The third-string finally figured some things out after failing behind 17-14 and reeled off an 18-play drive to take the lead with 1:40 to play.

“It’s hard to have 18-play drives,” said Sirianni. “You want to hit explosive plays and be able to move the ball down the field because it’s hard to be perfect for 18 plays. Not that you’re perfect, but it’s hard to put all those plays together. But it was a nice job of them stringing that many plays together after a really rough third quarter.

“I mean, a really rough third quarter, of three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out, maybe was it four three-and-outs in a row? So to go down and do that as an offense I thought that was pretty good, especially after the third quarter they had and some of the ups and downs they had in that quarter.”

Undrafted free agent running back Kennedy Brooks did some nice things on the march, including snagging a 2-yard touchdown pass from Sinnett. Brooks had 26 yards on seven carries.

“I think it was good to go out there, get everybody to have an opportunity to play,” said Hurts. “We’ve been working really hard in camp and still in the beginning phases of things, but just to go out and execute is really big for us, so good job to the guys out there, good job to everybody who had the opportunity to go out there and play.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.