For awhile there, it looked like an Andy Reid shovel pass would be the final nail in the coffin.

Instead, an unlikely fourth quarter comeback resulted in Mary, Mother of God, turning a blind eye to your Philadelphia Eagles when they needed her the most.

Sure, it might have been a different result if Vinny Curry had finished that fourth quarter sack, but we can’t put the 27-20 loss on a defense that ultimately played well enough to win the game. Context is king, and Curry’s whiff came on a short-field Kansas City drive only created by a Carson Wentz interception.

Jim Schwartz’s defense earlier bailed out the other two units, holding the Chiefs to three points after a crucial Darren Spoles fumble. The pair of turnovers resulted in a 10-point swing, with Jake Elliot’s 30-yard field goal miss completing a trifecta of Eagle mistakes.

That, combined with spotty offensive line play and the lack of an effective running game, was probably the difference in this one.

1. Use your weapons early and often

Both coaches scripted their first drives well, settling for field goals after each defense held.

Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith finished with four combined targets in that first drive, matching their total targets from the entire first half of Week 1.

Wentz looked for them on 45.6% of his passing attempts, with 13 targets for Jeffery and eight targets for Smith on 46 total tosses.

Last week, Jeffery and Smith received just 10 targets on 39 passing attempts for a 25.6% mark.

By the way, see that guy at the top there?

Zach Ertz should get an asterisk next to his name on that graphic (I’ll explain later), but this still holds:

2. Running back usage, or lack thereof

At the half, Darren Sproles had run the ball seven times for 37 yards.

Wendell Smallwood rushed for -2 yards on one carry while LeGarrette Blount had a one-yard gain nullified on a Jason Kelce holding call.

Not much changed at the final whistle.

Blount finished with zero carries:

That’s it. That was his only rushing attempt, which didn’t make it to the stat sheet because of the penalty.

Sproles ran it 10 times for 48 yards while Smallwood finished with four yards on three attempts. Wentz wound up with more than half of the Eagles’ rushing yards (55 out of 107) on the strength of a few late scrambles.

For the the most part, the offensive line failed to get any kind of push in the running game. Sproles was the default ball carrier because of his shiftiness and ability to make defenders miss, which was really the only approach against a very good Kansas City defensive line.

Even if that was the correct personnel decision, there remained a lack of offensive balance.

3. No surprises here

Speaking of balance, the Birds finished with a 46 to 17 run/pass ratio while Andy Reid threw it 28 times and ran it 19 times. Considering that several of those runs were designed passes leading to Wentz scrambles, the Eagles actually looked to throw on more than 76% of their snaps. The Chiefs were just under 60%.

Knowing what we know about both coaches, none of that is surprising, but going beyond 75% is incredibly high, even for Pederson. Only once last season did the Eagles get into the 70% range in pass attempts, which was 60 to 19 pass/rush split in the Bengals’ loss.

Time of possession was relatively even, with the Eagles swinging the clock 49 seconds in their favor on 11 total drives. They converted more than half of their third downs and held Kansas City to 344 yards at Arrowhead after they gashed New England for 537 yards in the season opener.

4. Hunt and Hill were held mostly in check

Beyond the defensive pressure that Alex Smith faced throughout the game, the Eagles really did a nice job limiting Tyreek Hill and Kareem Hunt, who combined for 386 all-purpose yards in the Week 1 win.

At halftime, the pair was limited to just 48 yards.

They finished with 166 total, boosted by Hunt’s 53-yard touchdown run. That third quarter play accounted for 32% of Hunt and Hill’s total production.

The damage was done by Travis Kelce, who caught eight passes for 103 yards and a TD (the shovel pass). He more than nearly doubled his Week 1 production:

5. More of a manager

I wrote a story Friday titled, “Alex Smith didn’t look like a ‘game manager’ against the Patriots.”

Well, he sort of looked like one this time, and it was a big reason for the win.

He finished 21 of 28 for 251 yards with a touchdown (basically a handoff) and no interceptions. No fumbles, no turnovers, no big mistakes– just a typical Alex Smith game. He walked off a big hit from Jordan Hicks, one that looked similar to the tackle that injured Tony Romo a few years back.

The Eagles did sack him four times, which doesn’t happen often. Not since Week 3 of 2015 has Smith been sacked more than four times in a game, and that was on the road in Denver.

6. The backups (mostly) held up

With a pair of early injuries to Rodney McLeod and Jaylen Watkins, it looked like the Birds’ makeshift secondary might be toasted for the next three quarters.

There were certainly a couple of those moments, particularly on the Hunt touchdown run, where Corey Graham failed to make this tackle:

Right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardif pulls to engage Malcolm Jenkins. Rasul Douglas is off-screen, but he takes a bit of a block from Albert Wilson and doesn’t have the foot speed to catch up.

You expect more from a veteran like Graham, but Douglas did a nice job in his NFL debut. He did this on his first target, closing the gap nicely to stuff Hill:

https://twitter.com/nickpiccone/status/909474462101274624

Later, he had a hands to the face penalty offset by a Kansas City infraction, then another good wrap tackle in the third quarter.

In the fourth, he had a huge pass break-up on a third and four, which forced a punt.

Here’s a brief summary from Pro Football Focus:

“The rookie cornerback playing in his first game had the best performance in the Eagles secondary. Douglas allowed 80 percent of passes targeted at him completed, however, he only allowed 22 yards and another pass defense on a quick pass in the seam. The longest gain he allowed was for 7 yards.”

Also, I’m happy to say that Douglas and I share an alma mater, “Western Virginia University”:

7. Don’t blame us!

It was a 3-3 ballgame when the Eagles punted it away on 4th and 19 with two minutes remaining in the first half.

The Chiefs’ next series looked like this:

  • Hunt two-yard rush (2nd and 8)
  • Kelce three-yard catch (3rd and 5)
  • Smith sacked by Fletcher Cox for a three-yard loss (4th and 8)
  • punt

The defense came right back on the field when Sproles fumbled on the ensuing punt return, giving Kansas City the ball at the Eagles’ 24 yard line with one minute and two timeouts remaining.

Here’s what happened next:

  • Smith sacked for a six-yard loss (2nd and 16)
  • Kelce nine-yard catch (3rd and 7)
  • Smith throws the ball away (4th and 7)
  • Cairo Santos converts 37 yard field goal

It was 6-3 at halftime when it could have easily been 10 to 3, but the Birds’ defense held Kansas City to five yards on six plays to finish out the half.

8. Doug’s worst call?

I’m sure if any one play jumps out per se… maybe it’s the screen call on the Wentz interception.

Wentz did confirm after the game that he was trying to throw the ball away on that sequence, which would explain why he struck Justin Houston’s helmet. Sproles, the target, had tripped getting through the line and wasn’t going to catch the ball anyway:

Some people raised concern with the pass before the end of the half, that toss with the crazy deflection that Ertz snagged for a huge gain (53 of his 97 yards came on a fluke play). Most coaches would run out the clock there, but you never know what’ll happen if you don’t give it a heave, right? The worst case scenario is an interception that essentially mirrors the field swing of a punt. The thing is, the Eagles ran the ball the play before this and looked like they were just willing to get to the half. Odd.

Overall, you could say the pass/run balance probably hurt Pederson the most, considering…

9. Doug’s best call?

…that the third quarter touchdown drive was balanced and sharp, with a nice mix of passes, a screen, and successful running plays for Sproles and Smallwood.

In particular, I thought this play was effectively used as an extension of the running game:

Great look by Wentz to freeze the defense, with an even better block from Brandon Brooks.

They followed that play with an eight yard Smallwood run, then a sweep to Sproles for a first down. The next play was the end-zone shot for Jeffery.

In 4:20, they went seven plays for 81 yards and a score. They then abandoned the run game entirely. They ran one called running play after that.

10. And the best hit of the game goes to…

This camera man, who trucked a Chiefs cheerleader:

Time’s yours.