A.J. Brown: Eagles offense ‘took too long’ to get on same page but can build off Sunday’s performance

A.J. Brown obviously was thrilled with how the second half went for the Eagles on Sunday. They opened up their passing playbook, threw the ball downfield, and their star receiver finished with six catches — all in the second half — for 109 yards and a touchdown. The six catches matched his total in the previous two games, and the touchdown was his first.

But Brown pumped the brakes Wednesday when asked if he was relieved that the offense is on the same page.

“I think it’s just something that we can try to build off of,” he said. “I don’t want to say that we’ve got it figured out. That was a half that we took advantage of, and we made it happen when we needed to. Like I said after the game, we’re going to try to build off that momentum, whatever that looks like, and keep it going.”

» READ MORE: Eagles place linebacker Nolan Smith on injured reserve with a triceps injury

The Eagles were a little conservative with their play calling in the first half, Brown said postgame. They were outgained by the Rams, 212-33, and while Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo pointed to poor field position as one of the reasons the offense sputtered, they also tried hard to establish the running game and often ran Saquon Barkley into stacked boxes.

The playbook opened up as the Eagles chased points. They were forced to air it out, something they hadn’t done much of through 10 quarters of the 2025 season. Jalen Hurts unloaded more pass attempts that traveled at least 10 air yards in Sunday’s second half (10) than he had in the 10 quarters that preceded it (seven). On multiple occasions, he found Brown and DeVonta Smith in one-on-one scenarios and allowed his receivers to make plays.

Progress?

“I think so,” Brown said. “I think it just kind of took too long to get there — or to adjust, I should say — with all of us, not just the coaches but players as well. We like to always say, ‘Take what they give us,’ but at times we can take whatever we want. Just having that mindset. That’s kind of what I was alluding to after the game. It kind of got spun out of context. But that’s cool, too.”

Brown’s postgame comments Sunday, when he implored the Eagles to “let your killers do their thing,” came before he had extended conversations with his coaches and teammates.

“That’s where I kind of messed up at, because those are my feelings, and I expressed that to the world,” Brown said. “But obviously that doesn’t go that way, and obviously everyone is going to say, ‘A.J.’s not happy.’ The goal is to win the game, and obviously we want to do that first. But like I was just saying, I think it just kind of took too long for us as an offense to adjust and be more aggressive. When one thing is not working, I was just saying let’s not continue to keep trying to hit our head on the wall and see if it’s going to work. Let’s mix it up and do what we need to do. That’s what I meant by that.”

The Eagles, of course, are 3-0, and while they have squeaked by a few times, they have been perfect in the red zone and have been productive in other areas when they need to be. Still, the offense not playing up to its full capabilities isn’t a new issue. And while the sample size is small in 2025, the continuity of the roster and coaching staff, even if Patullo is a new play caller, makes it easy to look back at last year for context.

» READ MORE: Eagles vs. Bucs: Here are the numbers that matter in Week 4

Behind the scenes, Brown said Sirianni and Patullo have been “doing their jobs as always, trying to find us and put us in great positions to win, challenging us.”

Asked about Sirianni’s approach to offensive aggressiveness, Brown said: “At times he wants to be aggressive, and at times he wants to do what the defense is allowing us to do, and I think that’s smart. You can’t be overly aggressive, and you can’t be conservative at times. He does a good job of keeping everything balanced and knowing when to strike and push that button.”

The Eagles, however, haven’t often pushed that button through three games. Last season, they relied on Barkley’s running, and the passing game eventually opened up. Can it work the other way around this year?

“In a way, yes, I would hope so,” Brown said. “I think we’re probably going to continue to get what we’re getting until we show that we can handle that, and that’s probably slowing up Saquon because they’re trying to take him away, rightfully so, because he can change the game. We have to help him out as well with the passing game, getting that going to help the running game. Last year it was kind of the opposite. So now we have to do the opposite. It’s just kind of taking longer to happen.”

It was right on time Sunday. Next up, the blitz-happy Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team the Eagles have struggled against. They are 1-4 in the Sirianni era vs. the Bucs, although Brown was sidelined in the two most recent matchups.

“I think they have the edge, but it’s a new year, it’s a new game,” Brown said. “You can’t take old games into a new one, or old motivation. It’s a new season. We have a job to do, and we’re going to try to do it to the best of our ability.”