Jake Elliott’s missed field goal proved critical, but the Eagles’ end-of-half conservatism has been a trend

Adoree’ Jackson’s interception of Justin Herbert with 10 seconds remaining in the second quarter Monday night was gift-wrapped thanks to Jaelan Phillips getting a hand on Herbert as he released the ball. But there was another present: Kimani Vidal’s 15-yard personal foul.

It set the Eagles up on the Chargers’ 30-yard line. After a miserable half, they were in field goal range to at least cut Los Angeles’ 10-6 lead to 10-9. They had two timeouts to try to advance the ball and give Jake Elliott an even more manageable field goal.

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Instead, Jalen Hurts took a shotgun snap, looked only to his left, where three receivers were running routes near the sideline, and launched the ball intentionally out of bounds. Elliott trotted onto the field and missed from 48 yards out — just his second miss of the season on a field goal inside 50 yards, although he missed an extra point a week earlier.

Any analysis of what went wrong could theoretically stop right there. SoFi Stadium is indoors, and Elliott knows it’s a kick he needed to make.

“They need to stop,” Elliott said of his misses. “I feel like I’m striking the ball well. Last week, obviously, windy conditions. But no excuses here indoors. It’s frustrating.”

Elliott was rightly frustrated with himself, but he had reason to be frustrated with his team for not making the kick any easier on him. The Eagles had two timeouts, but the play they called looked more like a time-waster than one with a real chance at advancing the football.

Four of the five route-runners were near the sideline. The fifth, Jahan Dotson, wasn’t even to his break before Hurts fired the ball out of bounds.

Here’s a screenshot of where the receivers were when Hurts released the ball:

It was a low-percentage play that the Chargers covered easily. Perhaps the Eagles were simply just comfortable with the distance for Elliott, who had already converted from 41 yards and 30 yards in the first half and entered Monday 9-for-10 on kicks inside 50 yards.

But why, with two timeouts, was there not any effort to use the middle of the field to try to make the attempt a little bit easier for Elliott?

“We’re trying to advance it,” Nick Sirianni said when he was asked Wednesday. “The way we tried to advance it was to the sideline, and it didn’t work. We have plays in our offense to be able to advance it, without getting too much [into it], in the middle, and then we have plays in our playbook that try to advance it on the sideline. We chose the one on the sideline and it didn’t work.”

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The three points would have been critical, but it’s not the only reason the Eagles lost. Still, the inability to get points before halftime when they are available has been an ongoing theme for the Eagles.

On the year, the Eagles have started a possession inside 1 minute, 20 seconds on the clock before halftime eight times and have zero points to show for it from those scenarios. (They have started four possessions just before the two-minute warning and have come away with points on three.)

Every situation and every game is different. The Eagles had two of them vs. Denver. The first possession came with 1:19 left and the ball on their own 11-yard line. They went three-and-out, but they forced a Broncos punt on the ensuing drive that gave them another possession starting at their own 5-yard line with only eight seconds left. Hurts took a knee. No harm, no foul there.

But it’s worth exploring a few of these late-clock examples in which points were possible. In Week 3 vs. the Los Angeles Rams, the Eagles had a woeful first half of offense. But they got the ball on their own 35-yard line, trailing 19-7, with 10 seconds left on the clock and three timeouts. They opted to have Hurts kneel and go to halftime. They eventually won the game, but only because of two blocked field goals. Three points may have been critical.

Against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 7, the Eagles got the ball back at their own 16-yard line with 59 seconds left and all three timeouts. To their credit, they came out firing. Hurts connected with DeVonta Smith on first down for 6 yards. Then, without huddling, the two hooked up again for a 16-yard gain to the Eagles’ 38-yard line. The Eagles took their first timeout with 34 seconds left.

Hurts threw incomplete on the next play and was sacked on second down to bring up a third-and-13 from the Eagles’ 35-yard line. There were 23 seconds on the clock when Hurts was tackled, but Sirianni decided to let the clock expire rather than calling a timeout to run another play. The Eagles hit halftime with a 14-6 lead and kicked off to Minnesota to start the second half.

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“In that particular case, it was time to let that drive end and go to the locker room,” Sirianni said the next day, after the Eagles’ 28-22 victory. “Third-and-13 is not a guarantee. I believe in our team and believe in our guys at all costs, but you’ve also got to play smart.

“Third-and-13 in that situation where you’re not in a guaranteed, ‘Hey I’m getting points if I convert this third-and-13.’ I’m still going to have work to do once I do get this third-and-13.’ The risks kind of outweigh the potential benefits from it. At that point, you don’t get it and then you have to punt.

“Obviously, I wanted to go and get points, which is why you saw the drive go as it was, but once we did take the sack, we played that how I wanted to play that. I have no regrets there.”

Sirianni is somewhat obsessed with situational football. He has studied end-of-half scenarios — not just his own, but other situations around the league. Each scenario in a given game has different context, including how the offense is playing at that time.

The Eagles have pushed the envelope in these spots in the past, but they have gone conservative at times this year.

Against Dallas in Week 12, the Eagles, leading 21-7, started a drive with two timeouts and 17 seconds left in the first half at their own 28-yard line. They called a handoff to Saquon Barkley that went for 1 yard and let the clock expire. Perhaps a chunk run would have resulted in a timeout and some aggression from the Eagles to try to score points, but how often have chunk runs been reliable? And if the point was to just get to halftime, why not just kneel?

Points weren’t guaranteed, but they were possible.

The Eagles, of course, lost that game by three. Just like they did Monday.