Jalyx Hunt had one of the best games of his young career on Monday night. The second‑year edge rusher had 2 1/2 sacks, 8 tackles, 3 QB hits, a forced fumble and 6 pressures.
“It might look good stats‑wise but a loss is a loss,” Hunt said after the Eagles fell 22‑19 to the Chargers in overtime. “I’m going to have to get on this plane with the dawgs and it’s going to hurt. It’s a long flight.
“It’s cool, I guess. It’s cool for your mom to talk about, your dad to talk about. They be proud of you and whatnot. But, me personally, I don’t take any [consolations], nothing like that. It don’t feel good. It wasn’t enough, at the end of the day.”
Jalyx Hunt’s Stand‑Out Night
Hunt’s performance was a bright spot in a loss that kept the Eagles from advancing. He recorded 2 1/2 sacks, 8 tackles, 3 QB hits, a forced fumble and 6 pressures. The statistics were impressive, yet Hunt remained focused on the result, saying the loss mattered more than the numbers.
Defense Tightens After Early Mistake
The Eagles’ defense gave up a touchdown on the Chargers’ very first drive, but then tightened. They allowed just five field goals on the Chargers’ final 12 possessions and gave up an average of just 16.25 yards per drive. The defense sacked Justin Herbert seven times and pressured him on 68.3% of his dropbacks, the highest single‑game pressure rate of any team this season.
Team Mindset and Locker Room
“Just play our ball, stick to what we do and get better,” Baun said on Wednesday. “We haven’t been playing our best either. We can only control what we can control and try our best to play complementary ball from doing what we gotta do.”
Sirianni emphasized the team aspect: “This is the ultimate team game,” he said. “One phase has to pick up another and there could be games like that. There can be games the opposite way, but that’s the important part of always connecting with everybody in the building, controlling the things you can control, all those different things.”
Hunt added, “We made some mistakes on the defensive end that we need to clean up. We got to go in, [Brandon Graham] taught me how to attack the losses. We gotta get back in and make up for our mistakes. They scored, I don’t know, more than we scored. That hurts. The score hurts, all the field goals hurt. We gotta stop them a little bit more. We gotta go in and fix that.”
Offense Slumps vs Defense Strengths
The Eagles have the highest‑paid offense in the NFL. Through 14 weeks they rank 19th in points and 24th in yards. Since the Week 9 bye, the offense has scored just 8 total touchdowns in 59 possessions, a 13.6% touchdown rate. The only team in that span with fewer touchdowns is the Las Vegas Raiders, who fired offensive coordinator Chip Kelly last month.
In contrast, the defense has given up just 9 touchdowns since the bye. Only the Vikings, with 7, have given up fewer in five games. The defense also gave up 281 rushing yards against the Bears, a historically bad performance against the run, yet has averaged just 17.2 points per game since the bye.
Looking Ahead: Raiders Game
“We got this long flight we gotta get on,” Hunt said. “That sucks after a loss like this. Gotta restart. We got the Raiders coming up this weekend. We gotta look at them on film and just keep building.”
Key Takeaways
- Hunt’s 2 1/2‑sack performance was eclipsed by a 22‑19 overtime loss.
- The defense’s pressure rate of 68.3% remains the season’s best.
- The offense’s 13.6% touchdown rate since the bye highlights a critical weakness.
The Eagles’ season hinges on the defense’s ability to carry the team while the offense seeks to return to league‑average production. The upcoming game against the Raiders will test that balance.
