DeVonta Smith earned Eagles’ most complete win of the season

DeVonta Smith gets Eagles’ most complete win of the season, originally aired on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

DeVonta Smith had one thought after his first catch on Sunday was -2 yards.

“No, we’re not doing that today.”

And he was right. A week after Smith’s stat line against the Giants was one catch for -2 yards, that’s not how Sunday against the Bengals should have ended.

By the end of the Eagles’ dominant 37–17 win in Cincinnati, Smith had 6 catches for 85 yards, including a game-tying 45-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter.

“He made the clutch latches. Not surprising,” head coach Nick Sirianni said, citing previous examples of Smith bouncing back from lower-than-usual performances.

The last time Smith was held without a receiver was in Week 1 of the 2022 season against the Lions. He had 0 catches on 4 targets that day. But the next week he was 7-for-80, and the week after that he was 8-for-169 and a touchdown.

So keep an eye on Smith against the Jaguars as well.

“That’s how the game goes,” Sirianni said. “That’s why you can’t overreact when something happens. I’m very proud of him and what he stands for, the way he puts his head down and works and doesn’t pay attention to everything else.”

In Sunday’s game against the Bengals, the Eagles’ offense, after a slight hiccup early in the game, was simply amazing. Jalen Hurts was a master, Saquon Barkley ran extremely hard, and both top receivers made big strides. In addition to Smith’s 6/85/1, AJ Brown was a quiet (by his standards) 5-for-84.

Brown was glad to see his teammate put in a strong performance after last week, but he knew the weird stats from one game weren’t something to get hung up on.

“Smitty doesn’t worry about any of that,” Brown said. “He’s going to come to work, he’s going to play when his number is called. Of course, he wanted more than a negative return (two yards) last week. When he got the opportunity, he took it.”

The Eagles and Bengals were still tied 17-17 when Smith caught a 45-yard bomb from Hurts late in the third quarter. Smith had a one-on-one opportunity and Hurts just trusted him to make the basket with a small margin.

“We knew we were in for a 1-on-1, and Jalen trusts me to go out there if it’s a 1-on-1 to win the ball 50-50,” Smith said.

According to NextGen Stats, this game gave the Eagles a 16.5% increase in their win probability, which is huge for a single game.

“Great catch, great catch,” Brown said. “I was praying for him to hold on because of the way he fell. Great catch, great play.”

While the 45-yard catch was the highlight of the game, Smith made several other big catches against the Bengals, including two receptions to third to move sticks.

Sirianni pointed to one of them at Monday’s team meeting.

“I liked DeVonta’s third down on a little pass down the sideline that Jalen threw to him,” Sirianni said. “And then DeVonta—I showed this in the team meeting today—lowered his shoulder and got the extra yards he needed.

“You don’t see that very often with a guy on the sideline. You see, a lot of guys go off the field. But DeVonta is so cool. The reason I say that is because he is very strong physically, but he is also mentally strong.”

Through eight weeks of the season, both Brown and Smith played well. Brown missed three games and Smith one, but they still put up big numbers:

Brown: 21/408/3
Smith: 31/386/3

“I just go out and do my job,” Smith said. “Am I going to get a lot of targets, am I going to get a few targets. Just go out there and do the best I can to make the most of my opportunities.”

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