Eagles by the numbers: Reasons to both pass more – or just keeping running – against the Lions

The Eagles and Lions will clash Sunday night on prime time, in one of the biggest NFC games of the season.

It's been an odd week for the Eagles, whose 10-7 win Monday night over the Packers coming out of the bye was their third consecutive win and boosted their record to 7-2 but was overshadowed by an offense that once again was dormant and conservative, by wide receiver A.J. Brown's continued gripes about his lack of a role in the pass game, and talk about why the Eagles don't really look like defending Super Bowl champs despite their record.

While they hope to resolve some of those issues against a Lions team looking to make a statement, here are some interesting numbers to examine:

16.6%

That’s Jalen Hurts’ tight window throw rate, per Next Gen Data. It’s the highest of his career – not by a ton, but still the highest – and 10th-best in the National Football League. So why is the offensive staff being so conservative when he's made strides in hitting receivers who aren’t wide open? Tight window throws are defined as "passes where the targeted receiver has less than 1 yard of separation when the pass arrives." Hurts’ rate is, oddly, in the same neighborhood as Justin Fields and Dillon Gabriel but better than Justin Herbert, Sam Darnold and Jared Goff.

5.81

The Eagles have averaged almost 6 yards per carry in their two last two games agains the Lions, rushing for 213 yards on 39 carries in a 2021 win and 236 more on 46 carries the following season. So maybe the Eagles should just hand it off as much as possible and forget about those tight window throws?

0.3

The number of times per game that Saquon Barkley has a carry in which he reaches at least 20 miles per hour, also per Next Gen stats. Only four running backs with at least 30 carries have a higher average – Jonathan Taylor, Jahmyr Gibbs, De’Von Achane and Derrick Henry.

Clearly, Barkley hasn’t lost a step. He can still kick it into high gear. Can they just give the guy some space? Maybe the potential return of C Cam Jurgens will help.

276

The number of snaps that Quinyon Mitchell has played at left cornerback, compared to 223 at right cornerback, which shows how much Vic Fangio has moved him around this season after Mitchell played exclusively at right cornerback last year.

Mitchell has allowed just 5.6 yards per target this season, an improvement by .6 from last year, as he continues to make the case for Pro Bowl and perhaps All Pro. He'll surely be assigned at times Sunday to Lions speed threat Jameson Williams and maybe even on versatile volume receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.

19

The number of wins all time for the Eagles against the Lions, including a playoff win in 1995, a 58-37 NFC Wild Card win. The Eagles have outscored the Lions 82-41 and won both games against them in the Nick Sirianni-Jalen Hurts era.

The Lions, headed by coach Dan Campbell, have openly admitted throughout the week that they're looking to take their shot at the Eagles They clearly feel that injuries derailed their 15-2 season last year and robbed them of a chance to go toe-to-toe with the NFC East champs.

8-8

That’s the best record in the past 25 years for any NFL team with a three-and-out rate the same as this year’s Eagles, according to Deniz Selman, who does great analytics work and appears on PHLY. That's … the best!

Here it is: avoiding 3 & out rate on x-axis and win percentage on y-axis. All teams since 2000. (Red dots are Eagles seasons, upper left red dot is 2025 Eagles.)
The only team to even finish .500 with a 3 & out rate close to this bad was the 2009 49ers (8-8). pic.twitter.com/lFwve4RsDa

— Deniz Selman (@denizselman33) November 12, 2025

What the Eagles are doing at 7-2 with the NFL’s most three and outs is a major historical outlier, and either an ominous sign for the rest of the season or an example of their extreme talent. Very few teams, as history has shown, could even be .500 with as many three-and-outs as the Eagles have had.

The hunch here is that third-down offense needs to get better for the Eagles to repeat as Super Bowl champs.

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