DeVonta Smith bounces back in most complete win of Eagles season

DeVonta Smith bounces back in most complete win of Eagles season originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

DeVonta Smith had one thought go through his mind after his first catch on Sunday went for -2 yards.

“Nah, we ain’t doing this today.”

And he was right. A week after Smith’s stat line against the Giants was one catch for -2 yards, that wasn’t where it was going to finish on Sunday against the Bengals.

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

“He made clutch catches. Not a surprise,” head coach Nick Sirianni said, citing previous examples of Smith bouncing back from lower-than-usual stat lines.

The last time Smith was held without a receiving yard 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 had 7 for 80 and the week after he had 8 for 169 and a touchdown.

So keep an eye on Smith against the Jaguars too.

“That’s the way the game goes,” Sirianni said. “That’s why you can’t overreact when things happen. I’m real proud of him and the things he stands for, the way he puts his head down and works and tunes out everything else.”

Against the Bengals on Sunday, the Eagles’ offense was absolutely humming after a little early hiccup. Jalen Hurts was masterful, Saquon Barkley ran extremely hard and both top receivers turned in big days. In addition to Smith’s 6/85/1 performance, A.J. Brown turned in a quiet (by his standard) 5-for-84.

Brown was happy to see his teammate turn in a strong game after last week but he knew a weird one-game stat line wasn’t anything to harp on.

“Smitty’s not worried about none of that,” Brown said. “He’s going to come to work, he’s going to make plays when his number’s called. Of course, he wanted more than negative (two yards) last week. When he got an opportunity, he made the most of it.”

The Eagles and Bengals were still tied at 17-17 when Smith caught that 45-yard bomb over the top from Hurts late in the third quarter. Smith had a 1-on-1 and Hurts simply trusted him to come down with the ball with little separation.

“We knew we were going to get the 1-on-1 coverage and Jalen, he trusts me to go up there if it’s 1-on-1 to win a 50-50 ball,” Smith said.

According to NextGen Stats, that play gave the Eagles a win probability boost of 16.5%, which is massive for a single play.

“Great catch, great catch,” Brown said. “I was praying he held on to it because of how he fell. Great catch, great play.”

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

Sirianni pointed out one of them in a team meeting on Monday.

“I loved the third down conversion by DeVonta on the little sideline pass that Jalen put out there for him,” Sirianni said. “And then DeVonta – I showed this in the team meeting today – lowering his shoulder and getting the extra yards needed.

“You don’t see that a lot with a guy who’s on the sideline. You see a lot of guys will step out of bounds. But DeVonta is so tough. The reason I say that is because he’s so physically tough, but he is mentally tough, too.”

Through eight weeks of the season, both Brown and Smith have been playing well. Brown missed three games and Smith missed one but they’re still putting up big numbers:

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

“Just going out there doing my job,” Smith said. “Whether I get a lot of targets, whether I 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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