PHILADELPHIA — There were new schemes, new coaches, but ultimately a continuation of a year-old problem.Jalen Hurts’ second-half heroics allow new Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion to solve second-half stalls in the safety of the win column — much like his predecessor did until the stalls eventually did him in.The 2025 Eagles were the only team in coach Nick Sirianni’s tenure to finish a season with a negative second-half scoring margin (-7). The 2026 Eagles own a minus-3 second-half point differential after Week 1. Debuts offer some forgiveness. So do wins. Mannion, a first-time play caller, will look back on a mostly brutal 20-play sequence that portrayed the antithesis of the “aggressive” approach Sirianni said they’d intended entering the second half.“We don’t think about taking our foot off the gas,” Sirianni said afterward.Not intentionally. Not unless they’re bleeding the clock while nursing a lead with four minutes left in the game. But the Eagles went three-and-out on their first three drives of the second half. Several offensive players said Mannion wanted to turn to their wide zone run game after establishing a 14-9 halftime lead. The Washington Commanders thwarted the plan by sending preemptive pressure against offensive looks with a small sample of tendencies.Vintage Jalen Hurts moments shine in the Eagles' season openerZach BermanThe Eagles opened the second half with Hurts under center in 12 personnel. They had used the same two-tight-end presentation five times on first downs in the first half — and ran the ball on four of those occasions. The Commanders blitzed both cornerbacks and trapped Saquon Barkley for a one-yard loss. The blitz package suited the arrangement of tight ends Dallas Goedert and Johnny Mundt, who bracketed the offensive line.To open the next drive, Hurts dropped back in the same look, but Goedert and Mundt lined up on the left. The Commanders blitzed linebacker Sonny Styles on the weak side, and Styles bowled over Barkley to sack Hurts for a 6-yard loss.Mannion appeared to try to manufacture some aid for the Eagles’ wide zone runs on the third drive. Mundt motioned rightward to clear more runway for Barkley on a second-and-7 run. But Styles blitzed through the same gap as before (and what had previously been the weak side) and burst past right guard Tyler Steen and right tackle Lane Johnson before tackling Barkley for a 3-yard loss.“There was some exotic stuff,” Mundt said of the blitzes. “You can talk about it all you want on a whiteboard, and then you see it when the bullets are flying and it’s a different story.”The wide zone concept is central to Mannion’s offense. It fits within the philosophy the Eagles are trying to enforce. They aim to be the aggressor by getting calls in quickly, getting promptly to the line and running their plays while playing less pre-snap chess.Instead, the Eagles were again beneficiaries of a defense that forced three-and-outs at a 45.4 percent clip (up from 27.8 percent in 2025) and a career day from punter Braden Mann (who twice pinned punts within the 10, once within the 5). Players blamed poor execution for putting Hurts in situations such as the third-and-18 he converted with a 22-yard scramble in the fourth quarter.“We’ve got to help (Mannion) out,” Hurts said. “We should never be in third-and-18. We should never be in that position.”The Eagles totaled three holding penalties — all on first down. (Their most first-down holds since a Week 5 win over the Arizona Cardinals in 2022.) Aside from sacks, they totaled four negative plays — three on first down (doubling their average in 2025). Hurts was sacked three times and threw four passes away while either getting hit or evading pressure. The setbacks contributed to the Eagles’ highest second-down average distance to the sticks (9.9 yards) in the Sirianni era, per TruMedia.“We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot,” said center Cam Jurgens, who was twice flagged for holding.Hurts was pressured on 35.7 percent of his dropbacks. Left guard Landon Dickerson was responsible for many of the pressures, including Commanders linebacker Frankie Luvu’s punt-forcing sack in the first quarter. Dickerson said he was playing through bone bruising in his right knee that he suffered in practice “a few weeks ago.” He acknowledged that he “played like s—,” but ultimately was restricted by the injury. The Eagles are placing Dickerson on injured reserve with the intention of bringing him back for the stretch run of the season.His absence will test the Eagles’ interior offensive line depth. General manager Howie Roseman closed training camp by telling reporters that if any of them had given him truth serum and said, “What are you looking for in training camp?”, it would have been how their interior offensive line depth panned out. It stands to reason that Roseman shared that insight because of the progress Drew Kendall and Willie Lampkin showed throughout the preseason.Beyond the offensive line play, Hurts cited moments in which the Eagles beat themselves with their lack of pace. He took ownership for not generating more urgency after his 64-yard bomb to Tay Wicks in the first quarter. The Eagles did not get set quickly enough at the Commanders’ 6, forcing Sirianni to burn a timeout with one second left on the play clock.In 2025, the Eagles led the NFL with 150 plays with one second left on the play clock. Against Washington, the Eagles averaged 1.4 yards on five plays snapped with one second left on the play clock until Hurts’ decisive 43-yard touchdown pass to Goedert in the fourth quarter — a play Goedert acknowledged was a happy accident.Goedert said they had two plays in the huddle. The Eagles led 17-16 while facing a third-and-6 situation with 6:12 left in the game. Goedert said Hurts “killed” one play just before the snap. Goedert slid laterally, responding to the call, but did not draw an illegal shift penalty because his lateral movement fell within the rules.Styles, calling for a flag, lagged behind Goedert’s route. Hurts hit Goedert in the middle of the field, and Goedert, sensing from the corner of his eye that safety Nick Cross was overplaying in pursuit, pirouetted to the left and swerved upfield for the score.“It was so funny,” Mundt said. “We were looking at the iPad after, when it was right before he caught the ball. And there was like three defenders. And (reserve tight end) Grant (Calcaterra) was like, ‘Score, or no score?’ And 99 percent of people would say, ‘No score,’ just based on angles and stuff. And the move he made, that was killer. That was awesome.”