PHILADELPHIA -- Receiver A.J. Brown understood why there might be heavy conversation around the Philadelphia Eagles offense this week, even as they exited Arrowhead Stadium with a 20-17 win against the AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs to improve to 2-0.
"The reason why people may talk about it is because they want to know if [the model is sustainable], can we sustain it throughout the season," he said. "I think that's a fair thing to talk about. But our job is to continue to try and find a way to win."
The tush push might be getting all the headlines nationally, but it's the passing game that's being dissected in Philly.
The Eagles are averaging an NFL low 7.4 yards per completion. Brown was targeted just once by quarterback Jalen Hurts in the opener versus the Dallas Cowboys and was limited to five catches for 27 yards against the Chiefs.
They are the first team since the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010 and just the sixth team since 2000 to start 2-0 with zero passing touchdowns, per ESPN Research. Only that Steelers team and the 2008 Baltimore Ravens went on to make the playoffs.
The ground game hasn't had a ton of pop, either. An offense featuring Saquon Barkley, Brown, Hurts and DeVonta Smith has generated 11 plays of 10-plus yards through two games, which ranks last in the league.
So what gives?
First, it should be noted two games is a small sample, where the approach of one defensive coordinator can skew the overall numbers.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo decided to heat Hurts up, sending the blitz on 64% of his dropbacks, per NFL Next Gen Stats. He is being blitzed at the sixth-highest rate with opponents sending a defensive back at him 27.6% of time, by far the NFL's highest.
Hurts has often answered by getting the ball out quickly to a nearby receiver, a method that has mitigated negative plays. He has only been sacked three times despite all the pressure looks and is second in completion rate (75.6%).
"Overall, if you look at the efficiency versus the pressure, we did a really good job, which was encouraging when it turned into that kind of game," offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said.
Much of the frustration over the less-than-dynamic offensive start has been aimed at Patullo, who is in his first year on the job. Some notable tendencies have emerged early. In the 24 instances when Hurts has lined up under center, Philadelphia has run it 23 times (though the frequent use of the QB sneak inflates these numbers). Similarly, the Eagles have handed it off 83% of the time when two or more tight ends are on the field. Opposing defenses already have eyes trained heavily on Barkley and their job gets easier if the Eagles are offering tells.
There have been similar patterns in the passing game. With Brown running so many short in-breaking routes, the Cowboys and the Chiefs were effective in taking many of the looks away by flooding the zone.
"I'm getting doubled, rotating to my side sometimes," Brown said. "[Sunday] was a lot of zero [blitzes] but most of the time I still got doubled."
For his part, Patullo said that breaking tendencies is top of the mind and is something the Eagles "definitely" need to do this week against the Los Angeles Rams (1 p.m. ET, Fox).
And for all the angst, the approach has not prevented the Eagles from picking up a couple quality wins. They have had the edge in time of possession in both games and used timely plays (think Smith's 28-yard reception in the fourth quarter vs. the Chiefs) and red zone precision (they've scored five touchdowns in five tries) to get the job done.
Perhaps most importantly, they have yet to commit a turnover. Coach Nick Sirianni has regularly cited the turnover and explosive play battles as primary indicators for wins and losses. The explosive plays haven't been there in bunches yet, but they edged Dallas and Kansas City 1-0 in takeaways, which proved to be the difference in each game.
"Explosive plays are great and you always want to try to get them. It makes it way easier to score. It makes it way more efficient, obviously, for an offense to move the ball down the field," Patullo said. "But there is a fine line because you want to make sure those explosive plays aren't coming at a cost where you're at a high risk for a turnover in a game like that."
It's fair to call the offensive approach through two weeks conservative.
Hurts has chosen his spots carefully, having thrown just three passes of 25-plus yards, completing two of them. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, 36% of his pass attempts are considered to be "wide open" -- the highest rate in the NFL -- and his targets are averaging a league-high 4.30 yards of separation.
Risk is down but efficiency is up. Hurts' completion percentage above expected (9.4) is fourth best among all quarterbacks. And he has used his legs to pick up timely yards and is tied for first among quarterbacks in rushing touchdowns with three along with Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones.
"My job is to go out there and be the general, orchestrate everything and ultimately make plays," Hurts said. "I'm very critical of myself of trying to make the most of what's given to us. There's definitely some evolution that we can do, there's definitely some things we can grow in, but I look inward on all of those things and just want to make the most of the opportunities that we do have."
Hurts is working with his fifth playcaller in Patullo. While change has become familiar, it still takes time to build chemistry. "How we operate is important, when you talk about ... the synchronization, it's important when we talk about that dynamic as well, being on the same page so there is no gray," Hurts said. "You can't play this position in a gray place."
Or, as Brown put it, "I know KP. We're happy with him. Just trying to figure some things out." In sum, the offense remains in a feeling-out period and there's been a measured approach, in part by design and in part because of the flow of the games and how opposing defenses are playing them.
Given the talent level on this offense, this is not a unit that should be dictated to. The sliding scale between protecting the football and generating big plays needs to slide more toward the aggressive and will likely do so this week as the Eagles face the prospect of going blow for blow with a high-powered Rams team that can hang big numbers on the board.
"In the last two weeks, we haven't won [the explosive play battle] but we've protected the football. We have to get better at that phase of our game," Sirianni said. "What I love about our team is we're constantly in self-critical mode, open to everything and only for the attempts to get better, and that's an area that we can get better at."