Eagles lose 3 touchdowns on penalties, can't keep up with Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs' onslaught

PHILADELPHIA – If the Eagles were going to beat the high-powered Kansas City Chiefs, the way they went about it was all wrong.

They had three touchdowns taken away by penalties, settling instead for two field goals and a turnover on downs, thus costing themselves 15 points.

Maybe it wouldn't have made a difference because the defense couldn't come close to stopping quarterback Patrick Mahomes' onslaught as he threw five touchdown passes in sending the Eagles to a 42-30 loss on Sunday.

The Chiefs, who scored touchdowns on six of their seven possessions, have reached the Super Bowl in each of the last two seasons. The Eagles (1-3) lost their third straight, and to put it bluntly, aren't at that level.

Yet Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said this about quarterback Jalen Hurts, who threw for a career-high 387 yards and 2 TDs:

"That's one of the better quarterback performances I've seen, and I've been around a lot of good quarterbacks (like) Phillip Rivers and Andrew Luck," Sirianni said. "He battled. He made good decisions with the football. He got out of trouble when there was trouble. He made good checks. He made good reads."

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Hurts wasn't having any of that.

"Look, we lost," when asked about Sirianni's comment. "We lost the game. We gotta do more, gotta do better. This is what I’m going to say: We got every opportunity to learn, right? Everything you do, you learn from it. And we’re clearly not there as a football team.

"We lost. But we’re this close (fingers close together). And that’s something that I believe."

That's not the case on defense.

The Eagles have allowed opponents to score at least 40 points in each of their last two games. It's the fourth time they've done that in their history, most recently in 2015.

And as cornerback Darius Slay put it: "It’s still early in the season, that’s a good thing, but we have to start (improving) now. We have to figure that (expletive) out now. We aren’t going to have too much time.

"Nobody likes losing ... (Stuff) sucks. We just trying to get in that win column. That’s an important column, and I need to get that taste out of my mouth. It tastes nasty, so go find something, get some orange juice spray down there."

The Eagles can start with the penalties. The Eagles came into the game leading the NFL with 35 penalties. They committed nine more.

J.J. Arcega-Whiteside was called for offensive pass interference on 4th-and-goal from the 3 midway through the third quarter as he pushed a defender into the end zone so Zach Ertz could get open.

The Eagles settled for a field goal, cutting the Chiefs' lead to 21-16 when they potentially could have tied it.

Sirianni was seen yelling at the referees about that. Afterward, clearly trying to avoid a fine, he said: "You know what? They have a tough job. ... They're trying to get it right. I know they're trying to get it right. They are trying to do their best to get it right.

"Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I'm not saying one way or the other if they got that right. I'll keep my opinion to myself. But they have a tough job just like all of us."

The Eagles only made their job tougher. That began before the game when right tackle Lane Johnson was a late scratch for personal reasons.

Once the game started, left tackle Andre Dillard was flagged as an illegal blocker downfield on a 6-yard TD toss from Hurts to Dallas Goedert.

DeVonta Smith was flagged for illegal touching when he stepped out of bounds before catching his 34-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter after the Chiefs had a 35-23 lead. That was the Eagles' last chance as they turned the ball over on downs.

Mahomes, who went 24 of 30 for 278 yards, threw his fifth touchdown pass to put the game away.

Tyreek Hill had 11 catches for 186 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire had 102 rushing yards.

In the process, Andy Reid won his 100th game as coach of the Chiefs, becoming the first coach in NFL history to have at least 100 wins with two different teams. Reid is the Eagles' all-time winningest coach with 140 wins from 1999-2012.

The Eagles are still stuck on one win this season.

DeVonta devine

Smith surpassed his career high in yards by getting 84 at halftime. He went over 100 yards early in the third quarter, when he tied his career high in receptions with six.

He finished with 7 catches for 122 yards.

Smith wouldn't answer directly when asked about his performance, lamenting his penalty that negated his 34-yard TD catch. 

"The small things we have to correct," he said. "We know what those things are. We control what we can control, fix that, and move on to next week."

Where's Sanders in running game?

A strong running game was paramount for the Eagles. And while they tried in the first half, mixing in runs by wide receivers Jalen Reagor and Quez Watkins, they didn't go to it much in the second half, mainly because they were trailing.

Still, the Chiefs came into the game allowing 160.3 yards per game on the ground, 31st in the NFL. Yet the Eagles ran the ball 19 times for 103 yards.

Miles Sanders had just 13 yards on 7 carries, one week after getting 27 yards on 2 carries. Hurts led the Eagles once again with 47 yards on 8 carries.

Rookie Kenny Gainwell had 31 yards on 3 carries. He also caught 6 passes for 58 yards.

A curious timeout

On the Eagles' opening drive, the Eagles faced a 4th-and-3 from the Chiefs' 11. The Eagles lined up to go for it, but Hurts seemed like he was trying to coax the Chiefs into an offsides penalty.

When it didn't work, Hurts said after the game that he called a timeout so that Jake Elliott could kick a 29-yard field goal, which he did. Sirianni, however, was talking to the referee, apparently surprised that a timeout was called.

The Eagles should have taken a delay of game penalty, which would have made it a very makeable 34-yard field goal, instead of using the timeout.

"I'll keep that conversation between us," Sirianni said about what he was discussing with the referee. "I'm not going to make an excuse about anything. I got to be better."

Lane Johnson out against Chiefs

In a surprising development, Johnson was not on the game-day roster Sunday because of a personal matter. 

Johnson was limited in practice Wednesday with an ankle injury but practiced in full on Thursday and Friday. His absence Sunday is not injury-related.

Even before Johnson's status was known, the Eagles were already well on their way to challenging their dubious NFL record last season by starting 14 different line combinations in 16 games.

The Eagles used their third different line combination in four games so far this season. Jack Driscoll, just activated off injured reserve, spent all week at right guard but then moved to right tackle to replace Johnson. Landon Dickerson moved from right guard to left guard, and Nate Herbig started at right guard.

Sirianni said he found out only a few hours before the game, and wouldn't comment further on Johnson's situation.

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.