Game recap

Eagles @ Titans

2026 Wk 2 · TEN 20, PHI 24

Two Hurts picks, a 92-yard return the other way, then a winning touchdown pass with 14 seconds left.

FanIQ Research · September 21, 2026 · 6 facts, every one from the play-by-play

Two interceptions, then the go-ahead touchdown pass with 14 seconds left: Hurts is the ninth passer since 1999 to win that way.

Rare

Passers with 2+ interceptions who won on a lead-taking TD pass in the final 15 seconds of regulation, 1999 to 2026 (regular season)

Season	Wk	Passer	Team	INT	Clock	Score before	Final
1999	1	Brett Favre	GB	3	0:15	21-24	GB 28, LV 24
2004	1	Byron Leftwich	JAX	2	0:04	6-10	JAX 13, BUF 10
2012	1	Matthew Stafford	DET	3	0:15	20-23	DET 27, LA 23
2012	13	Andrew Luck	IND	3	0:03	28-33	IND 35, DET 33
2013	14	Joe Flacco	BAL	3	0:09	22-26	BAL 29, MIN 26
2016	16	Ben Roethlisberger	PIT	2	0:13	24-27	PIT 31, BAL 27
2017	17	Jameis Winston	TB	3	0:15	23-24	TB 31, NO 24
2024	16	Jayden Daniels	WAS	2	0:10	28-33	WAS 36, PHI 33
2026	2	Jalen Hurts	PHI	2	0:14	17-20	PHI 24, TEN 20

Jalen Hurts, regular-season games with 2+ interceptions thrown

Season	Wk	Opp	INT	TD	Result
2020	16	DAL	2	1	L 17-37
2021	3	DAL	2	2	L 21-41
2021	12	NYG	3	0	L 7-13
2022	15	CHI	2	0	W 25-20
2023	3	TB	2	1	W 25-11
2023	6	NYJ	3	1	L 14-20
2023	15	SEA	2	0	L 17-20
2024	1	GB	2	2	W 34-29
2025	14	LAC	4	0	L 19-22
2026	2	TEN	2	2	W 24-20

Since 1999 there have been 39 regular-season games won on a lead-taking touchdown pass inside the final 15 seconds. In only nine of them had the passer already thrown two or more interceptions that day. Hurts' two came at the Tennessee 2 in the first quarter and at the Tennessee 14 with 6:08 left in a tie game. He answered the second one with a 3-yard throw to Darius Cooper at 0:14, and he is now 4-6 in regular-season games with two or more picks.

Why it matters. The second interception should have ended the game: tied at 17, Philadelphia was at the Tennessee 44 on third down, and the Titans turned the possession that followed into the go-ahead field goal at 2:00. Passers who give the ball away twice usually do not get a clean final possession, which is why the list is nine names across 27 seasons. The profile is less about the passer than about a drive that had to be nearly perfect, and it was: 6 of 8 for 61 yards with two third-down conversions.

Amani Hooker returned an interception 92 yards and did not score. That has happened eight times since 1999.

Rare

Interception returns of 90+ yards that did not reach the end zone, 1999 to 2026 (all games, type labeled)

Season	Game	Type	Returner	Def	Yards	Qtr
2004	CAR at DEN, Wk 5	REG	Julius Peppers	CAR	101	3
2004	BUF at BAL, Wk 7	REG	Chris Williams	BAL	93	4
2005	GB at CHI, Wk 13	REG	Charles Tillman	CHI	95	2
2005	NE at DEN, Divisional	POST	Champ Bailey	DEN	100	3
2008	CLE at PHI, Wk 15	REG	Brandon McDonald	CLE	98	2
2009	PIT at KC, Wk 11	REG	Andy Studebaker	KC	94	3
2020	SEA at ARI, Wk 7	REG	Budda Baker	ARI	90	2
2026	PHI at TEN, Wk 2	REG	Amani Hooker	TEN	92	1

What Tennessee did with the ball at the Philadelphia 10

Down	To go	Spot	Play	Yards
1	10	PHI 10	Tony Pollard run	5
2	5	PHI 5	Cam Ward pass incomplete	0
3	5	PHI 5	Cam Ward scramble	4
4	1	PHI 1	Cam Ward sneak, touchdown	1

Hurts threw for DeVonta Smith on third and 8 from the Tennessee 8. Hooker picked it off two yards deep in his own end zone and was run down at the Philadelphia 10 by Makai Lemon. Four plays later Ward scored on a fourth-and-1 sneak, so the sequence swung the game from a likely Eagles score to a 7-0 Tennessee lead.

Why it matters. A 92-yard return that stops short is the rarest possible outcome of a red-zone interception: the play covers nearly the whole field and still needs an offense to finish it. Tennessee did, on a fourth-and-1 sneak: Philadelphia had third and 8 at the Tennessee 8, and four plays after the throw the Titans led 7-0. The Eagles spent the rest of the half digging out of that hole.

Three lead changes, two ties, and the last one came at 0:14 after a 9-play, 65-yard drive.

Trend

Scoring plays

Qtr	Clock	Team	Play	Score (PHI-TEN)
1	4:28	TEN	Cam Ward 1-yard run (4th and 1)	0-7
2	12:53	PHI	Tank Bigsby 2-yard run	7-7
2	1:55	PHI	Jalen Hurts 22-yard pass to DeVonta Smith	14-7
2	0:03	TEN	Joey Slye 37-yard field goal	14-10
3	8:12	PHI	Jake Elliott 58-yard field goal	17-10
3	1:03	TEN	Cam Ward 1-yard scramble	17-17
4	2:00	TEN	Joey Slye 33-yard field goal	17-20
4	0:14	PHI	Jalen Hurts 3-yard pass to Darius Cooper	24-20

The winning drive: Philadelphia 35 to the end zone, 1:56 to 0:14

Clock	Down	Spot	Play	Yards
1:56	1st and 10	PHI 35	Hurts incomplete to Wicks	0
1:52	2nd and 10	PHI 35	Hurts to Smith	4
1:48	3rd and 6	PHI 39	Hurts deep to Wicks	20
1:20	1st and 10	TEN 41	Hurts to Smith	9
0:56	2nd and 1	TEN 32	Hurts to Smith	6
0:51	1st and 10	TEN 26	Hurts incomplete	0
0:45	2nd and 10	TEN 26	Hurts scramble	4
0:20	3rd and 6	TEN 22	Hurts deep to Smith	19
0:14	1st and 3	TEN 3	Hurts to Cooper, touchdown	3

2025 regular season: how often the winner trailed inside the final two minutes

Games	Winner trailed on a snap at 2:00 or later	Rate
271	40	14.8%

Tennessee led 7-0, Philadelphia led 14-7 and 17-10, Tennessee tied it and then led 20-17 with two minutes left. The Eagles took the kickoff at their own 35 with 1:56 left. Hurts went 6 of 8 for 61 yards on the drive, converted two third-and-6 throws of 20 and 19 yards, and found Cooper from the 3 with 14 seconds left. Tennessee got one 15-yard completion back before the clock ran out.

Why it matters. The two third-and-6 conversions are the whole drive: without the 20-yard throw to Dontayvion Wicks the Eagles face fourth and 6 from their own 39 with 1:48 left, and without the 19-yard throw to Smith they are looking at a game-tying kick and overtime. A winner trailing that late happened in about one of every seven 2025 games, so this is not a freak result, but the drive itself had zero slack. Philadelphia needed a first down on both third downs and got both.

Both offenses beat their 2025 third-down rates: Philadelphia converted 11 of 18 after ranking 21st, Tennessee 6 of 13 after ranking last.

Comparison

Third-down conversion, this game versus 2025 regular season

Team	This game	Rate	2025 season	2025 rate	2025 rank
PHI	11 of 18	61.1%	79 of 207	38.2%	21st
TEN	6 of 13	46.2%	74 of 232	31.9%	32nd

2025 regular-season third-down conversion, league top 5

Rank	Team	Third downs	Conversions	Rate
1	SF	209	106	50.7%
2	GB	206	100	48.5%
3	BUF	205	95	46.3%
4	LAC	250	115	46.0%
5	CIN	218	97	44.5%

No team converted better than 50.7 percent of its third downs across the 2025 regular season. Philadelphia converted 61.1 percent in this game, about 23 points above its own 2025 rate, and 11 conversions on 18 tries is the volume of a team that kept getting to third down and kept surviving it. Tennessee's 46.2 percent would have ranked fourth in 2025, just behind Buffalo's 46.3; a year ago it ranked 32nd at 31.9.

Why it matters. Philadelphia's third-down day is the mechanism behind the 72-play, 341-yard box score: the offense was not especially efficient on early downs (see the quarter split), so the drives lived on third down, including the two third-and-6 conversions on the winning possession. Eighteen third downs is a large enough sample for the rate to mean something, but the 2025 baseline is a different roster on both sides, so treat the gap as a description of this game rather than a new level. Tennessee's number is more striking relative to its own history: the league's worst third-down offense of 2025 converted at a top-five clip for one afternoon and still lost.

Cam Ward ran four times for 7 yards and scored twice, the fewest rushing yards in any two-touchdown game by a Titans quarterback since 1999.

Anomaly

Tennessee quarterbacks with 2+ rushing touchdowns in a regular-season game, 1999 to 2026

Season	Wk	Quarterback	Carries	Rush yards	Rush TD
1999	11	Steve McNair	10	20	2
2001	8	Steve McNair	10	74	2
2002	15	Steve McNair	6	49	2
2003	5	Steve McNair	6	18	2
2017	4	Marcus Mariota	4	39	2
2019	12	Ryan Tannehill	7	40	2
2020	15	Ryan Tannehill	3	21	2
2020	17	Ryan Tannehill	7	38	2
2026	2	Cam Ward	4	7	2

Cam Ward, this game

Comp	Att	Pass yards	Pass TD	INT	Sacked	Carries	Rush yards	Rush TD
13	20	183	0	0	2	4	7	2

Both scores came from the 1-yard line: a fourth-and-1 sneak in the first quarter after Hooker's return, and a scramble to the left with 1:03 left in the third that tied the game at 17. Ward threw no touchdown passes and no interceptions on 20 attempts. Nine Titans quarterback games since 1999 have two rushing scores, and the previous low for yardage in one of them was McNair's 20 in 1999.

Why it matters. Every Tennessee touchdown in this game was Ward on his feet from the 1, which says the Titans trusted the quarterback sneak and the scramble more than a handoff at the goal line. Seven yards on four carries means those runs were situational, not a designed running game, and a two-score day built entirely at the 1-yard line is a red-zone finishing profile rather than a mobility one. It is also the first two-rushing-touchdown game by a Titans quarterback since Tannehill in 2020.

The Eagles' first win in Nashville in four tries, and DeVonta Smith's third career game with 10 catches.

Milestone

Eagles versus Titans, every meeting in the database (1999 to 2026)

Season	Wk	Site	Result	Winner
2000	14	Philadelphia	TEN 15, PHI 13	TEN
2002	1	Nashville	TEN 27, PHI 24	TEN
2006	11	Philadelphia	TEN 31, PHI 13	TEN
2010	7	Nashville	TEN 37, PHI 19	TEN
2014	12	Philadelphia	PHI 43, TEN 24	PHI
2018	4	Nashville	TEN 26, PHI 23	TEN
2022	13	Philadelphia	PHI 35, TEN 10	PHI
2026	2	Nashville	PHI 24, TEN 20	PHI

DeVonta Smith, regular-season games with 10+ receptions

Season	Wk	Opp	Targets	Rec	Yards	TD
2022	5	ARI	11	10	87	0
2024	15	PIT	12	11	109	1
2026	2	TEN	13	10	117	1

Tennessee had won the first three meetings on its own field, in 2002, 2010 and 2018, and five of the first seven overall. Smith was the target on both interceptions and still finished with 10 catches for 117 yards on 13 targets, including four receptions for 38 yards on the winning drive. In 2025 he averaged 4.5 catches and 59.3 yards a game.

Why it matters. These two teams meet about once every four years, so the series is short and each result carries more weight than a division rivalry game would. The Nashville streak was the one clear pattern in it, and it ended on the last play that mattered. Smith's line is the flip side of the two interceptions: Hurts kept throwing to him after both, and the 19-yard catch at 0:20 is the play that put Philadelphia at the 3.

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