DeVonta Smith — Week 3: Eight Targets, Sixty-Five Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Wednesday, Sep 30
Smith caught 6 of 8 targets for 65 yards and two first downs, 30 of them on a deep-right catch to the Chicago 19 with 1:12 left in the half that set up Jalen Hurts's touchdown. His last target, fourth and 5 at the Chicago 46 with 27 seconds left in the third quarter, was intercepted, and his 8 targets led the Eagles, in a 27–7 loss to the Bears.
When DeVonta Smith's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
The full episode, in writing
10 to nothing, Bears, a minute 12 left in the second quarter, second and five at the Chicago 49, no huddle. Jalen Hurts, back in the game after the play-by-play had recorded him injured on a scramble earlier in the quarter, threw deep right to DeVonta Smith, 26 yards in the air, and Smith took it to the 19, 30 yards. +2.2 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 5.7 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest gain in win probability on any Eagles pass or run all night. Four snaps later Smith caught eight yards short left to the one, and Hurts scored from there with a second left.
The line: eight targets, six catches, 65 yards, no touchdown, two first downs, 56 air yards, 27 after the catch, −0.8 expected points on the targets. The catches went 13, five, five, 30, eight and four. The 13 was third and one at the Philadelphia 12 with 12 39 left in the half, short left, pushed out at the 25, the first down on the drive that reached the Chicago one and ended in Andy Dalton's interception. On the next snap Hurts went deep right for him again, incomplete, and Chicago was called for pass interference, 21 yards. Five targets before halftime for 61 yards; three after for four. The three after were an incompletion on second and nine at midfield, a four-yard catch on third and nine that left fourth and five, and the fourth down: 27 seconds left in the third quarter, down 20 to seven, short left, intercepted at the Chicago 42, with Makai Lemon making the tackle. Two third-down targets, two catches, one conversion. Chicago scored on the drive that followed the interception.
Eight targets led the Eagles, eight of the 26 throws, ahead of Dontayvion Wicks's five and Lemon's four, with Dallas Goedert inactive with a knee sprain, per PhillyVoice and NBC Sports. 65 yards led Philadelphia's receivers on a night the team's passing game produced a hundred 41 net yards, thirtieth of the 32 teams this week, and −20.1 expected points, last.
Back in June the preview made no call on Smith — the number-one receiver in Philadelphia after A.J. Brown was traded, four straight seasons around a thousand yards, and a touchdown total so low the pattern read it as a floor rather than a ceiling. Week One was six targets, three catches, 53 yards. Week Two was 13, 10 and a hundred 17 with a touchdown, and both of Hurts's interceptions thrown his way. Monday was eight, six and 65, with the interception thrown his way again on fourth down. Three games: 27 targets, 19 catches, 235 yards, one touchdown. The share the preview said to watch has led the team in every game; the yards have followed what the offense did that night. Philadelphia hosts the Rams on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
When DeVonta Smith's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
Keep going