PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Hurts isn't used to losing much with the Philadelphia Eagles — only 16 times since 2022 — and he certainly isn't used to getting embarrassed.
Yet from Hurts on down, the Eagles know that's exactly what happened in Chicago in a loss that essentially sent them into an existential crisis only three games into the season. Hurts said he left Chicago following a 27-7 loss with one question for an Eagles team that has not played to championship standards over its first three games.
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Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay leaves the field following an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford leaves the field following an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, left, runs the ball as Chicago Bears' Dillon Thieneman (31) defends during the second half of an NFL football game in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. (3), Quinyon Mitchell (27) and others walk off the field after an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) runs the ball as Chicago Bears defensive end Grady Jarrett (50) gives chase during the second half of an NFL football game in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
“Who are we?” Hurts said.
Hurts was sacked twice and threw an interception against the Bears. The Eagles were limited to 62 yards of offense in the second half and 248 for the game. He also absorbed a late hit from linebacker D’Marco Jackson along the sideline.
Hurts' performance was off. He knows the season is in his hands and it's up to him to help the Eagles straighten it out against the Los Angeles Rams.
“I don’t really care how we look,” Hurts said. “I don’t care who we are. I want to be winners. I want to win, and that’s always going to take precedence over anything.”
Hurts challenged the Eagles with a question of identity.
The battered Rams are in a bigger hole than the Eagles and yet they are modest road favorites in Philadelphia.
Rams cornerback Jaylen Watson and tight end Terrance Ferguson likely to be sidelined. The Rams should receive a boost by the return of No. 1 wide receiver Puka Nacua after he missed the last two games because of a hip and groin injury.
“It adds a great football player that’s a huge part of our offense,” coach Sean McVay said, “and it’s a big deal.”
The connection between quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Davante Adams flourished for the second straight game without Nacua. Adams caught seven passes for 137 yards despite being covered by arguably the NFL’s cornerback in Patrick Surtain II.
Can he keep up the stellar production if Nacua returns to the lineup?
“Well, it doesn’t mean that it’s not going to happen again,” Adams said. “We never know exactly how the plays are going to get called or if he plays or if he doesn’t play.”
Los Angeles Rams (1-2) at Philadelphia (2-1).
When/where to watch: Sunday, 1 p.m. EDT, Fox.
Latest odds: Rams by 3.
Against the spread: Rams 1-2; Eagles 0-3.
Last week: Rams lost to the Broncos 30-26; Eagles lost to the Bears 27-7.
Last meeting: Eagles beat the Rams 33-26 on Sept. 21, 2025.
Series record: Eagles lead 26-20-1.
Stafford has thrown four interceptions this season. That number could stay put against an Eagles defense that has yet to force a turnover. The Eagles did not have a sack against the Bears and third-string QB Case Keenum lit up the defense. The Eagles are 13th in NFL in yards allowed and 16th in points allowed. Philly's defense seemingly caught a break in its first two games by playing Washington (27th in pass offense) and Tennessee (30th in pass offense) and could be exposed further against a prolific Rams offense. The Eagles have only three sacks this season.
— The Rams' Quentin Lake and Trent McDuffie are leading the league in pass breakups with seven apiece.
— Adams has nine receptions of 15 yards or more this season, tied for the most in the NFL.
— Tight end Zach Ertz made his first catch for Philadelphia since 2021 and now needs nine catches to tie Harold Carmichael (589) for the most career receptions in Eagles history.
— Eagles coach Nick Sirianni is 4-0 lifetime against McVay.
— Jordan Davis blocked a field-goal attempt by the Rams’ Joshua Karty on the final play of the game and returned it 61 yards to the end zone in their last meeting. It was the Eagles' second blocked kick in the fourth quarter of that game.
— Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion played for the Rams from 2015-2018. He was third on the quarterback depth chart in his rookie season behind Keenum (who just beat the Eagles) and Nick Foles (who won a Super Bowl for the Eagles).
— Stafford is 4-4 in eight career games against the Eagles with 16 touchdown passes and only two interceptions.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay leaves the field following an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford leaves the field following an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, left, runs the ball as Chicago Bears' Dillon Thieneman (31) defends during the second half of an NFL football game in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. (3), Quinyon Mitchell (27) and others walk off the field after an NFL football game against the Chicago Bears in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) runs the ball as Chicago Bears defensive end Grady Jarrett (50) gives chase during the second half of an NFL football game in Chicago, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/David Banks)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance both hit the campaign trail on Thursday, but they headed to heavily Republican areas to shore up lagging enthusiasm in their party ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Trump’s travel to Texas and Oklahoma kicks off what the president said will be a 32-day campaign blitz leading up to Nov. 3.
Vance stumped in Florida, putting the Republican Party’s highest-ranking officials in areas where GOP candidates once expected to have glide paths to victory but are now facing tougher races. The vice president tried to cast the GOP as representing common sense in the face of a Democratic push to the left.
“I have the easiest job in the world,” Vance said in Lakeland, Florida. “I get to talk about how crazy the Democrats are.”
Trump and Vance could have their work cut out for them, though.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that only 17% of U.S. adults approve of Trump's handling of the cost of living. Just 26% approve of his handling of the economy overall, marking a new low.
Republicans have expressed growing pessimism about their chances in the election, which will determine control of Congress, as the president has repeatedly dismissed concerns about high costs and gas prices as his unpopular war in Iran drags on.
According to Trump, his party’s headwinds are merely a matter of poor public relations about a job he says is well done.
“I give us an A+ on the government, on economics, on everything,” Trump said Thursday, as he left the White House, while blaming the press for not covering the positive aspects of his administration.
Landing in Texas, he said “we have to get the message” out, while vowing “to go campaigning all over the country.”
Delanie Bomar, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement that “the president is barnstorming the country, energizing our base, and supercharging Republican candidates in battleground districts and beyond.”
The Democratic National Committee said Trump and Vance are "desperately trying to rally their base as the midterm elections approach and Republicans face defeat.”
“Donald Trump and JD Vance started a deadly and costly war with Iran that sent the economy spiraling and pushed prices even higher, and now — in the final stretch to the midterms — they’re desperately pleading with voters to 'give (them) another chance,'” said DNC deputy communications director Kendall Witmer.
In Oklahoma, Trump will campaign with Republican Mike Mazzei, who is running against Democratic state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson in the race for governor.
Democratic Governors Association spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said Trump’s campaign rally shows that Republicans “are in full-on panic mode.”
“This race continues to get more competitive — and national Republicans are right to be worried about Mazzei,” he said.
The event will be held on the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, putting Trump in the company of just a handful of U.S. presidents who have visited tribal nations while in office.
Before his evening Oklahoma stop, Trump toured a truck manufacturing facility and chatted briefly with workers in Texas, where Republicans are spending heavily to try to bolster state Attorney General Ken Paxton in a Senate race. Paxton faces a very competitive challenge from Democratic state Rep. James Talarico.
Paxton planned to attend the event.
Trump will be campaigning in more politically competitive areas in the days and weeks ahead as he embarks on his travel blitz, but Republican officials will not send him to places where they think his presence could drag down their candidates, according to a person familiar with the party’s strategy who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Trump’s Oklahoma visit, and likewise one on Friday to Alabama, are aimed at hitting two targets with one stop, the person said.
Republican officials have noted that Durant is close to the Dallas and Fort Worth media market, meaning Trump’s message will also be carried to Texas voters, and he’s expected to talk about Paxton even while addressing voters in the neighboring state.
His Friday stop in Mobile, Alabama, is aimed not only at boosting Sen. Tommy Tuberville as he runs for Alabama governor but also at shoring up support in Florida’s adjacent panhandle for Republican Rep. Byron Donalds. Donalds is running for Florida governor against David Jolly, the Republican-turned-independent who is now running as a Democrat.
Donalds' campaign in heavily GOP Florida comes as Republicans there have faced some turbulence and voter concerns about affordability and artificial intelligence data centers have become central issues.
While Trump is in Oklahoma and Texas, Vance campaigned for Donalds in central Florida. That came a day after the vice president campaigned in Texas, rallying with Republican candidate Eric Flores, who is in a tight U.S. House race in south Texas.
Vance, speaking in Harlingen, Texas, on Wednesday, acknowledged broader discontent over the high prices in the U.S. but shifted the blame away from Trump and Republicans.
“I know that there are people out there who are frustrated by the pace of progress,” he said, but "we have spent every single day fighting for you, digging ourselves out of the hole that Joe Biden left us in.”
Trump will also campaign on Saturday in Vandalia, Ohio, and on Monday in Grand Island, Nebraska.
In a meeting on Capitol Hill this week, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles described privately to GOP senators that Trump will have a near-daily sprint of campaigning ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Wiles showed Republicans the president’s upcoming travel schedule, which attendees described as extensive and almost every day, all across the country.
West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said that White House officials are “acknowledging the headwinds” but that “they have a strategy, and we have a strategy,” including money that the president’s operation will continue to deploy.
Capito also defended the White House’s plan to send Trump to traditionally conservative territory, arguing that he can motivate the Republican base not just where he travels but elsewhere in the country because he has such a broad reach.
“He can get more of his voters out — that are going to be our voters — than anybody else,” Capito said.
Associated Press reporters Seung Min Kim in Washington, Jesse Bedayn in Austin, Texas, and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
Vice President JD Vance arrives for a rally in Harlingen Texas, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
President Donald Trump speaks during an East Room event at the White House celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
