Jalen Hurts helped the Eagles win a playoff game on Sunday. Was it perfect? Heck no. Did it have to be? Nope.
There were too many times the offense stalled out and didn’t do enough with the four turnovers they forced but the Eagles won a playoff game against a solid opponent despite an offense that was average, though it did find a way to put up 20-plus points in a 22-10 win.
The best thing you can say about the O’s outing was it did not turn the ball over. Jalen Hurts did not fumble, did not throw an interception.
Imagine being a Chargers fan and watching Justin Herbert throw four interceptions in a loss to the Texans. Or a fan of the Buccaneers and seeing Baker Mayfield’s cough up a fourth-quarter fumble at his own 15 in a loss to the Commanders.
"Jalen is built for this," said running back Saquon Barkley. "He has highs, he has lows, but he led this team to a Super Bowl and did a really good job in the Super Bowl. I remember being in New York watching it and being amazed."
Hurts took care of the football and threw a pair of touchdowns to boot. Oh, and he won, because he’s good at that part of the game.
“It's all about winning,” said Hurts. “That's the only thing we've got to the point we are. So, it's about finding ways to win.”
Hurts does that better than most quarterbacks in the league. The win evened his postseason record at 3-3. Herbert is still looking for his first playoff win and is 0-2. Mayfield is 2-3.
"He did a great job, said Barkley. "He came out and he won a football game for us. We won together, and that’s the most important thing. That’s our leader and we got his back."
Head coach Nick Sirianni has said repeatedly this year that Hurts is a winner, and he said so again after the win propelled the Eagles into the Divisional Round. The coach admitted, though, that the offense needs to be better.
“As an offense, we struggled a little bit,” he said. “I don't think we had the game that we wanted to have on offense, but Jalen I think did a lot of good things. First of all, Jalen is a winner. He wins. I mean, no one can argue that. The other thing is we know when we take care of the football, the things that happen when we take care of the football, and Jalen's on this pace of the efficiency that he's played with this year with his quarterback rating, with his yards per attempt, and all those different things, to be able to do that while also taking care of the football is huge.”
So, why the struggles? Rust from a nearly three-week layoff from a concussion?
Hurts didn’t think so. He did complete his first six throws that included an 11-yard strike Jahan Dotson.
The problem seemed to be there weren’t many open receivers. Hurts threw just 21 times and completed 13 of those attempts. A handful of times nobody was open.
The Packers seemed to know what routes were coming, and if that’s the case, that goes back to play design and offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
“We're going to go back to work (Monday),” said Sirianni. “…We’re going to go back to work because we do have a lot of things to clean up.”
