You’d never know what was happening by looking at Jalen Hurts’ face. He stood there on the sideline after leading the Eagles on a go-ahead drive, during which he threw the ball 10 times, culminating in a four-yard touchdown pass and a successful two-point conversion. Hurts watched while the Rams lined up for a 44-yard field goal that would’ve won the game for Los Angeles.
Instead, of course, the Eagles blocked the kick, scooped and scored as time expired. Eagles 33, Rams 26.
Around Hurts, the sideline went wild. Coach Nick Sirianni — the team’s emotionally heated ying to Hurts’ ice-cold yang — bumped into the quarterback with a massive smile on his face. Hurts didn’t smile. He must have been content, because the Eagles won. If we take him at his word, that’s all he cares about. So it probably wasn’t notable that he looked borderline upset after the win. Because that’s just the way Hurts is.
Jalen Hurts looks on after defeating the Rams 33-26 at Lincoln Financial Field on Sept. 21. (Photo by Ishika Samant/Getty Images)
Except …
Well, not long after that moment, Hurts spoke with FOX Sports’ Pam Oliver on the field.
“It’s always good to get a win, and if that doesn’t show you what type of team we are, then I don’t know what does,” Hurt said of Philadelphia’s comeback from a 26-7 third-quarter deficit. “Now, we completely did that to ourselves in the first half. Completely. … It’s unacceptable.”
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He added: “We play so many styles of football where in that first half, we got to get out of this playing not to lose. We got to come out aggressive and play our game. You saw our game in the second half.”
Jalen Hurts on Eagles’ comeback win: ‘If that doesn’t show you what type of team we are, what does?’
With Hurts and the Eagles’ coaching staff, it’s never hunky-dory.
They won’t hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” together. There won’t be any suggestion of a five-step reconciliation.
You almost get the sense that Hurts likes to live in conflict with his coaches, given how much success he’s had through the tension with Sirianni, in particular. To that point, this isn’t doomsday for the Eagles. In fact, Hurts would eventually flip to optimism and see the silver lining of this win. (We’ll get there.) But right now, Hurts has his hackles up with new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
The typically cool-cucumber quarterback did, in fact, get vocal with Patullo during the game. It was during the third quarter. Hurts had just thrown a 33-yard touchdown pass, a big play that came back-to-back with a 38-yard pass to A.J. Brown. This drive gave life to three touchdowns — yes, all passing touchdowns — over the Eagles’ next four possessions to take the lead.
Hurts didn’t reveal what he and Patullo were talking about, but given the context, you can probably guess. The Eagles had just scored via the passing game. They would go on to win by making increased usage of the passing game. You do the math.
And you know who noticed the way the passing offense changed the complexion of the game?
A.J. Brown.
Of course.
He’s not just Philadelphia’s WR1, he’s also a guy who doesn’t mince words.
“I don’t mean this in a negative way, but I just got the ball. I think it’s that simple,” Brown told reporters after the game. “Me, personally, I truly believe, we got so many good players on this team. And at times, you can feel like we’re being conservative.”
In the first 10 quarters of play this year, Brown logged six catches for 35 yards. (He had no catches on one target in the first half against the Rams.) In the second half, he put up six catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.
There was a tinfoil hat theory in Philly that Hurts started calling the plays in the second half — either ignoring or simply taking over for Patullo. Sirianni dispelled that speculation on Monday, instead saying that “Jalen sees the field so well.” And perhaps that quality — with Hurts having command as a field general — is why it looked as if the QB was the team’s offensive coordinator for the second half. Because the Eagles moved to the hurry-up offense, Hurts did end up with more autonomy.
The performance should — for now — quiet the skepticism around Hurts and the Eagles’ offense that had been fairly loud. They have been a run-first team, but Saquon Barkley has not rushed for more than 90 yards in a game this season — and he has averaged under 3.5 yards per carry in two of the three games. That has led to skepticism surrounding Hurts, whose standing as an “elite” quarterback is purely in the eye of the beholder.
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The knock on Hurts was right there in those first two wins. His passing spray charts had been pitiful going into Week 3. Those charts showed Hurts had attempted just three passes 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. And one of them traveled 11 yards. It’s the type of thing we’d criticize Cam Ward or any other quarterback for. It’s normally a sign that the QB (and/or his offense) is limited and perhaps even incapable of attacking downfield.
Hurts’ detractors will say that, going back to the start of last season, the Eagles are 3-3 in games when he’s thrown 30 or more passes — and undefeated in games when he’s thrown 29 or fewer. Correlation? Causation? Who knows? For those who think Hurts isn’t elite, they see the message written in those box scores: Philly can’t win if Hurts is the offensive focal point.
I think those people aren’t watching anything but the box score. I think he’s currently one of the NFL’s elite quarterbacks. But that’s an argument for another day.
In the meantime, it sounds like Hurts would like to have a bigger role in the offense. He’d like to throw the ball more often. Brown would like the ball thrown to him more often. Throwing should open things up for Saquon, who hasn’t looked like Saquon yet. It’ll be on Patullo (and Sirianni) to figure out the balance.
But this discussion belies the bigger picture. The Eagles are undefeated. They beat a division rival (the Cowboys) and two teams that were Super Bowl favorites (the Chiefs and the Rams). If the solution is to throw more, they’ll throw more.
“It’s exciting,” Hurts said during a postgame press conference. “There’s never a doubt, there’s never a quit, and there’s always that sense of fight to try and figure it out. We’ve been talking about taking pride and winning. We take pride in this game, as ugly as it was, as beautiful as it ended. It’s the agony and the ecstasy of football.”
Hurts repeated that there are lessons the team needs to learn from this game, but …
“It’s always great to learn after a win,” he said.
Maybe the Eagles will stay at each other’s throats. Maybe they’ll stop the infighting. They’re too good, too talented, too complete for any of it to matter. Whether they run it or throw it, Hurts will get them wins. Sunday was further proof of that.
Before joining FOX Sports as an NFL reporter and columnist, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @henrycmckenna.
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