PHILADELPHIA – Jalen Hurts has emerged from the bye looking and sounding like a different quarterback.
He has thrown all his support behind his coach Nick Sirianni, eliminating any nefarious fracture in their relationship. He spoke of their moment of harmony during the Eagles' bye week, calling the week off the most efficient he has ever had in his career.
He has thrown support Sirianni’s way in just about every press conference since, including following Sunday’s 28-3 win over the New York Giants.
“He's really coming with a good intensity, intentionality and trying to deliver good messages for us to be focused and be on the same page,” said Hurts of his coach in the bowels of MetLife Stadium. “He's also apologetic when he needs to be. I'm excited about the direction we're going in. I'm excited about the direction Coach is going in with everything, too.”
On the field, Hurts has not turned the ball over in two straight games since the week off. He played just three games last year without a turnover. Now, he’s done it twice. Ina row.
Furthermore, he has gone three straight games without an interception. He never went three in a row without one last year. He went two games without an interception just twice in 2023, so this is a positive sign.
Another good sign is that Hurts seems to be taking better care of the football in the pocket. Yes, it’s a small sample size, but he didn’t try to force anything while holding the ball loosely as the pocket collapsed on the four sacks he took against the Giants. On one, he simply fell to the turf in a cradle position with both hands on the ball before the rush got there.
A cynic would say he saw ghosts. But maybe it's just him taking better care of the ball.
“The pocket just kind of got a little tight there right at the end, and from a ball security standpoint, he made that decision,” said offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. “He's done an excellent job of protecting the football in those situations, getting us opportunities to still punt and put ourselves in favorable positions. Certainly, in other instances in the game, he was able to make plays with his feet as well. He's done a really good job of making those decisions when it is necessary.”
Hurts now has seven touchdown passes to four picks to go along with four rushing scores.
Now, a cynic will say, well of course you didn’t have an interception against the Giants because he only threw the ball 14 times. And that would be accurate, except he threw it 30 times against the Buccaneers and another 25 times against the Browns. Add it up, and he has not thrown a pick in his last 69 pass attempts. Not a Hall of Fame number but, again, a good sign.
In the last two wins, his passer rating has been well above 100 with a PR of 126.1 vs. the Browns and 119.3 vs. the Giants.
The bye, it would seem, as done wonders for the fifth-year QB.
“Any time you get to evaluate where you're at, just individually and as a collective group, I think protecting the football was something we wanted to do a little bit better job of,” said Moore. “Sometimes those things are bad luck and sometimes there's things that you can focus on. I think our team, in general, has done an excellent job the last couple weeks of really securing the ball as ball carriers and throwing.
“Jalen has made some excellent decisions in the last couple weeks. He's done a really, really good job with that and it’s put us in some very favorable positions.”
