FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Usually Jalen Hurts gives the Eagles a chance to win with his indomitable skills and undying will.
Occasionally, you get a very ordinary performance like the one Hurts put out there Sunday against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium. With it, the Eagles barely escaped in possession of a 25-20 win.
Hurts completed 66.7 percent of his passes for just 170 yards, including a five-yard scoring throw to DeVonta Smith, who celebrated the birth of his baby by rocking the football in the end zone. The gesture was cute because the Eagles were pounding the Patriots, 16-0, at that point and it looked like the game was over except for the math.
That would be the only touchdown scored by the offense, though, on a day that Patriots quarterback Mac Jones threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns.
Except for a 14-yard run, Hurts was a non-factor in the Eagles’ just OK rushing attack. He finished with just 37 yards on nine rushes, taking a couple of pops he blew off postgame as harmless.
With Hurts sputtering, the running back by committee approach was very disappointing. Kenny Gainwell started and got the bulk of his net yards from scrimmage on the first series that resulted in the first of four field goals by Jake Elliott. He had 14 rushes for 54 yards. D’Andre Swift and Boston Scott got just one carry each.
All of that paled in comparison to Hurts’ unconscionable fumble at the 41-yard line of the Eagles with 3:28 remaining and the Eagles leading by just five points. Hurts gained eight yards but didn’t secure the ball on a jarring head-on hit from Marcus Jones. Sure, the thud could be heard throughout the stadium, but for a quarterback that fumbled just twice all of last year, what’s the deal?
Hurts tried to explain it when asked to assess his performance.
“First and foremost, I think that’s a great, great win, a great win for us, being able to be resilient,” Hurts said. “Obviously for me, winning is the only thing that matters and that’s something that I’ve always said all the time. And so that is the mentality right now. That will always be the mentality. Winning is the only thing that matters.
“I think we obviously have things that we need to work on and have to be better in those situations when the ball is in my hands, and I take full accountability for that. But the good thing about it is we get the opportunity to play on Thursday.”
Thursday is the Minnesota Vikings’ visit to Lincoln Financial Field. They were beaten, 20-17, by Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, and they also lost their starting center, which never is a good thing. Imagine the Eagles without Jason Kelce.
Hurts’ ineffectiveness was largely due to the Patriots and pass rusher Matt Judon, who is good as anybody in that capacity, even against an Eagles unit that led the league in sacks last season. The Patriots don’t miss many tackles. Their fundamentals are a tribute to Bill Belichick, who also puts together the defensive game plan, and his coaching staff.
Rest assured that Sunday’s book on how to defend Hurts is going to make the rounds of the Eagles’ opponents. In a nutshell, the Patriots took away Hurts’ thirst to get out on the edges where he’s most dangerous improvising with unscripted plays and forced him to beat them from the pocket.
The Patriots also dictated who he would have to throw to. Dallas Goedert, one of the top tight ends in the league, had zero catches and just one target. Smith had seven catches for only 47 yards. A.J. Brown had to work himself to death for seven receptions worth 79 yards.
The Eagles converted just 4 of 13 third downs. Late in the game, they blew a fourth-and-2 conversion at the 44 of the Patriots, who ultimately couldn’t stop the Birds’ pass rush from harassing Jones. Haason Reddick and rookie Jalen Carter came up big with fourth-quarter sacks.
“We weren’t winning on first down and we were getting ourselves into second down and that’s on everybody,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “That’s on us, first and foremost, putting the players in position to succeed and us being able to execute. And so, the rut was just that we weren’t winning on first and second down and getting ourselves into third down and not manageable (situations). So, you know, again, some of it was, you know, the run game, some of it was the pass game. … That starts with us, me and Brian (Johnson, Eagles offensive coordinator) putting them in the right position to succeed.”
Sirianni applauded Johnson’s effort in his first time calling plays as an NFL coordinator. There were strange moments, though, as he called certain runs on third down “aggressive.”
Whatever. Hurts still needs to grow, and the opener is proof of that.
The Eagles aren’t going back to the Super Bowl unless Hurts plays like the near MVP he was last season. The schedule is tougher, the bullseye is on them and the blueprint is out there, courtesy of Belichick.
To contact Bob Grotz, email rgrotz@delcotimes.com.
Source: Berkshire mont
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