Jalen Hurts wasn’t going to run away. He wasn’t going to make excuses.
Hurts knows how bad his two interceptions were on Friday night against the Packers, that they may have cost the Eagles a season-opening win, and he knows those mistakes have to stop.
He knows, but it keeps happening.
“Obviously, some of this could have been avoided,” Hurts said. “I put the team in bad situations.”
It was a strange game overall, as the Eagles struggled in many areas but still came out of Brazil with a big win against a very good team in their season opener.
No one struggled more than Hurts, whose two interceptions in the Eagles’ 34-29 win in Sao Paulo weren’t the result of a deflection or a great defensive play — they were simply the result of bad decisions that could have been avoided.
For just his second pass of the year, he slipped between four defenders to try and float the ball to DeVonta Smith, but after a good play midway through the game, he threw a cross-body pass into the end zone on third-and-13 early in the fourth quarter, only for AJ Brown to have a chance to get to it, resulting in yet another egregious interception costing the Eagles points.
What makes these plays so concerning is that they appear to be an extension of 2023, when Hurts recorded 15 interceptions, third-most in the league and the most by an Eagles quarterback since Randall Cunningham had 16 in 1988. Carson Wentz also had 15 in 2020.
He’s in his fifth year now, I should know better.
What saved the Eagles was that after two interceptions, the defense prevented the Packers from attempting a field goal.
“After the two turnovers, they came out and supported me a lot,” Hurts said of the defense. “Those are things I can control and I have to do better and I take responsibility for that.”
“But that’s the thing: There are moments when you think, ‘Oh, I missed this opportunity, I didn’t take advantage of this opportunity,’ and how do we respond to that?”
“I’m really pleased with how we weathered this storm as a team. We’ve talked about it. I’ve preached it. A lot of our guys have preached it. What kind of team are we going to be? What kind of teammates are we going to be? What’s our approach? How are we going to handle adversity when it comes? We take pride in that.”
And Hurts responded aggressively after both interceptions.
After that first attempt, he completed 18 of 30 on the Eagles’ next seven attempts for 251 yards and 28 points on two TD passes by Hurts and two runs by Saquon Barkley.
And after the second, he orchestrated a decisive 67-yard drive in 16 plays that ended with a Jake Elliott field goal to give the Eagles a six-point lead and send the Packers 84 yards with 27 seconds left. He converted an 8-yard second attempt on a tough first attempt and completed two big passes to Smith to cap the first.
It wasn’t a complete disaster. He played some really good games, including a 67-yard touchdown to Brown, the second-longest of his career, an 81-yard touchdown to DeSean Jackson as a rookie, a nice 18-yard touchdown to Barkley and 14 total first downs.
“You’ve got to have short-term memory, process everything that’s happened and then move on and play the next play because the guys next to you need you,” he said.
And, most importantly, the Eagles won.
“He’s obviously going to want to make a play over,” Nick Sirianni said, “but in terms of going through and dealing with adversity, again, he wasn’t perfect by any means, but I thought he handled it well.”
Hurts had 20 interceptions in his first 39 career starts and 17 in his last 18 starts.
He had the eighth-best interception rate (minimum 1,000 interceptions) in NFL history entering the 2023 season. He’s currently 25th.
“It’s all within our control,” he said. “We’re going to continue to find our rhythm as a football team. It’s always good to find your rhythm with a win. It’s good to start the season off with a win.”
Hurts is 3-6 in his career when he has thrown two or more interceptions and 34-14 when he has thrown one interception or none at all.
The Eagles got away with one on Friday night, but Coach Hurts knows the Eagles usually don’t win when they allow multiple interceptions.
“We all experienced adversity, but we worked hard and kept moving forward.
“At the end of the day, we made some key plays to extend drives, key plays down the field, key plays on defense. We made some plays on special teams. That’s what it’s all about — keep going, keep progressing.”
“We’ll learn from it. But I’m just happy. I’m just happy to get a win, whether it’s good, bad or ugly. Whatever it is, I’m just so grateful. I know I’m excited for this team to continue to grow.”
You can subscribe to Eagle Eye wherever you get podcasts:
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Music | Spotify | Stitcher | Art19 | RSS | Watch on YouTube
