After scuffling through their final three regular-season games, the Philadelphia Eagles opened the NFL playoffs on Saturday night by smashing the New York Giants 38-7.

The Eagles won 13 of their first 14 regular-season games in 2022. But after quarterback Jalen Hurts sprained his throwing shoulder on Dec. 18, Philadelphia lost two games with Gardner Minshew at quarterback and slid past the Giants 22-16 in the regular-season finale with a limited Hurts back under center.

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That victory secured the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs, and the accompanying first-round bye gave Hurts an extra week to recover from the shoulder injury.

“To have him out there is like – I know this is high praise – but to have him out there is like having – I shouldn’t even go there – but it’s like having Michael Jordan out there,” Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni said. “He’s your leader. He’s your guy. Hopefully, that’s the biggest respect I can pay to him, comparing his ability to be on the field to a Michael Jordan-type.

“This guy leads. He brings this calmness to the entire team. He plays great football. He’s tough as they come. To me, nobody has played better football than him this year.”

With Hurts two weeks further removed from his shoulder injury, the Eagles had a fuller playbook than they did in the regular-season finale, when the run calls for a quarterback with 760 rushing yards in 2022 were on the shelf.

“We wanted to run the best things that were best for us, knowing that Jalen was no limitations,” Sirianni said, “so if that was running him, that was running him. We don’t think kind of like, ‘Hey, we’re going to show you guys.’ He was ready to go, and we did the things we thought was best for us.”

Hurts threw a 40-yard pass to wide receiver DeVonta Smith on the second snap of the game and had two runs before capping Philadelphia’s first possession with a 16-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dallas Goedert.

Hurts completed 16-of-24 passes for 154 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions on Saturday night. He also rushed for 34 yards on nine carries and scored on a 5-yard run as Philadelphia took a 28-0 lead with 43 seconds left in the first half.

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The Eagles rolled up 268 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.

“We all know that that adds an extra dynamic to what we can do,” Hurts said about putting the threat of quarterback runs back to Philadelphia’s rushing attack.

In addition to his TD run, Hurts converted two third-down snaps into first downs with his legs.

Hurts said he had no hesitancy about taking hits on his shoulder on Saturday night, so he didn’t have to carry the football one or two times to feel at ease playing without limitations.

“Mentally, regardless of how I was feeling physically, I was already there, so there was nothing that needed to be done for me to get there,” Hurts said.

Hurts became the first former Alabama quarterback to start for the winning team in an NFL playoff game since Jan. 15, 1983, when Richard Todd led the Miami Dolphins to a 17-14 victory over the Los Angeles Raiders in an AFC second-round contest.

The Eagles will play for a spot in Super Bowl LVII in the NFC Championship Game at 2 p.m. CST Jan. 29 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The Eagles’ opponent will be the winner of Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers.

“I think there’s an eagerness to accomplish what we want to accomplish, and that’s a day-by-day thing,” Hurts said. “Every team comes into this thing trying to accomplish the same thing. As you climb that mountain, it gets harder. It gets more treacherous as you get to the top. But we take it day-by-day. We take it one step at a time, one play at a time, trust in the process of getting better every day and let that handle itself. I love the fact that that’s the mentality of this team.

“I love the fact that we’re starving. That we’re not just hungry for it, but starving for it. We’re starving for growth, we’re eager for growth and getting better and learning from our mistakes. I think that’s the beautiful thing about it, and we just want to continue to do that. And I think that was a little motivation as a team. We wanted to come out here and play our best ball, and I think sometimes you got to be careful what you wish for.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.