After Philadelphia lost to the Atlanta Falcons 22-21 on Monday night, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had something to say to his teammates, even though an illness left him with little voice after screaming his way through the game.

But what Hurts managed to say, Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni said, fit the moment so well that the coach didn’t feel the need to say anything else to the team.

“Jalen is an awesome leader,” Sirianni said during an appearance on WIP-FM in Philadelphia on Wednesday. “I’m sitting there looking through what I was going to say after the game. He spoke from his heart. I thought his message was right on, dead on. Obviously, we’ll always keep in-house things in house, but at the end of the day Jalen talked about the details, the little things that we did that all of us — coaching, playing –that ended up losing us that game. It’s one game that we got to move on from — learn from, move on and just still have that same drive because we got to get up and have that drive to go do the exact same process that we went through last week, because our process was good, and be ready to play a really good football team this upcoming week.

“I just thought he was spot on with what he said. His passion was awesome. When a player is saying everything that you would say, there’s no reason for me to talk afterwards, so we took a knee after that and prayed because we still had a lot to be thankful for. But, man, that was perfect. Like I said, when your leaders are preaching the same message that I am and that I believe in, and we’re all on the same page, that’s huge.

“Quite frankly, I talk a lot. I have a lot of media that the players hear. I got a lot of time up in front of the team that the players hear. And so I loved it, and I know that helped kick us in the butt a little bit to just kind of snap into the reality of it: Hey, it’s one game, and let’s move on and get better from this.”

Hurts hasn’t elaborated on what he said or why he said it.

“Just in the moment,” Hurts croaked when asked during his postgame press conference about his address.

At his Wednesday press conference, Hurts’ voice sounded closer to normal, but he still didn’t have much to say about his talk to his teammates.

“I didn’t make a decision on it,” Hurts said. “It just kind of happened.”

The Falcons scored a touchdown with 34 seconds remaining to edge the Eagles. Philadelphia has lost three of its past nine games when the opposition scored a touchdown with 34 or fewer seconds left to play.

RELATED: JALEN HURTS AFTER EAGLES’ LOSS: ‘WE’RE GOING TO LEARN FROM IT’

Hurts said on Wednesday the Eagles must move on quickly from the latest loss or face the prospect of a 1-2 record after Sunday.

Philadelphia plays the New Orleans Saints at noon CDT Sunday. The Saints have started the season by beating the Carolina Panthers 47-10 and the Dallas Cowboys 44-19.

Although Hurts’ first game as an NFL starter came against the Saints on Dec. 13, 2020, Sunday’s game will be his first as an NFL quarterback in New Orleans.

Hurts’ previous game in the building now called Caesars Superdome came in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2018. In Alabama’s 24-6 victory over Clemson in a CFP semifinal game, Hurts threw touchdown passes to current Tennessee Titans wide receiver Calvin Ridley and current Washington Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne.

“It feels like so long ago, playing in the bowl game, in the Sugar Bowl,” Hurts said, “and, obviously, a great environment there, a lot of pride in that city. It’s a great place in New Orleans in the state of Louisiana. And it’ll be a great opportunity for us, a great challenge and a great team we’re about to play that’s rolling and clicking on all cylinders right now, led by a great defense, great offense, and they’re doing a great job, so it’ll be a great challenge for us.”

The Alabama Game of the Week is the New York Giants-Cleveland Browns contest on Sunday. Thirteen players from Alabama high schools and colleges are on the teams’ active rosters.

The Week 3 schedule (with all times Central and point spreads from Catena):

Thursday

· New England Patriots at New York Jets (-6.5), 7:15 p.m. (Prime Video)

Sunday

· New York Giants at Cleveland Browns (-6.5), noon

· Chicago Bears at Indianapolis Colts (-1), noon

· Houston Texans (-1.5) at Minnesota Vikings, noon (WKRG)

· Philadelphia Eagles at New Orleans Saints (-2.5), noon (WBRC, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)

· Los Angeles Chargers at Pittsburgh Steelers (-1.5), noon (WIAT, WTVY, WHNT, WAKA)

· Denver Broncos at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-7), noon

· Green Bay Packers at Tennessee Titans (-1.5), noon (WZDX)

· Carolina Panthers at Las Vegas Raiders (-5.5), 3:05 p.m.

· Miami Dolphins at Seattle Seahawks (-4.5), 3:05 p.m.

· Detroit Lions (-3) at Arizona Cardinals, 3:25 p.m.

· Baltimore Ravens (-1) at Dallas Cowboys, 3:25 p.m. (WBRC, WZDX, WALA, WCOV, WDFX)

· San Francisco 49ers (-7.5) at Los Angeles Rams, 3:25 p.m.

· Kansas City Chiefs (-3.5) at Atlanta Falcons, 7:20 p.m. (NBC)

Monday

· Jacksonville Jaguars at Buffalo Bills (-5.5), 6:30 p.m. (ESPN, ESPN2)

· Washington Commanders at Cincinnati Bengals (-7.5), 7:15 p.m. (ESPN, ESPN2)

CHECK OUT MAPS OF SUNDAY’S BROADCAST TV COVERAGE

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

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