Jalen Hurts âstill beats himself upâ on Super Bowl loss

It started as a question about why the Philadelphia Eagles didn’t offer the field conditions at State Farm Stadium as a factor in their 38-35 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12.

But All-Pro Eagles center Jason Kelce’s answer veered into providing insight into the mindset of Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts.

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“When you’re the guy, when you’re Jalen Hurts — and I know the way he thinks because we’ve talked about it — he still beats himself up for this play and that play,” Kelce said during an appearance on JAKIB Sports’ “Sports Talk Live.” “It’s like, ‘Dude, you had the best performance ever by a quarterback in the history of a Super Bowl. You did just fine.’

“But the reality is when you’re that guy, if you’re really a competitor, you think you control stuff. You don’t want to acknowledge that somebody else or a field or officials because once you start doing that, you start devaluing who you are and who we are.

“Now we aren’t giving that to anybody. We control the outcome. We made enough mistakes, if we would have fixed that stuff up, we would have won that game regardless of what happens with the field, anything.”

Hurts completed 27-of-38 passes for 304 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions and ran for 70 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries against the Chiefs.

In Super Bowl LVII, the former Alabama standout became the only player to have at least 300 passing yards, 70 rushing yards and three touchdown runs in the same game – not just the Super Bowl, but any NFL game.

Before Super Bowl LVII, there had been only three games in NFL history in which a player passed for 300 yards and ran for three touchdowns – and Hurts had one of those on Dec. 18 in a 25-20 victory over the Chicago Bears.

Hurts tied the record for rushing touchdowns in a Super Bowl, which had been established by running back Terrell Davis in the Denver Broncos’ 31-24 victory over the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXII on Jan. 25, 1998. Hurts became the second quarterback to run for three touchdowns in an NFL playoff game, joining Otto Graham, who had three in the Cleveland Browns’ 56-10 victory over the Detroit Lions in the NFL Championship Game on Dec. 26, 1954.

Hurts broke the Super Bowl record for rushing yards by a quarterback. Steve McNair had set the mark with 64 yards on eight carries in the Tennessee Titans’ 23-16 loss to the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXIV on Jan. 30, 2000.

But Hurts also lost a fumble that Kansas City linebacker Nick Bolton recovered and returned 36 yards for a touchdown as the Chiefs tied the score at 14-14 in the second quarter.

During an appearance on “The AP Pro Football Podcast” on Monday, Hurts talked about what keeps him working to improve even when his most recent game was one of the most outstanding statistically in NFL history.

“Everybody wants to be the best,” Hurts said, “and everybody aspires to be the best and works to be the best, but ultimately you have to find something that separates you, and that’s the thrill. There’s a thrill in not being satisfied.”

Three teams that lost in the Super Bowl returned the next year to win – the Dallas Cowboys in the 1971 season, the Miami Dolphins in the 1972 season and the New England Patriots in the 2018 season.

Hurts was asked on Monday if the Eagles could become the fourth team to accomplish the feat.

“This team has to find an identity for itself, and that’s the main goal,” Hurts said. “This team has to find an identity for itself, and ultimately if we can keep the main thing the main thing and take advantage of every opportunity we have every day to get better, that’s a win in itself.”

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