Jalen Hurts changes game with mind, Eagles coach says
In Super Bowl LVII against the Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts produced a set of eye-popping statistics. In last season’s NFL championship game, the former Alabama QB 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.
Hurts became the only player to have at least 300 passing yards, 70 rushing yards and three touchdown runs in the same NFL game. He broke the record for rushing yards by a quarterback and tied the record for rushing touchdowns in a Super Bowl.
In a regular-season rematch with the Chiefs on Monday night, Hurts didn’t shine as brightly statistically as he completed 14-of-20 passes for 150 yards with no touchdowns and one interception and ran for 29 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries.
But the Eagles lost to Kansas City 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII on Feb 12. On Monday night, Philadelphia defeated the Chiefs 21-17.
“You win a whole bunch of different ways in this league,” Hurts said. “… In the end, winning is the only thing that matters, and so we continue to find ways to do that.”
Hurts indicated the Eagles weren’t playing a revenge game against Kansas City or had the sting of the Super Bowl lessened by Monday night’s win.
“We’re truly taking it one week at a time, one game at a time,” Hurts said. “Obviously, when you play a team and you lose to them anytime, that is what it is. But there’s always a competitiveness there versus everyone we play, so I’m just happy we found a way to come and win in this environment versus a really good team.”
The Chiefs entered Monday night’s game with the best record in the AFC at 7-2 while Philadelphia had the NFL’s best mark at 8-1. At halftime, Kansas City held a 17-7 lead.
“I don’t think we played to our standard, nowhere near our standard,” Hurts said. “But I think the thing that you can’t test or quantify is the resilience that a team has, the ability to persevere and see through things and overcome things, and this team has that. We’ve yet to put up a performance to our standard, but we continue to find ways to win. When you’ve won games like we’ve won games, that builds a ton of character … and it will only serve us great things in the future.”
While the Eagles defense held the Chiefs scoreless in the second half, Hurts capped two drives with touchdown runs.
His 1-yard Brotherly Shove score with 6:20 to play came on the snap after he connected with former Alabama teammate DeVonta Smith with a 41-yard pass and gave Philadelphia its winning points.
“Jalen just did some great things out there,” Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni said. “He did a phenomenal job. Won’t get too much into it, but he checked to that (pass to Smith), and it ended up being the right call at the right moment. And that’s what good quarterbacks do.
“Good quarterbacks, they make three or four plays that change a game with their mind. They got to do a great job throwing the ball, running the show, but they make three to four checks a game with their mind that can make big differences. Jalen did that tonight.”
For Hurts, the Eagles offense clicked when it had to.
“We hadn’t really been efficient offensively,” Hurts said. “Wasn’t on the same page on the interception, on the turnover we had. Had some communication things in a hostile environment we played in. But in the end, it’s just about finding a way to win.”
Although Monday night’s performance wasn’t the statistical gem that Super Bowl LVII was for Hurts, it was still a record-breaking game.
Hurts’ two touchdowns runs gave him 35 for his career, surpassing the 33 of Cam Newton for the most by a quarterback in his first four NFL seasons. Hurts reached the mark even though he didn’t score his first TD until the 14th game of his rookie season.
Hurts also entered Monday night’s game tied with Vinny Testaverde and Peyton Manning as the starting quarterbacks with the longest streak of regular-season victories against opponents with winning records. Hurts recorded his 13th victory in a row in that circumstance against the Chiefs.
The Eagles return to action against the Buffalo Bills at 3:25 p.m. CST Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
“There’s a ton of opportunity out there for us,” Hurts said. “We just have to continue to have the growth mindset that we have and just continue to get better.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.