Could former Alabama quarterbacks and teammates Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailoa be on a Super Bowl collision course?

Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles have the best record in the NFL at 10-1. Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins have a 2.5-game lead in the AFC East at 8-3.

This weekend, the quarterbacks had similar games – not so hot in the first half followed by better results in the second half.

On Sunday, Hurts had 33 passing yards and the Eagles trailed the Buffalo Bills 17-7 at halftime. Hurts threw three touchdown passes in the second half and ran 12 yards for a score in overtime to finish off a 37-34 victory.

On Friday, Tagovailoa threw two interceptions in the span of a minute late in the first half, with one going back for a touchdown. But Tagovailoa and the Miami offense got back on track, converting 6-of-7 third-down snaps in the second half on the way to a 34-13 victory over the New York Jets.

Kirk Herbstreit served as the analyst for Prime Video’s telecast of the Dolphins-Jets game. During an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday, Herbstreit said the quarterback that he saw in the NFL’s first Black Friday game working with Miami coach Mike McDaniel isn’t the same person who played at Alabama for coach Nick Saban.

“I’ve never seen a guy change more from who he was in college as a national champion to who he is now as an NFL player,” Herbstreit said. “He grew up with a Polynesian background with his family. … Once he got to the point where he was good enough to go to college, he wanted to go to USC. His dad said, ‘OK, we’re going to Alabama,’ and he really didn’t have much of a say in it. He was going to do. In his culture, you kind of listen to your father and you respect him and everything that he says. He went to Alabama, and then I think Nick Saban almost became that father figure for him, so he’s always trying to please his dad or Nick Saban.

“Well, Mike McDaniel comes in and teaches him how to think and believe, even become his own independent self, so I think he’s much bigger than grown as a football player, I think he’s grown as a person. And I think you now have a very different individual. And I think that stuff with Ryan Clark questioning him, like, Tua would have never come back at him when he was in that different, younger Tua. Now he kind of gets bristled.

“The reason I tell you all of that is when you’re watching him, you’re not just watching a guy that’s executing Mike McDaniel’s offense. You’re watching a guy that has really become the alpha of this Dolphin team.”

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Hurts’ Sunday performance also impressed Herbstreit, whose duties at ESPN include appearing with McAfee on “College GameDay.”

“When you’re talking about the two or three or four teams, you can’t not put Philly in there,” Herbstreit said. “And I thought (Sunday) was another great example. They didn’t necessarily play their best ball, but is there something about Jalen Hurts? There’s just something about his personality, his wiring. The game’s on the line, he looks like he’s just a flatliner. Now he’s intense and he plays great and he does some incredible things, but I love how he keeps his energy always the same. Whether he throws a pick or he’s going into overtime to try to win the game, he’s got that same way.

“And I think his team feeds off of that energy. So if they stay healthy, especially up front, they got to be one of the two or three top teams to beat in the entire NFL.”

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Hurts and Tagovailoa return to action on Sunday, with Philadelphia playing in Week 13′s marquee game.

The Eagles square off against the San Francisco 49ers at 3:25 p.m. CST at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. At 8-3, the 49ers are tied with the Detroit Lions for the second-best record in the AFC.

The Dolphins play the Washington Commanders at noon Sunday at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.

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