After Philadelphia defeated Carolina 22-16 on Sunday for its ninth consecutive victory, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts complimented his Panthers counterpart, Bryce Young, one former Alabama signal-caller to another.

“I just love how he’s been able to persevere through some of the things he’s been faced with,” Hurts said, “and like seeing him comfortable out there and playing the way he’s playing, so that’s encouraging for him. I’ll always support him and wish him nothing but the best. …

“He’s a great player. It rolled our way.”

What rolled Philadelphia’s way was the football that briefly slipped through Carolina wide receiver Xavier Legette’s hands with 44 seconds to play.

Young and the Panthers had started their final possession at Carolina’s 3-yard line with 2:58 remaining. On third-and-11, Young shook off Philadelphia pass-rushers in the end zone for a 31-yard completion to Legette while scrambling to his left.

The drive stayed alive on a 13-yard completion to wide receiver Adam Thielen on fourth-and-7. Two snaps later, Young threw long to Legette, who made a lunging grab behind the Eagles secondary at the 1 and rolled into the end zone. The nearest official made no signal, but the side judge ran in to rule the pass incomplete: The ball had touched the turf as Legette tried to put it away.

“He’d be the first one to tell you he’s got to make that play,” Carolina coach Dave Canales said. “Bryce steps up, makes a beautiful throw in that situation. Had the coverage we wanted and all that. And so those are the plays we just got to find a way to make for us to get back on the winning column.”

On fourth-and-4, a delay-of-game penalty made the task tougher, and cornerback Darius Slay knocked away Young’s final pass to secure the victory for Philadelphia with 29 seconds remaining.

The Panthers went 3-of-5 on fourth down.

On Carolina’s first fourth-down attempt, Young connected with tight end Tommy Tremble on a 3-yard touchdown pass as the Panthers took a 10-7 lead with four minutes left in the first half.

On Carolina’s second fourth-down snap, Young’s pass was tipped, but still made it to Thielen at the Philadelphia 5 – a 6-yard gain when the Panthers needed 2. Running back Chuba Hubbard’s 1-yard touchdown plunge put Carolina ahead 16-14 with 2:49 left in the third quarter.

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Between the first two fourth-down conversions, Young had the game’s only turnover. An interception by safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson put Philadelphia on the Carolina 44-yard line with 1:50 left in the first half.

Hurts capitalized with five consecutive completions and a 15-yard run. The final pass went to wide receiver DeVonta Smith for a 4-yard touchdown as the Eagles took a 14-10 lead with 14 seconds left in the first half.

On Philadelphia’s first touchdown drive, the Hurts-to-Smith connection was good for 27 yards to the Carolina 8-yard line on a third-and-8 snap, and Hurts completed that series with a 1-yard touchdown sneak with 11:48 left in the second quarter.

Young completed 19-of-34 passes for 191 yards with one touchdown and one interception and ran seven times for 29 yards.

Canales called it “another day of being decisive” for Young, who made his sixth straight start after being benched for five games earlier in the season.

“There were some great effort plays by Bryce today,” Canales said. “Just getting out of rushers or different things that were happening in the pocket, keeping his eyes down the field and finding throws.”

Hurts completed 14-of-21 passes for 108 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions and ran eight times for 59 yards and one touchdown.

Hurts posted his smallest passing-yardage total for any game in which he went all the way under center for Philadelphia in his NFL career. But the Eagles had 209 rushing yards, including 124 by running back Saquon Barkley as he broke the franchise’s single-season rushing record, and converted 7-of-12 third-down snaps.

“I think they did a good job,” Hurts said of the Eagles’ passing output on Sunday. “I think we did a bad job. That starts with me, how I execute.”

After falling behind 16-14 in the third quarter, Philadelphia responded with a touchdown drive. Hurts ended the series with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Grant Calcaterra with 13:45 left to play. Hurts set up the touchdown with a 35-yard third-and-10 scramble to the Panthers 9-yard line.

“He’s just a good all-around player,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “And so he has this ability if things aren’t – like we talked about, we didn’t play to our standard in the pass game, but he was able to make plays in different ways. That’s a huge asset that he has as a quarterback. Man, that was a huge third down and I think 8 that he ran and got us a huge gain. What a big-time play that was to help set up a scoring drive right there.

“I said what I said last week about he deserves to be in the MVP conversation, and I stand by that.”

While the Eagles improved to 11-2 and are 10 weeks removed from their latest loss, the Panthers fell to 3-10. After posting back-to-back victories against the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants to start November, Carolina has dropped three straight to division leaders, falling to the Kansas City Chiefs 30-27 on Nov. 24 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 26-23 in overtime on Dec. 1 before coming to Philadelphia.

“There’s no participation trophies, no consolation,” Young said. “But it does breed confidence. Coach says it all the time: It’s about us. And when we’re executing, we’re at our best, we’re able to just focus on that. It’s not a consolation for today, but it gives us some stuff on film to build off of. …

“It’s good for growth, but it’s on us to make sure we actually grow and take those steps.”

The Eagles play the Pittsburgh Steelers at 3:25 p.m. CST Dec. 15 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia in their next game.

The Panthers take on the Dallas Cowboys at noon Dec. 15 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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