Eagles OC thrilled to see Jalen Hurts’ clutch moment originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
A week ago against the Commanders, it felt like we were all robbed of a chance to watch Jalen Hurts drive the Eagles down the field to win a game. The Quez Watkins fumble and Brandon Graham penalty took that possibility away.
We finally got to see Hurts in a clutch situation on Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis.
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The Eagles quarterback didn’t disappoint.
“Yeah, it was awesome,” Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen said on Tuesday.
“I think anytime you can put the ball in the hands of one of your best players to go win it and see what he did there, it was awesome. Like I said, he made some big-time plays. Obviously, it takes all of us to go execute, but the way he operated in that drive, that's what you want to see from a quarterback.”
The Eagles on their final touchdown drive went 75 yards on 11 plays in 3:17 to take a 17-16 lead, which was enough to improve to 9-1 on the season after another defensive stand to close it out.
This was Hurts’ first fourth-quarter comeback of the 2022 season and just the third in his NFL career. It’s the fourth game-winning drive of his career.
But this drive was clearly more situationally impressive than those others. He had a fourth-quarter comeback against the Panthers and Commanders last season. But in the Panthers game, the drive started at the Carolina 27-yard line after a block punt. And in the Commanders game from last year, the game-winning drive came early in the fourth quarter.
On Sunday in Indianapolis, following a big defensive stand to force a field goal, the Eagles got the ball back down six points with 4:37 on their own 25. No panic from Hurts at all, not even on his seven-yard scamper into the end zone to cap it.
“When we needed to make a play,” Steichen said, “we put the ball in the hands of our leader Jalen Hurts, and he got it done for us.”
The drive started at the Eagles’ 25-yard line with three straight passes. One incompletion, one gain of 8 and one deep ball on a wheel route to Miles Sanders that resulted in a 39-yard defensive pass interference penalty.
After that, the Eagles had nine consecutive runs to get into the end zone. Some wondered if those runs are an example of the Eagles’ not trusting Hurts to throw the ball in a clutch situation, but Steichen offered an alternative and reasonable explanation.
“Yeah, I think we had some momentum there, so we got the big penalty, felt really good,” Steichen said. “When we got that, I felt really good that we were going to go down and score there, and I think that happened with a little bit over three minutes there. I was like shoot, if we can control this clock here and leave them as little time as possible with the ball back, that was the thought process going in.”
The Eagles were in a tricky situation because they obviously needed a touchdown but wanted to kill clock. In that drive they were able to burn the 2-minute warning and force the Colts to use two of their timeouts. So when the Colts got the ball back, they had just 1:20 remaining and one timeout.
While Hurts didn’t throw it on the final nine plays, he did run it on three of the last four. With the game on the line, the Eagles really wanted their quarterback to make the plays.
Who cares if they weren’t with his arm?
Hurts, 24, has been outstanding for most of the season and has clearly entered the MVP conversation this season. He might not win the award but his inclusion in the discussion alone shows just how far he’s come.
And Steichen truly believes Hurst deserves to be in the mix for the award. Performances in the clutch like the one we saw Sunday night make the case even stronger.
“Yeah, the way he's playing right now, absolutely,” Steichen said. “Obviously even with that game, right, not all games are going to be perfect, but when we needed to come up with big plays, he did it for us, and that's what great players do.
“He's continuing to grow and getting better every single day, but we've got to keep grinding away. It's week by week, and we've got to continue to grow.”
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