The Eagles have been waiting a long time for this Jalen Hurts to show up.
Efficient Jalen. Aggressive Jalen. Accurate Jalen. Mistake-free Jalen. Yes, 2022 Jalen.
Hurts put together his finest performance in quite a while Sunday as the Eagles won their third straight game to improve to 5-2.
Hurts hit on 80 percent of his passes on 16-for-20 for 236 yards with a long touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith and once again no turnovers.
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This was the first game of his career where he completed 80 percent of his passes with at least one TD pass and no interceptions.
In three wins since the bye week, Hurts has completed 71 percent of his passes (42-for-59) for 614 yards with four TDs, no interceptions and a 127.4 passer rating. And five rushing touchdowns.
Before the bye week, Hurts only had five games in his career with a passer rating of 127 or higher. Now he’s averaged that over a three-game span.
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He joins Randall Cunningham in 1992 and Carson Wentz in 2018 as the third Eagles quarterback with a passer rating of at least 115 in three straight games.
Hurts' passer rating for the season is up to 98.6 – 9th-highest in the league – and his 69 percent completion percentage is 6th-highest.
He’s only the second QB in NFL history to rush for at least four touchdowns, pass for at least four touchdowns and complete 70 percent of his passes without an interception in a three-game span. Lamar Jackson did it last year.
After throwing at least one interception in seven straight games, he’s now gone four straight without an interception, the 2nd-longest in franchise history, behind Nick Foles’ seven-game streak in 2013.
Thanks to Saquon Barkley and what’s developed into a commanding running attack, Hurts hasn’t had to throw a lot – just 60 passes during the three-game winning streak.
But he’s only had 17 incomplete passes over these three games and no turnovers.
He's not forcing anything. He's playing within himself. He's letting the game come to him. And that's a winning formula.
“Jalen puts the work in,” Nick Sirianni said. “That’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough — how much he loves football, how much time he puts into this game and that’s what you want from one of your leaders on this team.
“(During the bye week), we were able to look at some of the things we were inefficient at, things that we’re good at. He just puts so much work into it. You’re the product of how you practice. … There is no secret to success. It’s your habits, it’s your work ethic.” Same things it took to win this game is the same thing it takes next game. It takes what it takes.”
Since the bye week, the Eagles are averaging 28 points per game. Hurts said he knew during the ups and downs early in the season that this sort of production was coming.
“I’ve seen it in training camp,” he said. “I’ve seen it with all of the work and all of the time that we put in. It’s just a matter of going out there and doing it.
“I’m excited and pleased with how we played as a team, how we played as an offense. And I think Kellen (Moore) did a really good job today. We’re just all in it together, sticking together, communicating and going out there trying to play efficient ball.”
During this three-week span, only Jared Goff and Lamar Jackson have a higher passer rating than Hurts. Only Goff and Sam Darnold have been more accurate. Only Goff has more yards per attempt. Only Jackson has more yards per completion.
When Hurts plays well, the Eagles win. They’re 16-1 the last 17 times he hasn’t turned the ball over.
“I don’t think we’re there yet,” Hurts said after the Eagles’ third straight win. “I think we’re slowly finding it and trying to piece things together.
“Ultimately, it comes down to cadence, rhythm and how we play. And then, in the end, optimizing all the talent that we have.”
The Eagles have run more Hurts under center than we’ve ever seen, and Hurts said he likes the change, which makes sense considering how big the running attack has been.
“I think it does a lot,” he said. “I think we’re able to be the imposers. I think that says a lot about what you are offensively. There are multiple ways to impose. You can do that from a gun. You can do that in the pass game. You can do that in the run game, in the action game — whatever it is — as long as you’re in full control.
“So I think that’s more so mentality that we’re trying to develop and push. It’s about what we do, not about what anyone else does. It’s easy to do that when you go out there and everybody’s on the same page and having a like-minded vision.”
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