PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia Eagles not an Eagle when Jalen hurts did not play at the end of the season. Even when he comes back and plays injured, they still don’t look like themselves.
But on Saturday night, Jalen Hurts actually returned in time for the divisional knockout. And for the Eagles, he made all the difference in the world.
“Having him out there is like – I shouldn’t even go there – but it’s like having Michael Jordan out there,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said after the Philadelphia beat New York Giants 38-7. “He’s your leader. He’s your man. He leads, he brings composure to the team, he plays great football, he’s as confident as they come.
“For me, there is no one who plays better football than him.”
That’s the utmost “praise” for Hurts, as even Sirianni admits, and maybe even a little too much. But for the Eagles (14-4) – who will now face dalas cowboy or San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game back here in Philly next Sunday – it doesn’t sound like an exaggeration. That shows the importance of the 24-year-old midfielder to this team.
And it goes beyond his numbers, which aren’t exactly Jordan-style in the second knockout of his career. Hurts completed 16 of 24 154-yard passes and two touchdowns, and ran nine 34 yards and one touchdown – certainly a good result. But it’s more about how he helps open things up to an offense that simply can’t be stopped.
When Hurts returned, the Eagles had run 268 yards. And they completely overwhelmed the Giants’ defense in the first half, taking a 28-0 lead. They overtook the Giant then 258 yards to 64. They had 18 kills on the first Giant. Unfortunately, they had more touches (four) than the Giants had their first encounter. They overcame the Giants with a score of 140-20. They hold the ball in 20:12 before 9:48 of the Giants.
In the NFL, knockdowns aren’t much more thorough than that.
And no, that’s not all Hurts. The Eagles’ defense surpassed the Giants’ midfield Daniel Jones (15 of 27, 135 yards and one interception). They don’t make room for Saquon Barkley, who had just seven of his 61 yards in the first half. And Eagle’s attack line has completely handled a Giant’s defensive front that includes professional defensive saves Dexter Lawrence and Leonard William.
But Hurts was what knocked the Giants down. The last time they faced him, in the finals of the regular season, he was still recovering from a sprain in his right shoulder — an injury that is still so severe that the Eagles only called him out for one run in the whole match. But in this game, Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen made it clear from the start that “nothing is off limits”.
Hurts were completely launched, from the start, and that sent Wink Martindale’s lightning-happy Giants defense immediately backing down.
“We wanted to run the best for ourselves, knowing that Jalen had no limits,” said Sirianni. “We didn’t think like, ‘Hey, we’re going to show you.’ He was ready to leave and we did what was best for us.”
They made that very clear in the opening of the game – a quick, eight-time, 75-yard march to claim a touchdown. On the second turn, Hurts cleared all doubts about the strength of his shoulder, hitting DeVonta Smith lower court to achieve 40 yards. He showed that he could also hit a hit, in two designed runs late in the driveway, just before his 16-yard touchdown pass reached the end of the game. Dallas Goedert.
That shows the Giants that while Hurts’ role isn’t 100% yet, it’s “good enough” – as Hurts described it – for him to do it all.
“To me, he’s like old Jalen,” running back said Miles Sanders. “I won’t lie.”
“He set the tone,” Goedert added. “And we all followed suit.”
Yes, they did, especially on the ground. Sanders ran 17 times in the 90 yards. Kenneth Gainwell chipped in 112 yards and a touchdown in 12 executions. Boston Scott added 32 yards in six runs, with his usual touchdown ahead of the Giants. There were holes everywhere, created by the Eagle’s powerful offensive line, as the Giants constantly had to guess whether Hurts would take action or run it himself.
That, Sanders said, “tired their defense throughout the game.” That certainly showed in Q4, when the Giants are typically at their best this season. The Eagles won the ball back at 13:12, after Giants coach Brian Daboll made the odd decision to play 4th and 5th-place tit-for-tat against the 42nd Giants as his team took on the ball. trailed 28-7, and they clearly passed. The giant defense was exhausted. They finished the game with a 15-time, 70-yard, 8-minute run on the field, on which they ran 11 times with four different players carrying the ball. Wounds even appeared in a few passes.
With Hurts running the show, directing the attack, the Eagles basically did whatever they wanted with the Giants, in whatever way they wanted to do.
“I think the most important thing is that we were able to be efficient in every way possible,” Hurts said. “That’s all you can ask as an offense. It’s a good thing. It’s a special thing when you can do all of that. It’s like ‘Choose your poison’. friend’.”
However, pain is the straw that stirs up that poison. He’s what makes the Eagles so dangerous, even if he doesn’t cause damage on his own.
Sirianni said: “Jalen will always be of great help to the running game because of what he can do and the threat he poses at the back. “He didn’t bring it. But he’s still going to affect the game. And that’s what he did. He influenced the game. And he ran the show there. He’s like. like the point guard out there.”
“He was the captain of the ship,” Sanders added. “He makes things a lot easier, yes he does.”
Ralph Vacchiano is an NFC East correspondent for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants. He had spent the previous six years covering the Giants and the Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him on Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.
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