Limping into Week 16 having gone 0 for December, Jalen Hurts and his Philadelphia Eagles delivered a microcosm of a mercurial season on Monday.
The Eagles soared at the start, sputtered at times thereafter and were able to ultimately triumph, ending a three-game losing streak with their 33-25 win over the New York Giants. Along the way, Hurts collected some history, rushing for his 15th touchdown to establish a new single-season record for running scores by a QB.
“I thought Jalen did a lot of good things,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said after the game. “I thought Jalen played a really good game. Obviously, I’ll have to go watch it. The interception’s not on him, but I’ll have to go watch the other things with that and we’ll get better from it. But I thought he did a lot of good things there, even with the pressure, but there’s definitely things we need to clean up and that’s as coaches and Jalen as well.”
There were cheers — some sarcastic — and boos by the Philly faithful, but there was a Christmas win to celebrate.
“Yeah, shoot, feels good right?” Sirianni said of ending the losing streak. “Obviously we’ve got some things to clean up, but good energy to get back on the right side of things, always better feeling correcting the tape after a win than after a loss, that’s for sure. So, we needed to get out of the funk that we were in, and sometimes that’s just by getting a win and I thought there was a lot of good things out there today, obviously I’ll have to watch it and have some more answers for you guys about that, but a lot of good things.
Hurts finished Monday’s victory with 301 yards on 24-of-38 passing with a touchdown and an interception. The TD toss snapped a skid of two games without one. He added 34 rushing on eight carries, with a 1-yard tush push TD to begin the game’s scoring and break loose of a tie with Cam Newton in 2011 for the most rushing TDs by a QB in a season.
It got the Eagles out to a stellar start, one that saw them enter halftime leading, 20-3.
Little has come easy this season for the Eagles, though, and that included the end of their losing skid.
The Giants recovered a fumble on the second half kickoff and were off, scoring 15 straight points to turn an Eagles blowout into a nail-biting Philadelphia win.
Hurts’ interception — which resulted in a 76-yard touchdown return by Adoree’ Jackson — came when tight end Dallas Goedert fell while running his route. It also set up perhaps Hurts’ most clutch play and drive. Nursing a precarious 20-18 lead after the pick-six, Hurts and Co. were facing third-and-20 from their 26-yard-line. Hurts answered the predicament with a beautiful throw that turned into a brilliant catch by A.J. Brown for 32 yards and a first down. Four plays later, D’Andre Swift scored and a sigh of relief was had — even though the game went down to the wire.
“Held up enough, maneuvered through the pocket and was able to go it over to the defender,” Hurts said of the play. “A.J. made a great play, staying alive. Not letting the situation get the best of us and finding a way to overcome that circumstance we kinda put ourselves in.”
Two games remain in the regular season for Hurts and the Eagles: one against the Arizona Cardinals and another versus the Giants, who have now been eliminated in back-to-back seasons by Hurts after they fell out of playoff contention Monday.
It wasn’t anything artful, but the result was needed and it’s most certainly a step forward on a bumpy road.
“I think there’s a ton of opportunity to build on this,” Hurts said.