After his best performance of the season, Jalen Hurts’ phone started to ring during his postgame press conference.
“When you win, everybody wants to call you,” the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback said.
Hurts hasn’t been able to say that the last two weeks, but it changed Sunday in a 28-22 win over former Birds franchise quarterback Carson Wentz and the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Hurts had his best passing performance of the season, completing 19 of his 23 passes for 326 yards and three touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating. He’s the third quarterback in Eagles history to record a perfect passer rating after Donovan McNabb did it in 2007 and Nick Foles pulled it off in his historic seven-touchdown game vs. the Raiders in 2013.
As Hurts walked off the field and into the locker room following the win, he said, “We’re not [expletive] losers anymore,” adding that the back-to-back losses to the Denver Broncos and New York Giants have been all he’s been thinking about the last two weeks.
“I really think this is the first time we’ve finished the fourth quarter and finished in the second half, so those come up and they’re important in this game,” Hurts said. “I think definitely there was some fire there. But within that fire, you have to be the calm, and focus on executing the job, and that’s all I was reiterating to the guys out there.”
One of the main talking points for the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense so far has been the passing game, with first-year coordinator Kevin Patullo being a lightning rod for criticism.
But there likely won’t be any cryptic social media posts from A.J. Brown after Week 7.
Brown and fellow wide receiver DeVonta Smith each had massive games against Brian Flores’ defense, which is one of the better units in the NFL.
Brown hauled in two touchdowns for four catches and 121 yards, while Smith had nine catches for a career-high 183 yards and a touchdown.
Brown’s first touchdown came on fourth-and-four in the first quarter on a play where he and Hurts connected on a 37-yard pass. His touchdown in the fourth quarter and catch on third-and-9 with less than two minutes left sealed the win for the Birds.
But Hurts’ biggest throw to Brown might’ve came on third-and-13 before his fourth quarter touchdown. With nine minutes and nine seconds left in the game, Hurts scrambled to his right out of the pocket and found Brown for a first down near the sideline. Four plays later, the two hooked up again for a 26-yard touchdown.
“[Hurts] is always clutch in those moments,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “It’s why I have the confidence to go for it on the first drive in a fourth-and-four because you know the guys will make plays.”
Over the last couple of weeks, Hurts and his wideouts missed on some big plays, including a deep ball to Smith in Week 6 vs. the Giants that would’ve likely been a touchdown.
But Hurts and his wideouts were on the same page in Minnesota, and they were able to do it by mixing in some under-center play action.
Midway through the third quarter, Hurts faked the hand-off to running back Saquon Barkley from under-center and then threw a 79-yard touchdown pass to Smith that gave the Eagles a 21-9 lead.
The Eagles entered the game with just 14 passing attempts on play action, which ranked last in the league. With Philadelphia’s running game struggling, maybe the play-action pass game could help them open rushing lanes for Barkley in the future.
“We made the plays that we needed to make to win the game, and that’s all that matters,” Hurts said.
