Jalen Hurts is facing the biggest test of his career.
When the Philadelphia Eagles attempt to dethrone the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday during the NFL’s Super Wild-Card Weekend, they’ll be encountered with a team that already beat them this season.
Jalen Hurts’ Big Stage
When the Eagles face the Bucs on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, they will have the ghosts of their 28-22 early season loss on Oct. 14 at home in Philadelphia to add fuel to the fire.
However, the loss, which plunged the Eagles to 2-4 this season, didn’t stop them from making the playoffs. Quarterback Jalen Hurts’ first full season as an NFL starter that was the difference-maker.
“He’s definitely gotten better throughout that time, which doesn’t surprise me at all because Jalen’s a student of the game,” Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni said at a press conference about Hurts’ performance three months ago.
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The Eagle Has Landed
“Jalen wants to get better, craves to get better. He’s got high football character, and, like I’ve said plenty of times, guys that are tough, guys that have high football character, and guys who love football are going to reach their ceiling, so I think you’re just seeing him grow closer and closer to his ceiling. Yeah, he’s definitely better, and he’s just going to continue to get better because of who he is as a person and as a player.”
During that Tampa Bay loss, Hurts completed 12 of 26 passes for 115 yards with one touchdown and one interception and ran for 44 yards and two touchdowns.
“I think as an offense we’ve just kind of revolutionized and evolved in terms of who we are, our identity,” Hurts said. “I’ve said it all year. I’ve said it’s coming. I’ve said different things to kind of ignite the growth in where we are now.”
New Beginnings
In the 11 games since losing to Tampa Bay in October, Philly has averaged 184.8 rushing yards. In addition, the Eagles ended the 2021 regular season with 2,715 rushing yards and 25 rushing touchdowns.
“Early on, we were kind of searching for who we were, what we wanted to do, how we wanted to do it, and now we kind of fine-tuned some things and we’ve gotten good at doing a lot of different things, so like I said earlier, I think it just comes down to us executing our job, us knowing our job and doing our job, play with the right fundamentals and play the type of football we’ve been playing,” said Hurts.
All Eyes On Hurts
In NFL history, Hurts’ season was the 10th time a quarterback had at least 784 rushing yards in a season. It was also the 11th time a quarterback ran for at least ten touchdowns in a single season.
Hurts will be under the hot lights of an NFL postseason game on Sunday. He will be facing arguably the NFL quarterback GOAT in the biggest test of his young career.
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