Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts returned Tuesday night against the Washington Football Team(6-8) after missing one game due to an ankle sprain.
In his return, Hurts was solid. He completed 20-of-26 attempts for 296 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, and a 110.4 passer rating while adding 38 yards and two touchdowns on eight rushing attempts.
Hurts now owns the single-season franchise record for rushing touchdown by a QB (10).
The Eagles would generate 519 yards of total offense as they would defeat Washington 27-17 at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles rushed for 238 yards Tuesday and became the first NFL team to record 175-plus rushing yards in seven consecutive games (franchise record) since the 1985 Chicago Bears (also seven).
With the win, the Eagles(7-7) are tied with the Vikings(7-7) for the third and final wild-card spot in the NFC.
The last time we saw Hurts, he completed 14-of-31 passes for 134 yards and three interceptions against the Giants, which was the worst game of his career, but he said that game is way behind him.
“I flushed that a long time ago,” Hurts said postgame. “I forgot about it. I get to play them this week.”
Hurts is happy to be back on the field and happy to get to .500, but according to him, the job is not done for Philadelphia.
“I think it was very fun being back on the field,” Hurts said postgame. “Being back on the field and getting the win in which we needed. First division win for this football team this year. It can’t come at a better time. We’re back at .500 for the first time ever this year. It’s a big deal, but I know the job isn’t done. The job isn’t done, nowhere near from done. We know what we want to accomplish. I said it to the guys; you just have to have the mentality of not being denied. I’ve said all year that the youth of this football team, the youth we’ve had, and the different things we’ve overcome. Had the experience of the different nuances of having new everything. Right now in December, we can’t be denied of what we want.”
It wasn’t all good for Hurts. After he lost a fumble in the first quarter, which Washington recovered. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was unhappy and let Hurts know about it. As a son of a coach, Hurts had no issue with it.
“I’ve been telling him all year that I’m a coaches’ kid,” he said. “Basically, all the coaches’ kids out there know what that means. It means they’ve been coached. They’ve heard everything. In high school, I lived with the guy that was chewing me out. I made it clear to Coach all year, ‘You know, you can get on me a little bit.’ So after the fumble, he came up to me and said what he had to say. Then, later on in the game, he comes back and jokes with me and says, ‘I guess I’m just going to start coaching you like your dad coached you.’ So it was a funny moment. Whatever he said worked.”
Hurts handled his business against Washington, and now he has the Eagles in a position to make the playoffs. Credit to him for bouncing back and a credit to the team for getting the job done.
