In his first start of the season for the injured Jalen Hurts, Eagles quarterback Gardner Minshew completed 24-of-40 passing attempts for 355 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, and added a one-yard rushing TD.
In addition, he became the first Eagles QB since 1991 to record a fourth-down passing TD and fourth-down rushing TD in the same game.
Unfortunately, the Eagles would fall to the Cowboys 40-34 on Saturday.
As a whole, Minshew was solid and gave his team an opportunity to win late.
On Tuesday, Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen gave his thoughts on Minshew’s performance.
“I thought [QB] Gardner [Minshew] was really efficient throwing the football,” Steichen said. “He got the ball out of his hands quickly, really efficient on 3rd down, made some really good plays. That 4th-and-2 hit to [WR] DeVonta [Smith], he was coming out, and we had [TE] Dallas [Goedert] in the flat, and [Cowboys CB Trevon] Diggs passed it off and tried to take Dallas, and he snapped around, flipped his hips and hit the big one.
“Then the 3rd down to DeVonta in the red zone versus blitz zero was really good, too. He had off coverage right there and liked what he saw, and DeVonta ran a great route, and he laid it just out in front for him to catch it. Overall, really strong performance by him, I thought.”
Minshew did throw two picks, both involving wide receiver Quez Watkins. Steichen discussed both interceptions.
“The one on the slant, that was a really good play by the DB,” Steichen said. “It was a bang-bang play—credit to them in that situation.
“The other one was just like a little pivot over the ball. It was just off by a little bit. Sometimes those things happen, and we know that we have to get those things cleaned up. When you turn it over four times and put our defense in bad situations like we did with short fields, we know that we can’t do that. That’s one of our formulas is taking care of the football, and we didn’t do a good enough job doing that.”
If Hurts can’t go on Sunday against the Saints, Minshew would get another shot, and if Hurts is not completely healthy, it’s probably best that he continues to play.
The Eagles have to win one of their final two games, and they can’t beat the Saints this week and the Giants next week, both at Lincoln Financial Field; they don’t deserve to be the number one seed and may not be Super Bowl contenders after all.
