Crossing Broad
The sky is officially falling in Philadelphia after a lifeless loss against the Chicago Bears, following up last week’s blown 21-0 lead against the Dallas Cowboys. There is plenty of blame to go around, and no individual on the roster or coaching staff is fully absolved, but, as is the case with quarterbacks, Jalen Hurts has to be front and center of the conversation.
Hurts finished the matchup completing 19 of his 35 pass attempts for 230 passing yards, two touchdowns, an interception, and a fumble while adding 31 rushing yards. He finished with a 19.5 QBR and an 84.2% passer rating. While these numbers do not paint his game in the most positive light anyway, the performance was worse than they showed and included garbage time yards and points against a soft Chicago defense. Likewise, Hurts was limited to just 57 passing yards at halftime, with the Eagles’ offense stalling for three points.
Kevin Patullo has caught quite a bit of heat, and deservingly so. It doesn’t take an advanced football eye to note the bland play call and predictable approach. You flip on RedZone for any extended stretch of Sunday football, and you are bound to see wide receivers running wide open due to deception or strategic play calling setting up bigger plays later in games. This has not been the case in Philadelphia at any point this season. It’s felt like a grind to generate points all season, which simply should not be the case on a roster with Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and more.
Having big picture questions about the offense 12 games into the season is a concern in itself. Hurts once again leaned on the buzzword of “identity” for what needs to be fixed within the team after the previous loss. It’s admirable that both Hurts and Nick Sirianni share the trait of taking on more responsibility and blame than they likely deserve, but it also clouds the judgment of where exactly things are going wrong.
Any way you slice it, there are some throws that simply have to be made that Hurts did not execute on Friday. There have been some low points already this year, but a late-game surge of essentially garbage-time statistics clouded what was one of the worst games of Hurts’ NFL career:
Hurts said after the game that he and DeVonta Smith weren’t on the same page on a play when Chicago sent the house.
More concerning than this, the biggest identity of Hurts as a quarterback has become his surgical care of the football. When you don’t turn the ball over, you aren’t going to lose a lot of games, and Hurts has exemplified this better than any other quarterback. You still cannot complain much about the two interceptions in 12 games, but he turned the ball over twice against the Bears and has three fumbles in the past four weeks.
Another key part of Hurts’ identity has been his ability and willingness with his legs....
