PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts made the biggest mistake of any player at Super Bowl LVII when he fumbled in the second quarter and saw it returned for a touchdown. The play will haunt him for the rest of his career.
Incredibly, it was the only bad mistake he made all game. Think about that.
A second-round pick starting the 38th game of his career in his third season makes, what, three mistakes in the biggest game of his life? Four? Amazing.
Hurts is eligible for a contract extension this offseason. He’s the second-best quarterback on the planet. Pay him like he’s the second-best quarterback on the planet.
Five years, $250 million, all guaranteed. That would be $20 million more than Deshaun Watson’s fully-guaranteed deal. It would be more total money than every quarterback except Patrick Mahomes, the NFL’s best, who’s under contract for $450 million over 10 years but just $141 million is guaranteed, and Josh Allen, at $258 million over six years, but just $150 million guaranteed. Hurts is better than Allen, but Hurts is injury-prone. So, less total money but all of it guaranteed over a shorter term is a fair trade.
Hurts will be worth it. He proved that Feb. 12 in Glendale, Ariz. He completed 27 of 38 passes with no interceptions, and just one intercept-able. He was sacked twice, but not really, since it cost 2 yards total. He ran 15 times for 70 yards, three touchdowns, and a 2-point conversion. It was masterful, from cleats to brains.
I never saw this coming. I wasn’t alone.
Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, speaking three days before the game, was asked the biggest difference in Hurts from 2021 to 2022. He replied with the highest possible praise, comparing Hurts to the greatest passer in history.
“I see a more confident, intelligent quarterback,” Spagnuolo told me. “I was just talking about Aaron Rodgers a minute ago. Jalen Hurts doesn’t get enough credit for what he does pre-snap. And how he challenges defenses — he says, ‘Show me what you’re in coverage-wise’ — because he gets a double cadence, and doesn’t snap it real quick.”
Hurts then dropped 35 points on Spags. That’s the most points the Chiefs have allowed, excluding overtime, in 35 games, including playoffs. It was almost two touchdowns more than the Chiefs’ No. 11 defense allowed in 2022.
Hurts was Bryce Harper in the playoffs. When the lights were brightest, Hurts was his best. His 103.4 passer rating was his third-best in games in which he has thrown at least 38 times, and one of those games — against the Chiefs in 2021 — was a stat-padded blowout loss.
Take away the fumble and you’ve got near-perfection.
We checked.
How it happened
On his first pass, Hurts recognized a Chiefs blitz, threw a dart past the blitzer and found DeVonta Smith for a 6-yard gain. On the next play he saw Smith underneath, covered by a linebacker, and waited for Smith to come open for 12.
His next pass, to A.J. Brown one-on-one, was thrown out of bounds, and he chose Brown over Dallas Goedert down the seam. His receivers covered on the next play, Hurts realized there was no spy hawking him so he scrambled for 11 yards. Then, a 13-yard laser to Goedert in the soft spot of the Chiefs’ zone defense. He improvised on a botched play designed to hit a tight end in the flat, diagnosed by three Chiefs defenders, and dumped a pass over those defenders to Smith, who ran for a 23-yard gain.
It’s the little things that add up. On the first play of the second series Hurts hit Kenneth Gainwell in the backfield flat — right at the numbers, leading him toward the sideline and toward the line of scrimmage. The play was called back, but Hurts executed the throw to perfection, from his feet to his shoulders to his follow-through. Same thing on a second-down play to Smith later in the same drive. Then, given the chance to force a pass to Smith, he threw it away. This is progress; he did the simple stuff well and he did no harm.
Nick Bolton began spying Hurts on the next series and stuffed him on an early running play, but then Hurts saw a blitz and beat it with a quick, 7-yard pass to Brown.
The Chiefs showed blitz, left eight men in the box, and triple-covered Smith at one point. Hurts recognized the blitz wasn’t coming, took his drop, stepped into his throw and delivered a mortar shot that traveled 56 yards in the air to a point in the front left corner of the end zone, where only A.J. Brown was likely to get to. A.J. Brown got it. TD. It was Warren Moon-beautiful.
Disaster strikes
The next series Hurts saw a blitz but beat it with a dump pass to Goedert, who had blockers. But Goedert stumbled on the slick, new grass, could not get behind his blockers, and gained just 3 yards. But again: Perfect recognition and perfect execution by Hurts. Next play, another blitz, this one delayed, but effective: Hurts avoided the rush, rolled left, threw across his body and hit Zach Pascal for 9 on third-and-8.
Then, disaster. It was a straight quarterback draw out of a shotgun formation. Bolton was Hurts’ spy. Hurts did not recognize it. Bolton shot the gap and surprised Hurts. Hurts tried to transfer the ball from his left hand to his right. He dropped it. Bolton picked it up and ran it 36 yards for a tying touchdown.
Would Hurts be affected? After all, he got benched by Alabama coach Nick Saban at halftime of the 2018 national championship game. The difference here: He’d been brilliant before the fumble, and he would be brilliant again.
The rebound
The Eagles called a quarterback counter — another run — on the very next play. It beat a blitz from the left side for 14 yards. Hurts then forced a deep pass to Brown, except he never accounted for safety Juan Thornhill, who very nearly intercepted it. Mistake? Maybe. But Hurts trusted Brown to make sure there would be no interception.
Next, a pedestrian dump to Boston Scott, garnished by Scott’s funky moves that juked three defenders and netted 10 yards, was much more than that. Hurts immediately realized that his downfield options were gone and found Scott with no one within 10 yards of him. He hit Gainwell for 4 yards, a feathery touch over his right shoulder in stride. These were incredibly important; Hurts had struggled all season not forcing deeper passes and checking down to his running backs as outlets. It indicates the sort of maturity that lengthens both drives and careers.
The next set of downs came to fourth-and-5, and they called the draw again. This time, Hurts recognized that Bolton was spying, set him up by running left then cutting back right for a 28-yard gain. This time, he didn’t switch hands.
His hard count helped convert fourth-and-2 near the goal line, and he trotted in on the next play.
Brilliant.
Later: A sidearm sling for 9 to Gainwell. A 35-yard teardrop to Smith that Smith didn’t quite snare cleanly, then had hit the ground and moved, and so was disallowed. Hurts’ last pass of the half made little sense — a check-down, unpressured, to Gainwell, with little time on the clock and no chance for Gainwell to score, almost surrendering to the field goal.
Still good
Hurts resumed his dissection in the second half, with a 17-yard pass to Goedert to the left sideline in a 6-inch window. Then, to Quez Watkins, uncovered at the line; 8 free yards. Later, Hurts saw and beat a blitz, but Watkins dropped a perfect, 36-yard pass.
A slow substitution threw off Hurts’ timing and cost them a delay of game penalty, but his next throw — to Goedert, into double coverage, to the right sideline, in a spot only Goedert could make a play, for 17 yards on third-and-14. A few plays later he misfired to Goedert, but not really; Goedert again slipped and stumbled making his cut. Hurts didn’t get a subsequent play off and cost the Eagles a timeout. Error.
The right side of the line then blew a blocking assignment but Hurts eluded an onrushing end to find Goedert. He made an imperfect decision on a run-pass option — Scott had blocking but Hurts threw short instead — and that helped quash that series after Hurts, on the next play, failed to recognize a blitz coming from his right. Oh well.
The next time he got the ball he trailed by 8. Not for long.
He beat a five-man blitz from the left and hit Brown for 7 yards, then beat a seven-man blitz to convert third-and-4 with an 11-yard slant to Brown. It was like watching Peyton Manning, or Steve Young, or, yes, Rodgers.
That slant helped sell the inside route on the next play, but Hurts chose Smith on the outside for 45 yards. That set up one final touchdown sneak from Hurts, and his heroic 2-point run that tied it at 35, but that was that. The Chiefs drove, milked the clock, went ahead with a field goal, and left Hurts with a toothless Hail Mary.
To review: Hurts didn’t recognize a spy and dropped the football; slow-played into two delay-of-game situations; threw one pass into a double-team; and didn’t recognize one blitz.
In the Super Bowl.
In his 38th career start.
Pay him.
