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Like most non-first-round picks, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has had some trouble shaking the doubts he carried going into the 2020 NFL draft. But he seems to know the best way to make it happen. And that’s, really, just by putting out the kind of tape he has the past couple of weeks.
Here are Hurts’s first-half stats from the Eagles games against the Vikings and Commanders from the past seven days.
• Week 2 vs. Minnesota: 17-of-20, 251 yards, TD, 0 INTs, 135.4 rating
• Week 3 at Washington: 18-of-27, 279 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs, 137.7 rating
Again, these are first-half numbers. And remember, Hurts is a guy who, while he was at Alabama, got pulled in favor of Tua Tagovailoa on passing downs because Crimson Tide coaches didn’t think he could throw, had to transfer to Oklahoma just to play and was being evaluated by some NFL teams as a tailback prospect.
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“It’s always been there,” Hurts told me from the Eagles’ bus Sunday afternoon.” Every time, I had my way of proving them wrong. Every time. That’s not why I do it. I proved myself right. That’s always what I want to do is achieve everything I set myself out to do. But it starts with the work you put in. I think all the criticism that I get, everything that comes my way in negative comments, I’m my biggest critic, so I can handle it.”
And the Commanders just so happen to be the latest team to see what’s come of it.
That the Eagles are really good isn’t a huge surprise to anyone—the roster is well rounded and deep and built, like all of Philly’s best teams, through the lines of the scrimmage. But that the quarterback position has evolved into a legitimate team strength isn’t something most people saw coming even a couple of months ago.
Yet, it’s hard to imagine anyone watching Sunday’s 24–8 deconstruction of the Commanders would come away with a different takeaway on where the Eagles stand at quarterback. Hurts threw for only 61 yards in the second half but was so electric in the first half that none of that mattered. And it’s proven out in how involved he was in every point the Eagles scored.
The team’s first points on a field goal were keyed by a 45-yard bomb from Hurts to DeVonta Smith. The team’s first touchdown came on a slickly executed 23-yard screen to Dallas Goedert, two plays after a Brandon Graham strip-sack. Another shot to Smith, this one for 33 yards, set up the next touchdown, a nine-yarder from Hurts to A.J. Brown to make it 17–0.
And the final touchdown of the half came with an interesting piece of clock management. A 44-yard play from Smith helped set the Eagles up from their own 12 to within striking distance of the end zone. Hurts cashed in by snapping the ball with a second left on the clock on fourth-and-goal from the 2 before hitting Smith on a back-shoulder throw to the back corner of the end zone to make it 24–0.
“We’re in those situations a lot throughout practice and we try to put ourselves in those situations so we’re ready for it in the game,” Hurts said. “If we don’t hit that big play, if DeVonta doesn’t go down and make a hell of a catch he made, we’re not there. I’m kind of frustrated with how that went in terms of the operation, but the worst-case scenario was I’m kind of leaning on our preparation in terms of being in those situations and having plays that we can call, plays that we know and plays that all 11 on the field can execute.
“So kudos to the offense and our operation and going out there and executing the play, with no timeouts in that situation.”
And that brings you back to where Hurts is as a quarterback, and how remarkable it is that he’s gotten here. We wrote in the Sept. 5 MMQB that he’s improved in areas where young quarterbacks normally don’t—with his anticipation, pocket presence and accuracy.
When I asked him directly about that, he answered pretty matter-of-factly. “I have principles and values instilled in me that have changed, and they never will change,” he said. “I control what I can, I put the work in, I’ve always put the work in, and I stay diligent and I stay patient with everything. There ain’t really much more I can say about that.”
But there’s plenty the rest can say about it—it’s pretty wild.
And if Hurts keeps it up, the ceiling on an already really good Eagles team will rise significantly.
Sunday’s probably evidence that the old Bengals aren’t around anymore. Last year, through the early parts of the season, Joe Burrow would say over and over how he and a growing young Cincinnati core were determined to show everyone that the old hard-luck versions of the franchise were being buried forever. And by the end of January, they had a Lamar Hunt Trophy and trip to the Super Bowl to back that up.
Sunday showed it again.
O.K., so no one’s giving the Bengals medals for beating up the Jets, 27–12. Still, at this early point in 2022, at 0–2, Cincinnati was already facing a gut-check week, in desperate need of a win, and with the Jets and Dolphins on the docket over a five-day stretch.
Consider the first test passed—and passed in just the way Cincinnati would’ve drawn it up, with the team’s best players coming up biggest at a time when the team needed it most.
“We lost two games on the last play of the game,” coach Zac Taylor told me from the bus postgame. “Our team internally knew we’re a good football team. We know that those tight games can go either way. We could’ve just as easily been 2–0 as 0–2, so why would we scrap everything we’ve worked toward just because the last play of the game didn’t go our way? This team’s got a lot of confidence so we just rode that to the win today.”
Taylor then emphasized the point, “Especially when the moments get tight, we always think our players are going to come through. That’s why they’re here. They’re champion-mindset types of players. I continue to think they’re going to come through for us in the clutch.”
They didn’t really need to Sunday at the Meadowlands. They were good enough where things didn’t come down to some clutch situation.
But if you’re talking about the overall pressure on the Bengals to rebound and avoid an 0–3 start, there’s no question the most prominent players responded. Burrow had 275 yards and three touchdowns on 23-of-36 passing. Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd combined for 15 catches. Jessie Bates and Logan Wilson had picks. And Trey Hendrickson had 2.5 sacks and a pair of forced fumbles to lead the defense.
“We’ve got a great collection of talent; we’ve got Pro Bowl players,” Taylor said. “And we’ve got a lot of great glue guys as well that, when their number is called, the two or three times a game, whatever it is, they step up. And so we just got collectively the right fits for us, and they can all step up when their number is called.”
And they stepped up Sunday.
The Bengals led 14–6 at the end of the first quarter, 20–9 at the half and cruised through the second half. Cincinnati’s still working through some things (we’ll have some stuff on their offensive line in the MAQB). But that trip to the Super Bowl and near championship, wasn’t an accident, and Taylor hopes that by going through this early in the year will, in a roundabout way, pay off.
“We were down two scores in two games and we came back and had chances to win both of them,” Taylor said. “And so I think those are the positives that we take away. We already knew that we could handle that adversity. That just proves it early on in the season, and we’ll be able to pull that from somewhere at some point.”
Maybe when it really counts.
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The Packers are another team that could benefit from going through early struggles. Green Bay, to be sure, isn’t where it wants to be offensively, but it’s winning. Late on Sunday afternoon, it got its second consecutive victory by the skin of its teeth, edging the Buccaneers, 14–12, with a stop on a two-point conversion. And the wins are happening in a way that could make the Packers just a little harder to beat come January.
They’ve won the past couple of weeks, specifically, with a defense that has seven first-round picks, and it happened Sunday in Tampa against Tom Brady in a chips-down situation.
“The bottom line is winning,” coach Matt LaFleur told me after he landed in Green Bay around 11 p.m. local. “So the more ways you can find a way to win a game, I think it does benefit you. Certainly, I think, offensively, the first half was pretty solid. We had three legit drives, a two-minute drive. And then the second half was a complete flip. And that is a damn good defense. They’re one of the tops in the league, and they challenged us and they kicked our ass in the second half.
“Our defense, we gave up probably a few too many explosive plays—where they did a nice job of hitting calls and attacking our scheme. But I thought our defense, when we needed it, came up with big plays time after time, and ultimately, the thing I loved was after giving up the touchdown, nobody was looking down. I mean, it was like, ‘All right, what’s the next play? We need a stop here.’ And they were able to execute, and we did that.”
LaFleur then added, “I thought it was a pretty good lesson in the power of resiliency.”
Indeed, the Packers held the Buccaneers to just one first down on Tampa Bay’s first two fourth-quarter possessions to protect a 14–6 lead. But then Brady started delivering body blows—converting six first downs on the Buccaneers’ final drive. He then seemingly changed a dozen things before snapping the ball with the play-clock expiring on a third-and-goal with 18 seconds left and finding Russell Gage to cut the deficit to 14–12.
Then came the stop after a delay-of-game penalty pushed the Bucs back to the 7-yard line for the two-point conversion. De’Vondre Campbell somehow found his way into a lane between Brady and Gage, and knocked away the ball to, finally, put the game away.
“That dude’s a dog, man; he’s such a team player and such a great leader,” LaFleur said of Campbell. “It’s been so cool to watch; I know Dre from when he was young, when we drafted him in Atlanta, and this dude has really come into his own in terms of being a vocal leader as well. It’s just been a cool, I would say, progression to watch a guy like that, and just how he handles his business. He’s a pro’s pro.
“Matter of fact, I know he wasn’t a captain last year, but we vote for these captains early in the year. And I think it’s just because people didn’t know him. But it was pretty clear to me about halfway through the year last year that he was one of the captains, whether he had it or not.”
And Campbell’s another reason why the Packers could be scary once LaFleur gets his offensive tackles healthy and rolling and his rookie receivers some more experience (we’ll have more on that in the MAQB)—this year’s team could wind up having the best combination of run game and defense Aaron Rodgers has ever had around him.
The Panthers might not be as far off as people thought the first couple of weeks of the season. Carolina was treated like a smoldering mess after the first two weeks of the season. The truth? Matt Rhule’s group lost two games by a total of five points. And the Panthers came around this week with a relatively convincing 22–14 win over the Saints. The Panthers effectively controlled the game throughout, holding a double-digit lead from the first minute of the second quarter into the final three minutes of the game, and their win should at least raise some eyebrows.
The best news is the team responded after a week in which tough discussions were had and delivered on points of emphasis (one was creating turnovers on defense) in the game. And if Baker Mayfield can play a little better, Carolina might have something, especially when you consider the talent on a young defense (Brian Burns, Derrick Brown, Jeremy Chinn, Jaycee Horn, etc., etc.).
The biggest issue now might actually be the schedule, with the Cardinals, 49ers, Rams, Buccaneers, Falcons and Bengals on tap over the next six Sundays. And it’s not like jobs aren’t on the line there—Rhule has to win. It’s just that there are a few more signs of light at the end of the tunnel than most people are recognizing.
I can appreciate Justin Fields’s honesty. Here’s what the Bears’ quarterback said after a win over the Texans on Sunday: “Straight up, I just played like—I don’t want to say the a-word, but I played like trash. Really just got to be better. … I’m going to go see the film tonight. I played terrible. See what I could have done better and get better.”
One thing the Ohio State coaches would consistently say on Fields when he was coming out was he simply had to play more. He hadn’t seen enough, in part, because the guys he threw to in college were always so open, and that limited how much he was exposed to from a coverage and rush standpoint. He’s getting to see more and more now, and the results haven’t always been pretty.
But it’ll be good for him, and I’d bet by the end of the year it’ll give the Bears a clearer view of who he’s going to be long term. And he’s a smart and tough enough kid to ride out the bumps.
I think hiring Jerry Rosburg to help with game management shows a great deal of humility by Nathaniel Hackett. One of the hardest things for any first-year head coach, especially those who retain play-calling power, is juggling their game-day responsibilities on one side of the ball with the overarching handling of situational football and big-box decisions that every one of them is charged with.
It’s unfortunate for Hackett, of course, that this all had to go down so publicly, with the end-of-game issues in Seattle and timeout-clock-management situation in Week 2 being litigated in the court of public opinion for two weeks. But the truth is the job is hard and takes adjustment, and it’s the same job as those of position coaches or coordinators.
So good for Hackett for not being too proud to ask for help.
That was an impressive win by the Titans. Consider what Tennessee’s going through, roster-wise. Taylor Lewan’s out for the year, and so is Harold Landry. A.J. Brown was traded to the Eagles. As a result, the team is leaning on more rookies in key spots than it’d like to. And so, sure, Tennessee did let the Raiders back into that game in Nashville. But Kevin Byard, who already had a crucial pick earlier in the fourth quarter, was able to knock the ball away in the end zone on a two-point try to tie the game and lock up a 24–22 win over the Raiders.
“You only get what you fight for in this league,” coach Mike Vrabel told reporters postgame. “I think they fought for it today. And I’m happy for them.”
How sustainable this is for the 1–2 Titans is up in the air—Derrick Henry has a lot of mileage, his line’s depleted, the receiver group has been reworked, and all that means is there’ll be more on Ryan Tannehill to carry the flag for the team. We’ll see how that works. But for now, you can at least see Vrabel’s fingerprints all over that team and its toughness on display.
It was dumb for anyone to quit on Trevor Lawrence after last year. Just as an FYI, the Jaguars’ quarterback will carry a 103.1 passer rating into October. He’s starting to look like the guy everyone expected him to be. No, he doesn’t see the field quite as fast as many expected, and he’s more raw than anyone thought.
But he’s really, really talented. And if you redrafted 2021, I bet 32 of 32 teams would still take him as the No. 1 pick.
The Browns’ running game is worth paying attention to. Add this up. A backup quarterback. A receiver group reworked completely. And an offense that has, under its current staff, leaned on a couple of workhorse tailbacks historically. You’d think, in this circumstance, defenses would be in position to load the box, dare the Browns to put the ball in the hands of Jacoby Brissett, and commence teeing off on Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. And, yet, these are the Browns’ run game results from the first three weeks of the year:
• Week 1 at Panthers: 39 carries, 217 yards, TD
• Week 2 vs. Jets: 37 carries, 184 yards, 3 TDs
• Week 3 vs. Steelers: 38 carries, 171 yards, TD
So how are they pulling it off? I asked around over the weekend, and the answer is actually pretty simple. Yes, Brissett played efficiently (21-of-31, 220 yards, two TDs), and that helps. Amari Cooper’s been good, too. But as much as anything else, this is why the Browns’ offensive line coach, Bill Callahan, has a contract making him one of the NFL’s highest-paid assistants. And what’s made Callahan so special for the circumstance Cleveland finds itself in is that his run game is versatile to prevent teams from being able to effectively key on one thing or another, but isn’t so voluminous that a talented Browns line isn’t able to master what he’s teaching. Which, really, mirrors what you hear about the league’s passing games in that they give defenses a lot to handle even in less-opportune spots (in the run game, that’d be against heavier boxes) while being geared to gash opponents when the chances arise against lighter boxes. So, yes, a huge part of it is Chubb and Hunt, and having linemen such as Jedrick Wills, Jack Conklin, Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller. But the guy drawing up the run game deserves credit, too. And all this could put the Browns in a position to really take off when Deshaun Watson gets back from suspension in December.
We’re gonna wrap the takeaways up, like we always do, with some quick hitters. And here they are …
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• The Tua Tagovailoa situation was scary—it’s hard not to put together his head bouncing off the turf, then his wobbling off his feet, then his return to the locker room and not think there was a head injury. And then, of course, the Dolphins announced it as a head injury. Now, I’ve covered enough football to know that injuries aren’t always what they look like. But this one, in particular, demands a pretty thorough explanation, and some transparency. This is not a subject the league or its teams should be hiding information on.
• While we’re there, a real shame to see Mac Jones go down Sunday. His MRI on Monday will show the severity of the injury (the Patriots are hopeful he won’t miss too much time), but for now, it sucks he went down that way. Sunday wasn’t his best effort—he had three picks in the 38–26 loss to the Ravens. But he showed a ton of competitiveness keeping the Patriots’ offense moving in that one.
• Tee Higgins’s toes were inbounds.
• I know the Saints are sticking with Jameis Winston for now. But it’s at least worth mentioning they were really impressed with Andy Dalton in camp.
• Justin Herbert’s toughness in gutting out Sunday reminds me of the old Bill Parcells saying (that sounds kinda dumb on the surface)—“Football players play football during football season.” Or something like that. It’s a reminder to me, always, that as much as the public tries to helicopter-parent these guys, most of them just want to play no matter what. Which makes sense, given how much work they put in.
• Part of why I thought Sunday was an impressive 28–24 win for the Vikings is because I think the Lions are a legit, middle-of-the-pack team with a shot at a wild-card spot.
• Drake London, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson can all very clearly ball, and Treylon Burks and Jahan Dotson appear to be on their way as well. Which means we have another bumper crop of receivers on our hands.
• The Falcons are really feisty. I’m excited to see what Arthur Smith (who was compared to Andy Reid as a coaching candidate) can do once he gets his long-term quarterback in there with a renovated roster.
• I’d be a little concerned if I were the Rams about Allen Robinson. Other teams didn’t like his tape, which is why the bottom dropped out on his market. The Rams were hopeful his struggles last year were due to injury, and not so much age. Not sure it’s working out that way.
• It sure looked like Jimmy Garoppolo was feeling missing all that time on task with his teammates from the spring and summer out there Sunday night against the Broncos.
