With “His Airness,” Michael Jordan on hand to watch his Jordan Brand ambassador open the 2025 NFL season, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts began Thursday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys like “His Unerringness.”
Hurts completed his six passes and ran for two touchdowns as Philadelphia kicked off its season with scoring drives of 10 plays for 70 yards and 12 plays for 65 yards in the Eagles’ 24-20 victory at Lincoln Financial Field.
“When you have a special guest, special friend in attendance, there’s only one thing you can do, and that’s to win,” Hurts said of Jordan. “Got a lot of love for him.”
Hurts’ touchdown runs of 4 and 8 yards matched 1-yard touchdowns by Cowboys running back Javonte Williams.
Dallas’ third series of the game produced a field goal while Philadelphia came back with another touchdown march, going 81 yards in eight plays for running back Saquon Barkley’s 10-yard TD carry with 51 seconds left in the first half.
Hurts unleashed a third-and-6 throw to wide receiver Jahan Dotson for a 51-yard gain to the Cowboys 26-yard line in the third scoring series.
“He ran a great route, showed and had an opportunity make a play,” Hurts said. “I don’t know that he even saw the ball, but he did a very good job of tracking it late.”
In the first three possessions of the season, Hurts completed 9-of-11 passes for 93 yards and ran for 48 yards and two touchdowns on six carries.
“I think Jalen played a really efficient game,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “He made a lot of plays with his feet when things weren’t particularly there. That’s such an advantage. …
“I thought he played really efficient, and I thought he played really well, and he’s a big reason why we won that football game tonight – the game he played. I know it will say we threw for 152 yards, what’s going on? But Jalen played really efficient and really good from what I saw and made plays both with his legs, with his mind and with his arm.”
Philadelphia opened the second half with a 58-yard field goal by Jake Elliott to set the final margin.
After a 65-minute delay for lightning in the third quarter, the Eagles offense came back in the fourth quarter with a 7:26 series before punting, had a three-and-out sandwiched by two fourth-down stops by the Philadelphia defense and ran out the final 1:54 on the victory.
Three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver AJ Brown had only one target in the game, but he caught it for an 8-yard gain with 1:45 to play. On the next snap, Hurts ran 4 yards for a first down, which allowed him to kneel three times on the win.
“Great job by him staying patient in the big moment and making a play,” Hurts said. “The most important play of the game in my eyes, and then we’re able to get ourselves into position to convert that third down and wind down the clock.”
Hurts finished the first game of his fifth season as Philadelphia’s QB 1 19-of-23 passing for 152 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions and 62 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries – 65 yards on 11 carries without the kneel-downs.
The former Alabama quarterback was sacked once as he scrambled out of almost every tight situation after the Cowboys traded their premier pass-rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers last week.
“It comes a moment where you have to meet the moment and take advantage of things when they come,” Hurts said, “and I think as a team, we did that.”
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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