After two 17-point outputs by the Philadelphia offense had the Eagles on a two-game losing streak, quarterback Jalen Hurts stepped up with a perfect passer rating against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
“I know there’s a clip to confirm I said that we’re not losers anymore coming off the field because that’s all I could think about,” Hurts said at his postgame press conference. “That’s all I could think about throughout these last two weeks. Having opportunities to finish the game, to finish the fourth quarter, I really think this is the first time we’ve finished the fourth quarter and finished in the second half. And so those things come up and that’s important in this game. And so I think definitely there was some fire there. But within that fire, you have to be calm and focus on executing your job.”
In Philadelphia’s 28-22 victory over Minnesota, Hurts completed 19-of-23 passes for 326 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. By the NFL’s passing-efficiency formula, Hurts graded out at 158.3 – the highest possible score. To reach that score, a player must complete at least 77.5 percent of his passes, average at least 12.5 yards per attempt and throw a touchdown at an 11.875 percent rate without an interception.
“You don’t have a game like that without the guys around you,” Hurts said, “so I give a lot of credit to them, give a lot of credit to the collective of everyone hanging in there and enduring the game. And it’s team football in the end, and so just happy to come out here and figure out a way to win a football game. That’s a really good team, a really good defense, and it was a challenge. They presented a ton of challenges towards us, but we were able to endure and find a way to win, and I’m very thankful of that.”
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Hurts opened the scoring with a 37-yard pass to AJ Brown to cap a 12-play, 75-drive with 6:59 left in the first quarter. Brown waved the wide receiver down the field before making the throw.
“The communication on that is a scramble drill that we do every day,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “We had a couple big plays on broken plays. That’s where Jalen Hurts is so dangerous. He’s able to run on a scramble play, he’s able to throw on scramble plays, so made a lot of good plays like that. Obviously, that one was one of them. Had multiple.”
After a touchdown on their first possession, the Eagles went three-and-out on their next three series. Outside linebacker Jalyx Hunt’s 42-yard pick-six gave Philadelphia some breathing room until the offense restarted, which occurred when Hurts threw a 79-yard touchdown pass to former Alabama teammate DeVonta Smith with 8:07 left in the third quarter as the Eagle took a 21-9 lead.
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“I think the offensive coaches did a phenomenal job of making adjustments at halftime,” Sirianni said. “... They saw something on the big post to Smitty, and Smitty went out and Jalen went out made a big-time throw, big-time catch. And so, again, Jalen has a knack for throwing those deep balls, and our guys can run and get under them. So they saw something where the middle of the field was open.”
Before the second half was over, Hurts had completions for 19, 21 and 28 yards to Smith and 26 and 45 yards to Brown.
Hurts’ third touchdown pass on Sunday was the 26-yarder to Brown as Philadelphia took a 28-19 lead with 6:35 to play. The 45-yarder came on third-and-9 with 1:36 remaining to seal the six-point victory.
“You’re just trying to find a way to win the game,” Hurts said. “One thing I was taught long ago at the University of Alabama from coach (Nick) Saban is not to look at the scoreboard. And so you want to play the game that way, and you know that it’s a crucial moment in the game. But you just go execute: Hear the call, have a singular focus on each play and give that play what it demands.”
Smith had nine receptions for 183 yards and one touchdown, and Brown had four receptions for 121 yards and two touchdowns.
Hurts’ previous high for passing-efficiency rating had been 140.6 in a 35-13 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 30, 2022. Against Minnesota, the former Alabama QB posted his highest passing-yardage total since throwing for 380 in a 35-10 victory over the Tennessee Titans on Dec. 4, 2022.
There have been 41 other NFL regular-season games in which a passer has posted a 158.3 rating on 20 or more passes – stretching from Sammy Baugh in the Washington Redskins 38-14 victory over the New York Bulldogs on Oct. 16, 1949, to Jared Goff in the Detroit Lions’ 52-6 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 17, 2024.
The 5-2 Eagles play the New York Giants at noon CDT Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The Giants defeated the Eagles 34-17 on Oct. 9.
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