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Tim McManus
Minneapolis – as a quarterback jalen hurts Made their way to the visitors’ locker room after the Eagles win 28-22 Above minnesota vikings “We are not going to lose anymore,” he shouted on Sunday.
Hurts said he played with “some enthusiasm” after two consecutive losses denver broncos And New York GiantsAnd it was obvious to teammates as he threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns and finished with a 158.3 passer rating – only the third Eagles signal-caller to do so.
“He has a lot of showmanship,” left tackle Jordan Mailata Said. “When he’s in control, you can see a twinkle in his eyes.”
Hurts said that during the team’s decline he could only think about opportunities to finish down the stretch of games. Entering the game this season the Eagles were last in yards per play (3.9), score percentage (24%) and second half punt percentage (53%).
Philadelphia flipped that script against Minnesota as Hurts threw for 240 yards and two scores in the second half. He averaged 20 yards per pass attempt in that span, the highest rate by any quarterback with at least 10 attempts in the second half. cancer cousin in Week 11 of 2016 (10.3 YPA), according to ESPN Research.
The Philadelphia offense got off to a strong start in the third quarter with Hurts finding devonta smith For a 79-yard touchdown on play-action on the Eagles’ opening series. When the Eagles went under center, Smith identified a weakness in the Vikings’ defense and told whoever would listen at halftime that the team could exploit it.
“Smitty basically saw something and was like, ‘I’m telling you, it’s there.’ KP [offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo] Have confidence in him, we called it and we hit it,” the running back said. Saquon Barkley Said.
Smith finished with a career-high 183 receiving yards on nine catches. aj brown Posted four catches for 121 yards and two scores.
The Eagles ranked 30th in passing offense entering Week 7 as they were having trouble passing Brown and Smith. That changed in a big way on Sunday: Hurts went 13 of 17 targeting his wide receivers in this game for 304 yards, the second-highest yardage total of his career.
“The point was to come in and establish the run, that’s what we wanted to do coming in and that’s how the game went,” Hurts said. “We were able to be efficient in the pass game, KP was very timely, and I think we were able to improve some things on the edge and work through some things, but those guys made big-time plays. Smitty had a hell of a day. Tough. The way he plays, size means nothing to him. It was cool to see.”
The Brown-Hurts connection in particular has been lacking, but they were on the same page against the Vikings, including a game-sealing 45-yard fourth-quarter reception on 3rd-and-9 that was the result of a check at the line of scrimmage.
The Eagles benefited from a mini-bye after Thursday night’s loss to the Giants, which included a Monday offensive meeting where players and coaches gave each other feedback.
Those efforts didn’t yield immediate results for the ground attack, which still isn’t firing on all cylinders, but the aerial performance shown on Sunday should help loosen things up on that front for the Eagles, who are now 5-2.
“I think there was definitely some fire there,” Hurts said of his performance. “But within that fire you have to stay calm and focus on getting your job done.”
As Hurts finished his thought, his phone rang.
He said, “Look, when you win everyone wants to call you.”
