Jalen Hurts final grades following another stellar performance in primetime

Eight games are gone, and the Philadelphia Eagles‘ record remains unblemished. Don’t tell them or their superstar quarterback Jalen Hurts that however. They simply don’t want to hear it.

That forces each of us to tell someone else who will listen, but when we do so, something else becomes obvious. The explanation of how they have remained perfect doesn’t always make sense. Some of the details surrounding Philly’s 8-0 start are parts of stories that we’ve never told before.

No Eagles team has ever won all of its first games eight games. There are also those rare achievements. They’re just the third team since the NFL merger 52 years ago that hasn’t trailed during the second half of any of their first eight games.

Then, there are also those moments we witnessed that defy logic. How does a quarterback throw four touchdown passes without attempting a single pass in the red zone? How can a team run a hurry-up offense and still wind up crafting an 18-play drive that takes up more than eight minutes? It doesn’t always make sense, yet the Birds keep getting it done.

Following another win in primetime, one that punctuates a short week, the Philadelphia Eagles get 11 days of rest before they are required to suit up for another football game. We’re fine with that. They deserve the rest.

Week 9 brought a much-needed lesson on how to overcome adversity. Again, Jalen Hurts was masterful. QB1 hasn’t lost as a starter during the regular since Week 12’s loss to the New York Giants last season. If he keeps performing at this level, it may be a while before he loses again.

Jalen Hurts’ final grades and his best and worst throws from Week 9’s win

In Week 9, Jalen Hurts completed 21 of his 27 pass attempts while throwing for 243 yards and tossing two touchdowns. Let’s look at some of his individual throws.

Worst throws

It seems as though a discussion of worst throws by a quarterback that just completed just under 78% of his pass attempts ventures towards nitpicking. We aren’t. Again, we have no complaints about what we saw from Jalen Hurts in Week 9, but as was the case versus the Pittsburgh Steelers, the young signal-caller seemingly got off to somewhat of a rocky start before settling in and performing like the MVP candidate that we’ve been watching all year.

If we were to highlight a few tosses that Jalen would admit he’d like to have back, we’d point to the first Eagles drive. During a second-and-six scenario from Philly’s own 21-yard line, he missed a wide-open Dallas Goedert who was standing at about the 40. Moments later, with 5:40 remaining in the first quarter, during a first-and-ten scenario, he missed a wide-open A.J. Brown.

A.J. got his hands on the ball but batted it into the air, nearly assisting a Jalen Pitre interception. Again, we won’t complain. The reason is, in both instances, Jalen Hurts made two spectacular plays on the next snap.

After missing Goedert, he hit Quez Watkins on third and six for 23 yards. The next play following the miss to A.J. was a 13-yard gainer to Jack Stoll for a first-down pickup. Both of these could qualify for the ‘best throws’ category, but let’s talk about the touchdown passes.

Best throws

In all honesty, you can look at each of Jalen Hurts’ 21 completions and find five things to celebrate, but how about those touchdown passes? All season, we’ve discussed the need for the Eagles’ offense to be better during the second halves of games.

They entered the third quarter of Week 9’s game with the Texans dead even on the scoreboard at 14. They answered the call as did the defense. The Eagles’ defense only allowed three points in the second half. They also forced two turnovers.

Their first interception, one by C.J. Gardner-Johnson set up a nice toss from Jalen to A.J. Brown two plays later.

Jalen Hurts’ second toss of the night put the game out of reach. It didn’t cover as much ground as his toss to A.J. Brown, but it was still a thing of beauty. This time Dallas Goedert was the beneficiary.

Let’s get into some final grades.

• Accuracy: A
• Vision: A+
• Intangibles: A+
• Decision making: A+
• Leadership: A+
• Overall: A+