Jalen Hurts responded to all his critics in the best way possible last year, having his best day on the grandest stage in sports.
But the reigning Super Bowl MVP will rightfully face some uncomfortable questions this week after, easily, his worst performance as a pro on Monday night.
No quarterback in football has protected the football as well as Jalen Hurts in 2025, but that changed in brutal fashion in Monday’s overtime loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Hurts gave the football away five times, after only surrendering three total turnovers — two interceptions and one lost fumble — over the Eagles’ previous 12 games.
The Chargers picked Hurts off four times, including a game-sealing interception in overtime with the Eagles well within range to win the game (or at least tie it with a field goal attempt). He also managed to turn the ball over twice on one play in what might’ve been the craziest singular play in NFL history.
This was one of those games where you go out behind the team at the NovaCare Complex, dig a hole, bury the game tape, and move on. The turnover battle has long been a key indicator of success for the Eagles under head coach Nick Sirianni, and 2025 has been no different. The Eagles are 6-0 this season when they win the turnover battle, 8-2 when they finish with less or the same number of turnovers as their opponent, and 0-3 when they lose the turnover battle.
But there’s another emerging trend directly related to Jalen Hurts that’s becoming impossible to ignore, and it has nothing to do with one random, turnover-filled outlier game.
The more passes Jalen Hurts attempts, the harder it gets for the Philadelphia Eagles to win
Sirianni woke up Tuesday morning with an obvious second guess for offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo. The Eagles and Chargers were never separated by more than one score during Monday night’s game, yet Hurts wound up attempting 40 passes over the four-plus quarters.
When it comes to the Eagles offense, there might not be a more telling number than Hurts' 40. Since Hurts took over as Philly’s full-time starter in 2021, the Eagles are winless in every game he attempts 40 or more passes.
Jalen Hurts attempted 40 passes in this game (his most since December 3, 2023).
— Bill Colarulo (@BillColarulo) December 9, 2025
Jalen Hurts record when throwing the ball 40 times or more is now 0-6.
This feels like a negative commentary on Hurts, who no one would compare to a volume pocket passer like Matthew Stafford. Really, it’s more about the style of Sirianni’s offense, which has always been at its best when the Eagles are having success running the football.
The most frustrating part of Monday’s loss? Philly’s run game was actually effective against the Chargers. Saquon Barkley had four rushes of 10-plus yards, including a 52-yard touchdown run that gave the Eagles a three-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Barkley finished the game with 20 carries, but even with Hurts’ rushes, the Eagles only finished with 25 rush attempts in the game. The Chargers, meanwhile, rushed the football 38 times, compared to 26 pass attempts from Justin Herbert, who played through a wrist injury and only completed 12 passes.
If there was a game to lean heavier into the run game and get Tank Bigsby more involved alongside Barkley, it was this one. But Bigsby continues to be a seldomly used afterthought in the offense, despite averaging 8.8 yards per attempt since playing his first snap on offense in Week 7.
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Make no mistake: The Eagles lost this game mainly because Hurts had the worst night and turned the football over five times. But 40 pass attempts compared to 25 rushes in a game that needed overtime to reach a 22-19 final score? Nothing proves how broken Philly’s offense is than that discrepancy.