No matter what, the Philadelphia Eagles are going to be easily targeted by critics. It comes with the territory as reigning Super Bowl champions, but when you have such a unique offense, the questions will always come.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts is no stranger to criticism, but it's easier for the haters to chirp when the Eagles are losing. Having gone into their Week 7 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings losing two in a row, the noise was loud. A passing attack that's struggling and Saquon Barkley averaging just 3.4 yards per carry? You could say things were a little dicey for a 4-2 team.
Yet, a big win over the Vikings cured everything. Not only did the Eagles beat Minnesota, but Hurts finished with a perfect passer rating of 158.3 and his running back offered some obvious praise afterwards:
“A perfect passing rating? Like what are we talking about? It’s amazing.”
On top of a perfect passer rating, Hurts finished with 326 yards and three passing touchdowns.
Saquon Barkley keeps proving he has Jalen Hurts' back through thick and thin
This doesn't come as a surprise, simply because we know what kind of person and player he is, but Barkley continued to praise his quarterback following the 28-22 win:
"I don't want to say it's expected, but we know the work that he puts in. We know how he comes to work, how he leads and the type of player he is."
This is just Barkley saying the quiet part out loud at this point. Everybody knows the type of player, leader and worker that is Jalen Hurts. It's a well-known fact. Despite the criticism, Hurts and the Eagles win games.
Barkley also went on to credit his offense's top two wide receivers, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, who had monstrous performances in this game as well.
"AJ and Smitty came up big with him (Hurts)," he said.
Brown and Smith combined for 304 of Hurts' 326 yards and accounted for all three touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Barkley continued to struggle a bit on the ground as he only went for 44 yards on 18 carries. Still, the Eagles are 5-2 and, until proven otherwise, they're a contender. Period.
Read more: Jalen Hurts' NSFW post-game comment is exactly what Eagles fans want to hear
Next up, the Eagles get what might not have seemed a tough matchup a few weeks ago. But, the New York Giants suddenly have some momentum behind Jaxson Dart. It'll be a rematch well-worth watching in Week 8 after the Eagles dropped the first of this series.