The Hurts Effect

The Eagles have played three disappointing games in a row. They beat the Bears, but it was a sloppy performance and the game shouldn’t have been as close as 25-20. The next week they blew a chance to beat Dallas. More sloppiness and this time it cost them the game.

Sunday’s loss to the Saints was the worst of all. The Saints were on a two-game winning streak and have a legit defense, but that is a game the Eagles absolutely should have won, backup QB or not.

This is not the ideal time for the Eagles to be erratic. You want to be clicking in December, getting ready for the playoffs. The Eagles didn’t look anything like a playoff team on Sunday.

Maybe the blowout win over the Giants was too easy. Since then, things have been sloppy. NFL teams aren’t as far apart as some would have you believe. Just look at Sunday for proof of that. The Eagles need to play with an edge to be at their best. They had that in the first Giants game. They had that for part of the Dallas game. It has been missing since.

Nick Sirianni has been masterful during his time in Philly in getting the players to focus on the game at hand and to stay locked in. When you’re 13-1, human nature can take over. All it takes is losing a little focus and the sloppiness becomes an issue. Without Jalen Hurts to save the day, you start losing.

The return of Hurts won’t cure everything, but he can have a transcendent effect. The OL hears his voice and the false starts go away. Hurts reads the defense correctly and avoids turnovers. The defense might give up points, but Hurts leads the offense to a score of their own so the team doesn’t lose confidence.

Think about it…Sunday was the first time all year that the Eagles didn’t have the lead in the game. Not for one second. Heck, in 14 of 16 games, the Eagles have led by at least 10 points. That’s kinda nuts. It means the offense scores and the defense shuts people down. The whole game may not stay that way, but you’ll see the Eagles playing good football. The Eagles did outscore the Saints 10-0 in the 3rd quarter, but the Saints won the rest of the game. One good quarter wasn’t enough to win the game.

When the Eagles were down 13-10, I didn’t have a lot of confidence that they would go get a FG to tie it or score a TD to take the lead. I hoped they would, but the offensive struggles kept me from believing it would happen. I’m sure the players felt that way as well, at least to a certain extent. They wouldn’t admit it publicly of course, but there had to be doubts. Minshew couldn’t lead them from behind in Dallas and that was a day when the offense was humming. How was he going to do it when the offense was a mess?

The minute Hurts steps on the field, teammates will start to believe again. There will still be issues to deal with. Hurts will make a bad throw. Someone will get called for holding. A receiver will drop a pass. But the players will believe Hurts can convert on 3rd and long. They’ll believe he can lead them to points at crucial parts of the game. They have seen Hurts play like an MVP this year. They know what he’s capable of.

Hurts will make a huge difference.

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One player who was really upset at the team’s struggles was Jason Kelce. He is 35 years old and might be playing his final season. Kelce has been on 4-win teams (twice) and a Super Bowl champ. He’s seen it all and knows the importance of playing at a high level if you want to win in the postseason.

I’m sure one of the reasons Kelce was so angry is that he made multiple mistakes in the game. His star QB was out and his team needed him to step up and play really well to help out Gardner Minshew. Didn’t happen. Accountability is key to the Eagles success. If you make a mistake, own it. Learn from it and fix the issues. Move on to the next play/game and be better.

The Eagles need leaders like Kelce and the other vets to make sure this season isn’t wasted. There are no guarantees about winning the Super Bowl, but you want to make sure you do everything you can to take advantage of having such a talented team. This is a special group. You don’t know what the future holds.

Last Sunday should serve as a huge wake-up call to the team. Everything is there for the taking, but it won’t be given to you.

It will be interesting to see how the team plays this week.

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The big story in the league right now is Bills DB Damar Hamlin. He had a cardiac arrest during the MNF game and had to be rushed to the hospital, after getting CPR on the field for almost 10 minutes.

ESPN came back from a commercial and showed the players standing around him and there was silence, in the stadium and on the broadcast. It was one of the eeriest things I’ve ever experienced.

The NFL postponed the game. To when? Nobody knows as of now. There has been speculation on Twitter about possibly pushing the playoffs back a week. I’m not sure if that’s even possible.

Seeing Hamlin go down like that will affect some players. There will be some guys who can compartmentalize it and move on. Others will be shaken. Players tend to think of themselves as invicible. Last night was a sobering reminder that they are human.

Hopefully Hamlin will be okay. His family has said encouraging things today. Keep him and his family in your thoughts.

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