Efficient

Nick Sirianni praised Jalen Hurts in his Friday press conference for being “efficient”. I’m sure some people found this less than inspiring and others might have wondered if it was really a compliment. It certainly was.

If you skip Hurts rookie season when he was a backup, he threw a career low amount of passes in 2024, only 361. In the previous three seasons, he threw at least 432. Going down to 361 is quite a drop.

You can argue that 2024 was Hurts best season as a passer, because he was so efficient. He set career highs in the following categories:

Completion percentage
TD percentage
Yards per attempt
QB rating

Hurts wasn’t a volume passer. He was an impact passer. That’s what this team needed. The Eagles led the league in rushing attempts. They finished second in rushing yards. When Saquon Barkley is having one of the greatest seasons ever produced by a RB, you don’t force a bunch of passing attempts. You feed the ball to Saquon.

While this was (and is) a running team, Hurts still had to make key plays.

This Dallas Goedert 3rd and 16 play saved the Eagles season!

The difference between 2-1 and 1-2 cannot be overstated just like the difference between 3-0 to 2-1 destroyed the Saints season!!!

No chance the Eagles are 10-2
right now without this play! pic.twitter.com/hALCYYqrel

— NBA Slime (@TerryFranconia) December 3, 2024

And

OH MY DEVONTA. ON 3RD AND 22. UNBELIEVABLE CATCH.

: #JAXvsPHI on CBS/Paramount+
: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/N2wD3Nlfxf

— NFL (@NFL) November 3, 2024

And

Hurts’ best throw of the day came on this 41-yard TD on a Go Ball to AJ Brown on 4th-and-3 #Eagles

✅ Great route concept to attack anticipated Cover 4
✅ Great route from AJ Brown
✅ Great ball from Jalen Hurts with pressure closing in pic.twitter.com/3ovdjKOnYz

— Fran Duffy (@FDuffyNFL) October 21, 2024

Just think back to last week’s TD throw to Goedert. Hurts saw the blitz and called an audible. He got the ball out quickly and put it right on Goedert. DG then did the rest.

Making plays like these with limited opportunities can be tough. Hurts is able to come through when his team needs him. We’ve seen several games where Hurts took the offense down the field right when the team needed it. He’s done a good job of making the most of his chances.

It will be interesting to see if this version of Hurts can carry the Eagles to the Super Bowl.

Dallas won Super Bowl VI after the 1971 season. Roger Staubach threw a total of 51 passes in three playoff games. Dallas ran the ball and played great defense. Staubach just had to make a few key plays and the overall team was good enough to win it all. Football has certainly changed since then, but that doesn’t mean the formula can’t work for this Eagles team.

*****

Good news on the injury front.

Friday’s Injury Report#LARvsPHI pic.twitter.com/pT2DkYzmZq

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) January 17, 2025

The Eagles will have everyone available on Sunday.

*****

As @QBsMVP pointed out, the Rams have never allowed a 100+ yard rusher in the playoffs under Sean McVay (in 12 playoff games).

Combined with the below graphic, the Rams might actually have a chance to keep Saquon in check, if history repeats itself. pic.twitter.com/106qgFGJ0B

— Rams Bros. (@RamsBrothers) January 17, 2025

Weird stat. The Rams haven’t faced many special RBs in the playoffs. Back in 2020 Aaron Jones ran for 99 yards on them, on only 14 carries. The Packers ran for 188 as a team. Sony Michel was 18-94 in the Pats Super Bowl win back in 2018.

If the Rams do shut down Saquon, it will be due to great defense and not some weird stat history. This Rams defense has been vulnerable to the run for most of the season so I don’t expect that to change drastically.

_