3 Eagles on Thin Ice After Nearly Blowing Win Over Patriots

2. Jalen Hurts

Listen, I’m not saying Jalen Hurts is going to get benched or anything silly like that, but he’s gotta be better. This team needs to be able to count on him in tough games, and he really let us down here.

How often was Dallas Goedert running wide open and Hurts couldn’t find him? How many drives stalled out without even throwing incomplete passes because of how often Hurts was just getting us 2 or 3 yards on a throw?

He averaged 5.14 yards per pass attempt despite completing % of them. His lowest single-game mark in the 2022 regular season was 5.46.

I’m willing to cut him some slack. The offense didn’t get enough work in the preseason, and Nick Sirianni has already owned up to that fault, suggesting that he’ll play the starters more in 2024.

This is also a very good Patriots defense, and it was led by Bill Belichick with months to prepare. That’s a tough situation for anyone. But at the end of the day, you don’t get excuses when you’re supposed to win a Super Bowl. Come playoff time, they’re all tough spots.

There’s also some conversation to be had about how much this performance was on new offensive coordinator Brian Johnson. To me, it looked like Hurts was often staring down his first read and missing open receivers — a problem we know he’s had in the past. So I’m going to chalk this one up to Hurts.

Having a short week to prepare for Week 2 puts both Hurts and Johnson in another tough spot, and we’ll see if either of them can bounce back quickly.