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By Justin GrassoShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberJalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles followed up their disappointing comeback loss against the Dallas Cowboys with another questionable performance against the Chicago Bears.
The Eagles’ second-straight loss generated more questions about the status of the team’s offensive coordinator, plenty of criticism for the league’s most recent Super Bowl MVP, and the list goes on.
Both sides of the ball struggled for Philadelphia on Black Friday, but the offense turned in arguably its worst performance of the year. The first episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks for the NFC East exposed Jalen Hurts’ real reaction to two of the biggest mistakes that matchup.
The DeVonta Smith Slant
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In real-time, Jalen Hurts had DeVonta Smith open across the middle of the field. An accurate pass would’ve given the star wide receiver a chance to take it in for six early, applying some much-needed pressure on the Bears’ defense.
Instead, Hurts threw a pass behind Smith, making it difficult for the former first-round pick to come away with the catch. After it was ruled incomplete, the Eagles’ drive stalled out.
Hard Knocks revealed that Hurts showed a signal to Smith pre-snap. It’s now clear that the miss was a result of Hurts and Smith being on a different page. Still, Hurts took accountability for the play.
“I thought you… When I pointed like this—that’s my fault! I thought you were going to settle down,” Hurts said to Smith on the bench shortly after the play. After Hurts continued to think about it, he got up and walked over to his receivers to say, “That’s a play I got to make, keep doing what ya’ll doing. Here we go. We’ll finish the next one, that’s a play I’ll make.”
The Tush Push Fumble
...In the second half, the Eagles found a temporary momentum shift. Hurts hit AJ Brown down the field for a contested catch, which turned into an exciting touchdown.
After the Eagles’ defense got a turnover, putting the Eagles in a favorable field position, Hurts found himself in a situation where he had to put together the reliable tush push. Unfortunately, the Bears played it well, punching the ball out and destroying the Eagles’ offensive momentum with a turnover.
“That’s me,” Hurts said near the team’s bench after returning. “That [expletive] dumb [expletive] I did. … I was trying to secure the ball, and he came in there and gutted it out.” He would later add, “That’s on me, I gotta protect the [expletive] ball at the end of the day.”
Hurts is never one to shy away from taking accountability, but his postgame press conferences tend to be emotionless and designed not to give the public too much about what he’s thinking. In this case, Hard Knocks managed to reveal the quarterback’s raw reactions to a disappointing 24-15 loss, which included multiple turnovers from the veteran QB.
For more on the Philadelphia Eagles and general NFL news, head over to Newsweek Sports.
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