12/14/2020
Saints rolled into Philly as the hottest team in the entire NFL. With the Eagles star quarterback being benched last week in the Eagles loss to the NFC North leading Green Bay Packers, in Green Bay, Wisconsin at legendary Lambeau field, in favor of rookie 2nd round pick and Geisman runner up, Jalen Hurtz. Hurtz sparking the Eagles struggling offense and horrendous , sack and turn over happy passing game. With both his legs and arm hitting fellow rookie , wide out Jalen Reagor deep down the side line, and leading the dominated Eagles offense to 14 quick points. Philadelphia head coach , seemingly reluctant to do so, named Jalen Hurtz his starting quarterback, as the red hot smoking NFC’s number 1 seeded Saints and their top 3 defense come into Philly. Many to really all NFL, sports analyst across all networks questioning and criticizing the Eagles Super Bowl winning coach for doing so. The Eagles on a rough 4 game losing streak , its to be mentioned that the Eagles were struggling across the board as a team , not just their pro bowl quarterback. Defense struggling on 3rd downs , getting very little to no pressure on opposing quarterbacks , amongst bottom of the league in forcing turn overs , this aftert trading for top 5 cornerback Darius Slay from the Lions in the off season. Bottom of the league in return yards on special teams , bottom of the league on big plays on offense , bottom of the league in 3rd down efficiency. Bad play calling and getting pass happy when 2nd year running back Miles Sanders averaging over 5.5 yards per carry, 2nd amongst all running backs , trailing behind only Nick Chubb. Wentz seeming like a shell of himself , I have a theory on that and I will break that down on a future post. Hurtz sparking Philly’s offense in Green Bay, breathing life into an offense and team on life support. At 3-8-1 and couple games behind 1st place Washington Football Team after already losing to Washington in week 1. So desperation seeks in , Eagles playing the NFC’s best two teams in consecutive weeks , and a tough schedule to finish off the season , including playing the before mentioned Washington Football team in week 17. So now it’s time , now or never. Jalen Hurtz didn’t light it up by any means, but no turn overs , no sacks , much better play calling , feeding their future star running back , who struck out for an 82 yard touch down run in the final 2 minutes of the first half , putting Philly up 17-0 over the Drew Brees-less Saints. Hurtz did become the 2nd quarterback in NFL history to rush for 100 yards in their 1st start. While I was a fan of Hurtz in college , I always thought he was an NFL qb , watching him at Alabama begire bring benched in favor of fellow rookie , Miami Dolphins now starting qb in Tua. Hurtz put up monster numbers after transferring to Oklahoma to play his senior year. Now granted , I mean every and all Oklahoma quarterbacks put up great numbers , especially the last couple decades. But I thought Hurtz was an NFL qb. As an Eagles fan , I loved drafting him in the 2nd round. 1 I love his game , 2ndly Wentz has not been able to finish the season , including , of course as everyone knows about Wentz tearing his ACL after leading the awa goes to an 11-2 record and was front runner for league MVP, and after initially tearing his ACL, finished the drive and threw a touch down at the LA Rams. Then Nick Foles stepped in at that point , leading the Eagles in that game on a game winning drive and of course the Superbowl run , defeating the dynasty Patriots and winning Superbowl MVP, the Philly Special that’s a statue outside the Link. Then the Following season , Wentz put on the shelf with the Eagles at 6-7 and not looking like a playoff run to defend the title was going to happen , again , in LA, the Eagles, lead by Foles , again defeat the NFC’s top team in the Rams. Foles then lead the 6-7 eagles to 3 straight wins and a wildcard win at Chicago. Defending champion eagles would lose to top seed Saints as Foles was leading the Eagles down the field for a game winning td only to have a pass bounce off Alshon Jeffery’s hand to be intercepted inside the Saints 20 with under 1:30 to play. The Eagles letting Foles go, wasnt popular decision. Wentz then finishes the season , starting and finishing all 16 games and winning the NFC East with a 4 game winning streak to end the season. Then in Wentz 1st playoff game , knocked out the game, by what I thought was a dirty hit by Seattle’s defensive end Jadaveon Clowney. The game came down to the end but this time no Foles magic , it was 40 year old Josh Mccown. So Eagles need ring a back up , as all teams do , but especially with lack of confidence in Wentz’s ability to stay healthy. I was calling for Hurtz to play since week 3. Most professional analyst saw/see Hurtz and a Tim Tebow like gadget gimmick qb not a starting true nfl quarterback. Hurtz was the spark , as I said the whole team rallied around the kid, knowing obviously season is essentially on the line and Hurtz can’t carry the team, atleast not yet. So the pros saying throwing the rookie to the wolves so to speak. Saints had I believe 30+ consecutive games of not allowing a 100 yard rusher. Well Hurtz as I stated hit over a 100 joining reigning MVP Lamar Jackson as only rookies in league history to rush fir 100 yards in their first start , and Miles Sanders also rushed for over 100 yards to end the Saints 9 game winning streak , 30+ game streak not allowing 100 yard rusher with 2 guys rushing over 100 yards. I believe Pederson is damn good coach coming from the great Andy Reid coaching tree. I believe Hurtz has great work ethic and very coachable , so Hurtz gets coached up, rookie wide outs get more comfortable, Zack Ertz returning giving them 2 top level tight ends , most importantly getting the running game going and being a running team. Will Hurtz remain the starter the rest of the season ? Unless he just becomes turnover prone , or gets injured , I say yes, he remains the starter, and will become the 2nd guy in the Wentz era to lead the team to playing better football as a team and winning football. I will post my article on Wentz soon , but this is about Jalen Hurtz. Don’t fall in love with size and arm strength. Fall in love with work ethic , leadership qualities , fall in love with playing winning football not turning the ball over. Fall in love with a guy that ignited the doubters , played through being benched in a national championship game on a team he lead to the game. Ability doubted on this level, ignored it. Very Russel Wilson -esk. I saw a meme jokingly calling Jalen Hurtz the Walmart Mcnabb. Well if he draws any comparison to Donovan Mcnabb in philly , the Eagles got a steal in the second round. Next up Kyler Murray and the 7-6 playoff spot battling Arizona Cardinals.
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