Jalen Hurts has 'special game' as Eagles run past Packers for 10th win

PHILADELPHIA — It’s been a month since the Philadelphia Eagles really looked like themselves. For the past few weeks they’ve been sloppy, sluggish and maddeningly inconsistent.

So on Sunday night, they turned to Jalen Hurts to make them right.

Their star quarterback and MVP candidate did just that, carrying the Eagles through another shaky performance by running 17 times for a career-high 157 yards and completing 16 of 28 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns. On a night when the Eagles’ defense struggled, their special teams was a mess, and their top receiver, A.J. Brown, had trouble holding onto the ball, Hurts did it all in a wild, 40-33 win over the Green Bay Packers, willing to the Eagles to their 10th win of the season.

“He had a special game tonight,” said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. “A really special game.”

He sure did. And thanks in large part to Hurts’ special performance, the Eagles flexed their rushing game muscles again, running for a ridiculous 363 yards — the second-highest total in franchise history. Hurts and running back Miles Sanders (21 carries, 143 yards) became the first teammates in Eagles franchise history to each top 130 rushing yards in the same game.

That wasn’t a coincidence, either. That’s who the Eagles are supposed to be — a power running team led by a power running quarterback. They haven’t looked much like themselves since they came off their bye week, even though they had won three of their four games since. The last three in particular were struggles, with tough wins over the Texans (29-17) and Colts (17-16) sandwiched around their only loss of the year (32-21 to the Commanders).

They were sloppy and turnover-prone and struggled to tackle in all of those games, and it was more of the same against the Packers. The difference this time was that Hurts, their unquestioned leader, took control.

And when he does that, everything is better, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

“He opened it up today, yes he did,” Sanders said. “It’s good to have a quarterback like him, where he can just drop back and if he doesn’t see nothing and it looks cloudy, he can take off and get 20 yards a (rush). That’s going to kill a defense and make them change their play-calling. It makes them all discombobulated.”

Hurts did that right from the beginning of the game, peeling off 24 and 28 yards on “off schedule” quarterback draws, as Sirianni described them, on the Eagles’ opening touchdown drive. He also had a 42-yarder later in the first quarter that set up a 2-yard Sanders touchdown run.

Altogether, Hurts had never run quite like this before. His only previous 100-yard game was his very first start, two years ago, when he rushed for 106 yards against the New Orleans Saints. He blew past that by midway through the second quarter. He had 10 carries for 126 yards by halftime. He had five runs of 10 yards or more in all.

How did he do it? “I don’t know how to answer that question,” Hurts said. “I ran and they couldn’t get me.”

And because of that, the Packers defense found it hard to stop anyone. They surrendered 500 total yards in the game.

“You get the linebackers and D-ends guessing,” Sanders said. “Because they don’t know if we’re going to run it up the middle and get 5-10 yards or he’s going to pull it and gain 10-20. It puts the defense in a tough spot.”

And that keeps the pass rush on its heels and opens things up in the passing game, which helped Hurts have the time to throw a picture-perfect, back-shoulder pass to Quez Watkins for a 30-yard touchdown late in the first half. He added a 6-yard touchdown pass to Brown on the first drive of the second half, too.

And they needed every bit of it. The Packers managed to find the same holes in the Eagles’ defense that so many others have found this season, picking them apart with 106 rushing yards and making them pay for missed tackles in the passing game. Green Bay’s backup quarterback, Jordan Love, threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Christian Watson in the fourth quarter, on his third drive after Aaron Rodgers left with an oblique injury. The Packers also got help from Brown, who had a costly first-half fumble that was returned 63 yards by Packers linebacker Quay Walker to set up a touchdown pass from Rodgers to Aaron Jones. Brown dropped another pass, too.

And that wasn’t all. The Eagles’ kickoff coverage team gave up returns of 38, 52, and 53 yards to Keisean Nixon. And kicker Jake Elliott missed an extra point.

None of this is unusual anymore in Philadelphia. The Eagles have looked off like that for most of the last month.

Which is why they needed Hurts to remind everyone that he’s still an MVP candidate, and still capable of carrying his team when they need it. For some reason, the Eagles had barely used Hurts in the rushing game over the past four games, when he ran just 26 times for 88 yards. It’s as if Sirianni forgot that Hurts is their best player, that they’re at their best when the ball is in his hands. Because when he’s going like that, he opens things up for everyone.

That is who the Eagles are.

“If the run game is working, we’re not going to shy away from it,” Sanders said. “We’ve been dominant every time we stick to the run game.”

They have. And they’re even more dominant when Hurts is a big part of that. He has a unique ability to keep defenses off balance and knock them off their game when he runs.

“That’s what Jalen does,” Sirianni said. “That’s where he’s really special, when he can make those plays with his feet.”

That’s a big part of why the Eagles lead the NFC with a 10-1 record, and why they’ve looked like the team to beat in the conference all season long. Hurts has been the engine for the offense — maybe for the entire team. And if the Eagles are really going to make a run at the Super Bowl this season, they’re not just going to do it on his shoulders. They’re going to have to do it on his legs, too.

They got away from that a little too much over the past month. But his performance on Sunday night reminded everyone how special he is.

“Jalen, he’s playing out of his mind this year,” Sanders said. “We’re winning because of him.”

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Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.