There’s no secret as to why the Eagles, Cowboys and Giants are thriving through the first five weeks of the season.
Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera, whose team is the only NFC East team that isn’t thriving, knows this, too.
In fact, Rivera needed only one word to explain it:
“Quarterback.”
It’s not that the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, Cowboys’ Cooper Rush and Giants’ Daniel Jones are going to light up the scoreboard the way the Chiefs Patrick Mahomes does. Yet the Eagles are 5-0 heading into their much-anticipated Sunday night matchup against the Cowboys, who are 4-1.
The Giants, perhaps the surprise team of the NFL, are also 4-1 heading into their matchup against the Baltimore Ravens.
Here’s another word to describe those three quarterbacks, which Eagles coach Nick Sirianni used in describing Hurts: “Trust.”
Then he added: “We trust Jalen.”
That’s not the word Rivera would use about his quarterback, former Eagle Carson Wentz, after his team fell to 1-4 in Washington’s 21-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
Rivera still didn’t use that word “trust” Tuesday when he tried to clarify his comment by saying the other NFC East quarterbacks have had more than one season in their system while Wentz is in his first season in Washington.
“I had a mea culpa moment, and that I should know better,” Rivera said Tuesday on a sports show.
Just like Rivera only needed one word, we only need one play from Hurts and Wentz to show the difference.
Both came in the final minutes of their games Sunday.
The Eagles faced a 3rd-and-12 from the Arizona Cardinals’ 36-yard-line with 4:28 left in a tie game. An incomplete pass would have set up a 54-yard field goal attempt, a big ask for a kicker in Cameron Dicker just elevated from the practice squad in his first NFL game.
A sack, of course, would have knocked the Eagles out of field-goal range entirely.
Either scenario would have given the Cardinals the ball back with about 4 minutes left to kick the winning field goal or score the winning touchdown.
Hurts saw that the Cardinals were blitzing. He walked up to the line of scrimmage, pointed out the blitzers, then changed the play. He dropped back a few steps, stood in the pocket with Cardinals players charging furiously at him, then threw a short pass over the middle to Dallas Goedert.
Goedert eluded a tackler, then dove forward past the first-down marker. The Eagles drained another 2 1/2 minutes off the clock, then hit the go-ahead 23-yard field goal with 1:45 left. Then they held on for a hard-fought 20-17 win to remain the NFL’s only undefeated team.
Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen called that pass that traveled maybe 8 yards “the play of the game.”
“We had a man-play on,” Steichen added. “He killed it to a zone play. He had great eyes, stood in the pocket, gave Dallas a great throw away from the defender, and then Dallas was so strong at the finish to go get that first down.”
Added Sirianni, when asked after the game about the play: “Jalen’s a stud … Jalen is a really smart player.”
We have seen this all season from Hurts, whether it was doing the same thing at the goal line against Washington on Sept. 25 that resulted in a touchdown to A.J. Brown, or sacrificing his body to score on a 4th-and-goal from the 3 against Jacksonville on Oct. 2.
Hurts doesn’t have gaudy statistics, but they’re more than respectable. Hurts has completed 67.9% of his passes for 1,359 yards with a passer rating of 97.4.
Most importantly, the Eagles have won 8 straight regular-season games under Hurts, dating back to last season.
Then we have Wentz.
The Commanders, trailing by 4, were at the Tennessee Titans’ 2-yard line, facing a 3rd-and-goal with 9 seconds left and no timeouts. Wentz had actually played well up until that point, taking the Commanders from their 11 yard line to the Titans’ 2 in the final minutes.
Yet on this play, Wentz was backpedaling and he rushed a sidearm throw off his back foot into triple coverage, even though there wasn’t much pressure around him.
It was a disaster in every sense as the Titans’ David Long intercepted the pass. The Commanders lost.
That hasn’t happened to the Eagles, Cowboys or Giants.
Rush took over for Dak Prescott after Prescott tore a ligament in his thumb in the season opener. The Cowboys won all four games under Rush, who hasn’t done anything fancy. He has completed just 61% of his passes and has a passer rating of 93.9.
Again, nothing flashy, but here’s one thing Rush hasn’t done: throw an interception.
Jones, much maligned during his first four seasons, hasn’t been great either, with a passer rating of 85.7. But Jones has completed 66.7% of his passes, and he has made the smart plays when needed
As Giants coach Brian Daboll told reporters after the 27-22 win over Green Bay: “The things that we have asked (Jones) to do, he’s done them well. I’m glad he’s our quarterback.”
The Cowboys can say that about Rush and the Eagles can certainly say that about Hurts. That’s why the three teams are a combined 13-2.
Rivera isn’t saying anything like that about Wentz. In fact, after Rivera made his one-word comment about the difference between his team and the rest of the NFC East, he was reminded that he was the one who chose Wentz as his quarterback this season.
“I have no regrets about our quarterback,” Rivera said. “I think our quarterback has done some good things. There have been a couple of days that he struggled … The way he performed (Sunday), it just shows you what he’s capable of. We chose him because we believe in him.”
Do they still?
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
