EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. − You would think Jalen Hurts is a robot sometimes with his answers in press conferences.
There was this cliche-fest when Hurts was asked about another strong game, when he threw for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns, then added another 77 yards on the ground, thoroughly dominating the Giants’ defense in the Eagles’ 48-22 win Sunday.
“It’s good that we’ve prepared in a way that we’ve been able to execute at a high level,” Hurts said. “We just want to continue to do that. That’s the name of the game. Never get too high, never get too low, just stay true to what’s important and keep the main thing the main thing.
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“The main thing for me is the daily deposits, chasing the growth, putting the work in, being consistent. I think that’s the main thing for the team as well.”
Don’t be fooled. Hurts has heard the doubts about his quarterback ability ever since he got benched in the national championship game as a sophomore at Alabama. He knows who slighted him.
Let’s just say Hurts is cashing in some of those “daily deposits.”
After all, Hurts has turned himself into a strong MVP candidate, and erased all the doubts that existed right up until this season started about his future as the Eagles’ quarterback. He helped the Eagles improve to 12-1, clinch a playoff berth, and close in on the NFC East title, not to mention the top seed in the NFC playoffs.
“There was a point in time where people said I couldn’t throw the deep ball, that I could only throw it 5 yards,” Hurts said.
Then he added: “I carry my scars with me everywhere I go. I don’t forget. Do I waste my energy worrying about the opinion of someone else, the opinion of the sheep? No.
“I truly invest my focus in me getting better as a player, getting better as a quarterback, and doing the things I need to do for my team. Everybody and their opinion don’t deposit at the bank. I just try to stay true to myself, stay true to my teammates and chase my growth alongside them.”
Hurts has obliterated the 61.3% completion percentage from last season, his passer rating of 87.2, and the belief that he was strictly a running quarterback who couldn’t lead the Eagles when he was forced to throw.
On Sunday, Hurts completed 67.8% of his passes, right at his season average of 68.0%, fifth best in the NFL. Hurts’ passer rating was 109.2, right at his season’s rating of 108.4, which is the best in the NFL.
Seemingly, each game, Hurts finds a new way to beat an opponent, while leaving his teammates in awe.
It went well beyond the 4th-and-7 pass that Hurts threw to DeVonta Smith early in the game that became a 41-yard TD. Hurts dropped that ball into Smith’s arms with one cornerback on Smith’s back and a safety coming from across the field just as the ball arrived.
But what you didn’t see was what Hurts did before the ball was snapped, which was just as impressive as the throw and catch.
“It was a great (presnap) check by the quarterback, seeing something he liked, checking to that play and executing it,” Smith said.
What did Hurts see?
“Man (coverage),” Smith said with a smile.
For Eagles cornerback Darius Slay, it was a much simpler play that showed Hurts’ growth. It was a 3rd-and-3 from the Eagles’ 15 on the second drive of the game, the same one that ended with Hurts’ fourth-down bomb to Smith.
Hurts was being flushed from the pocket when he threw the ball. Slay described the rest of the play, which went for 9 yards:
“The best pass I ever saw him throw was on the out-route to Quez (Watkins), on the blitz, off the back foot,” Slay said. “And before (Watkins) came out of the break, it was like a dot! You know what I’m saying? Like a dot! That’s how you do it in ‘(Madden) 2K’ where you throw it into the corner. A dot! He hit a dot today.
“He’s been going crazy man. People didn’t want to listen, but I’d been saying this for a long, long time. He’s a dawg.”
The records are piling up, too.
Hurts ran the ball in from 10 yards out on a quarterback draw where he saw an opening and ran up the middle untouched.
That gave the Eagles a 34-14 with 1:41 left in the third quarter. That was Hurts’ 10th rushing touchdown of the season. He’s the only quarterback in NFL history with two straight seasons with 10 or more rushing TDs.
More importantly, the Giants had no answers for Hurts, just like the Tennessee Titans the week before and the Green Bay Packers the week before that. The Eagles scored at least 35 points in each game. Hurts ran for 157 yards against the Packers, threw for 380 yards against the Titans, then ran and passed all over the Giants.
It’s no wonder that Eagles coach Nick Sirianni trusts Hurts in key situations, like on the 4th-and-7 early in the game, or like a third-down check-down pass to Miles Sanders that picked up eight yards and a first down.
“He didn’t force anything,” Sirianni said about the pass to Sanders. “The defense dictated where the ball went, so he took it to Miles, and we got eight yards off of that. I thought that was an awesome play.
“He was just in complete control there. It was the conversions on third down, and it was also just really good quarterback play by Jalen.”
To Hurts, it was simply making the daily deposits − and keeping the receipts.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
