PHILADELPHIA − As far as Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are concerned, two things can be true at the same time.
The first is barring anything unforeseen, Hurts will play against the Giants on Sunday in the Eagles’ regular-season finale because of his competitiveness and determination to rehab as quickly as possible from his sprained shoulder.
It’s why Eagles coach Nick Sirianni has repeatedly said ever since Hurts suffered his injury on Dec. 18 against the Chicago Bears: “With Jalen, his body heals different than yours and mine. He’s going to do everything he can do to get himself healthy. If he’s healthy, he’ll play.”
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And: “That’s just the toughness (he has). Jalen Hurts is the toughest player I’ve ever been around.”
That’s great, but it also speaks to the Eagles’ desperation, although they won’t admit that, and how much they need Hurts.
A win guarantees the NFC East title and No. 1 seed in the playoffs, with a first-round bye and home field until the Super Bowl. A loss coupled with a Cowboys win puts the Eagles in the wildcard round. A loss along with a Cowboys loss and 49ers win makes the Eagles the No. 2 seed, and thus a first-round home game.
The second thing is the Eagles might have to save Hurts from himself as much as the Eagles need Hurts to save them.
It’s not that Hurts is reckless when he runs, but he does run, and often. In the game against the Bears, Hurts ran the ball 17 times. That gave him 156 carries for the season, just 21 off of the NFL record for rushing attempts by a quarterback, set by the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson.
Obviously, Hurts won’t get that record now. If he does, the Eagles’ coaches should be sued for malpractice.
But Hurts still needs to run in order to be effective. After all, Hurts forces the defense to account for him, thus opening things up not only for running back Miles Sanders, but also the receivers.
So how does that look against the Giants?
For one, Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen said this when asked if he has to curtail the offense to account for Hurts’ shoulder: “I mean, if he is playing, yeah. We always will have a plan for that.”
Against the Bears, Steichen said the Eagles called about six designed runs for Hurts. A look at previous games shows that there are typically 4 or 5 designed runs. The other 11 runs against Chicago were on escaping pressure while dropping back to pass, and on the quarterback sneaks.
It’s likely the Eagles will call fewer designed runs for Hurts. But even here, they have to be careful.
Hurts is effective on the read-options precisely because he’s good at reading the defense and then deciding whether to keep the ball, hand off to Sanders, or throw.
And good luck telling Hurts not to try to escape pressure when he’s dropping back to pass. All of which, of course, exposes Hurts to getting hit.
“Without a doubt, he’s one of the best off-script quarterbacks,” tight end Dallas Goedert said. “He makes plays that everybody just goes ‘Wow.’ It’s huge. Sometimes the (defense) goes man, and they turn their backs, and Jalen can run for days. Losing that hurt us a little bit.”
That happened against the Bears. The Eagles faced a 3rd-and-8 from the Bears’ 22. Hurts saw the Bears line up in man coverage, with the safety coming on a blitz. Hurts ran through the vacated hole and went untouched into the end zone.
But it’s more than that.
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Against the Saints, backup Gardner Minshew was sacked twice on the first series and the Eagles punted. There’s little doubt Hurts would’ve escaped one of those and quite possibly picked up a first down. On the second series, the Eagles faced 3rd-and-1, just about an automatic QB sneak for Hurts. Minshew dropped back to pass and was sacked.
In all, the Eagles went 3-and-out on their first four possessions in the 20-10 loss. They didn’t get their first first-down until 12 seconds remained in the first half.
With Hurts, it’s easy to see the offense getting into a rhythm because they’re converting first downs. And that’s often because Hurts takes it into his own hands to make sure it happens.
“I think he’s savvy about how he goes down,” Sirianni said. “It’s going to be moreso some different things of how we talk to him about that, and tell him, ‘Hey, we don’t want to you take this hit here or there.’
“Sure, he’s competitive and he’s going to want to go out and do everything he can do. But he also has to understand regardless of with the shoulder or without the shoulder, that he has to be smart when takes hits and when he doesn’t take hits.
“And we have to be smart ourselves as to how we call that as well.”
So far, the Eagles said Hurts has looked good in practice.
“He’s a freak,” Minshew said. “He’s right back to where he needs to be. Excited to see him, whatever happens moving forward.”
So the question is, can the Eagles save Hurts from himself while he saves the Eagles from themselves?
A Giant question
This will be the equivalent of the Eagles’ varsity going against the Giants junior varsity.
We already know the Eagles’ starters are going to play as long as necessary to win the game and secure the NFC East and No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.
And we can certainly assume that the Giants are going to rest their starters. But they can’t rest everybody. The game-day rosters are only 48 players, so some will have to play.
It’s a good bet that quarterback Daniel Jones, running back Saquon Barkley and defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence won’t be among those playing.
The ideal scenario for the Eagles would be to take advantage of the Giants in the second quarter, with most of New York’s starters out of the game by then. The Eagles can then bring back the starters for the opening drive of the third quarter and score another touchdown to clinch the victory.
Then they can rest Hurts, Sanders, A.J. Brown, Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham and Darius Slay and others over the final 1 1/2 quarters.
From there, it’ll resemble a preseason game, with a big prize for the Eagles at the end.
Score: Eagles 30, Giants 19.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
