Eagles’ amazing answer to Jalen Carter’s stupidity, bad defense, little from Saquon Barkley

The Eagles lost their best defensive player in Jalen Carter before the first snap of the game in a senseless spitting incident with Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.  The defense was strafed up and down the field by Prescott and star wide receiver CeeDee Lamb throughout the first half.  As for the highly-acclaimed offense, with Saquon Barkley coming off a 2,005-yard rushing season and wide receiver A.J. Brown with three straight seasons of 1,000-yard plus yards receiving, well, both players were pretty much held in check.

Barkley averaged 3.3 yards per carry, and Brown didn’t have his first touch of the game until less than 2 minutes remained.  And oh yeah, there was a one-hour weather delay late in the third quarter that sent both teams back to the locker room.  No worries, Jalen Hurts was in control.  Hurts is why the Eagles pulled out a 24-20 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in their season opener Sept. 4. It was straight out of an Orwellian tragedy, where pretty much anything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

Except for Hurts.  Get used to it. After the Eagles won the Super Bowl last February, demolishing the Kansas City Chiefs, it should have become evident that opponents will do anything possible to stop Barkley. In his last two games, Barkley has 117 yards on 43 carries, an average of 2.7 yards per carry.  So maybe we should already be used to it. At least Hurts is.  Take away Barkley? Fine. Hurts will run for first downs, like he did against the Cowboys. Hurts led the Eagles in rushing with 62 yards on 14 carries. Barkley had 60 on 18 carries, averaging 3.3 yards per game.

Take away Brown? Fine. Hurts will throw deep down the field to Jahan Dotson for a 51-yard completion late in the first half.  That set up the go-ahead touchdown on Barkley’s 10-yard run with 51 seconds left in the first half, giving the Eagles a 21-17 lead. The Cowboys ended the half with a field goal, then never scored again.  The pass to Dotson represented just about one-third of Hurts’ passing yardage of 152 yards as Hurts went 19 of 23.

“When you look over the last five years of me playing the quarterback position here at Philly, what have they called in and said?” Hurts said. “‘Make him beat us as a passer.’ And so what does that change? It’s kind of been the same thing for our run game over the years.  “I think people look for the production of certain things, and I’m just looking for the efficiency. There comes a moment where you have to meet the moment and take advantage of things when they come, and I think as a team, we did that.”  This is what separates Hurts from just about every other quarterback in the NFL. He does what it takes to win, no matter what it looks like.

Like in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. The Cowboys were clinging to one last chance when the Eagles faced a 2nd-and-11 from their 45 yard line. Hurts rolled to his left and threw to Brown for 8 yards, setting up a 3rd-and-3.  This time, Hurts used his legs, escaping pressure, then bolting up the middle for 4 yards and a first down.

Game over.

“I think Jalen played a really efficient game,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “He made a lot of plays with his feet when things weren’t particularly there. That’s such an advantage. There was a third-down; (the Cowboys) took away his first read; he re-situated his feet and put the ball to Dallas (Goedert).

“He’s a big reason why we won that football game, the game that he played. Again, I know that it’ll say that we threw for 152 yards. ‘What’s going on? Why didn’t we throw (more)?’ But, Jalen played really efficiently and really (well) from what I saw. He made plays with his legs, his mind, and with his arm.”

This is what Hurts has always done.

He’s just doing it better because he’s older, he’s more experienced, and he knows when to pick his spots.

But Hurts will never admit that.

“It is just finding a way to win and advance the ball,” he said. “It’s about efficiency. It’s about finding a way to win, and that’s my mentality with the game.”

It was only fitting that legendary NBA player Michael Jordan was in attendance watching from a luxury suite. Hurts and Jordan have become fast friends through their association with Nike.

Jordan, of course, had won six NBA championships while starring for the Chicago Bulls back in the 1990s. While Jordan was a prolific scorer, he also had a winning mentality. Hurts has shown that, too, taking the Eagles to two Super Bowls in three seasons.

Hurts was the MVP in the most recent Super Bowl.

So Carter’s ejection, the Eagles’ shaky defense in the first half, a weather delay, Barkley and Brown shut down … None of it was enough to stop Hurts. He made sure Michael Jordan saw that too.

“You have a special guest, a special friend in attendance,” Hurts said about Jordan. “There’s only one thing you can do and that’s win. So I have a lot of love for him.”

It’s easy to surmise that the feeling is mutual on Jordan’s part.