Rookie quarterback Jalen Hurts gave the Eagles’ offense the shock mentor Doug Pederson was searching for, utilizing his arm and legs to control Philadelphia to a 24-21 miracle prevail upon the New Orleans Saints, who saw their nine-game series of wins reach a conclusion.
Making his first beginning instead of the striving Carson Wentz, Hurts went 17-for-30 for 167 yards and a score and ran multiple times for 106 yards. The Saints had gone 56 games without permitting a 100-yard rusher, the longest such streak in the Super Bowl period.
The Eagles (4-8-1) beat that down as well as had two players go past the century mark, as Miles Sanders ran multiple times for 115 yards and two scores, including a 82-yard TD run to put the Eagles up 17-0 at the half. That was their initial noteworthy lead since Week 1.
“He played awesome, man. The tape [speaks] for itself,” Sanders said of Hurts. “He’s so confident. He’s a natural leader. We just needed that, and he gave us that spark starting from last week [against the Green Bay Packers].”
Hurts and Sanders turned into the principal Eagles quarterback/running back team to each scramble for 100 or more yards in a game since Donovan McNabb (107) and Duce Staley (126) in 2002 against the New York Giants. Damages’ 106 surging yards are the second most by a major part in his first vocation start at QB since 1950, following just Lamar Jackson’s 119 yards in 2018, per Elias.
With the success, the Eagles snapped a four-game losing streak and remained inside striking distance of the division-driving Washington Football Team.
“Sometimes you look for an opportunity to jump-start things and kind of reset a little bit,” Pederson said. “Jalen got the start this afternoon, and I thought overall there were some good things and really kind of gave us a spark as a team that I was looking for and, I think, we were looking for as a team. But this win is not about one guy. This win is about this team and how resilient this team is.”
Player and group sources disclosed to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that QB is Hurts’ employment for the remainder of the period, excepting injury or sad play. Likewise, the Eagles mean to keep Wentz and have him be a significant piece of the group pushing ahead, sources revealed to Adam Schefter, so while there is some figuring out to do at the QB position over the long haul, it’s Hurts’ show for the present.
New Orleans mounted a rebound in the subsequent half, however a Josh Sweat strip sack of Taysom Hill on fourth-and-2 with under 10 minutes to play switched things around. The Eagles followed with a six-play, 53-yard scoring drive covered by Sanders’ second surging TD of the game, which incited Hurts, the group’s second-round pick in April, to break into a dance.
“It felt good,” Hurts said of his debut as a starter. “It was a new experience for me, for sure, my first NFL start out there. But I’m excited that I was able to do it with this group of guys, with this team. We’re ready to get back to work and fix the things we need to fix.”
The success included some significant pitfalls, as three-fourths of the auxiliary – cornerbacks Darius Slay (head) and Avonte Maddox (knee) and wellbeing Rodney McLeod (knee) – left in view of injury and didn’t return. Cautious linemen Malik Jackson, Derek Barnett and Sweat were likewise stung. In any case, the safeguard oversaw five sacks and 12 QB hits on Hill while restricting the Saints to 21 focuses, which coordinated a season low for New Orleans.
In the interim, Hurts caused the Eagles’ offense to its most elevated point complete since Week 6.