Coaches will say all kinds of things in press conferences about how they believe in their players, but if you really want to know what a coach thinks, watch the responsibilities given to players on the field. In the case of the Eagles’ passing offense this season, it was abundantly clear — and became more so each week — that head coach Doug Pederson and his staff had less and less faith in Carson Wentz’s ability to execute just about anything. As a result, an offense that was once known for its motion, run-pass options, and schemed openings for receivers when Wentz was at his best had devolved into an offense that didn’t work for anyone with its static pre-snap looks, isolation routes, and uninteresting play-action concepts.
That’s one reason that, after a 30-16 Week 13 loss to the Packers in which Wentz completed six passes in 15 attempts for 79 yards before he was replaced by rookie backup Jalen Hurts, Pederson bowed to the inevitable and made Hurts the pre-emptive starter indefinitely.
Thing was, if Hurts wanted to keep the job, he was certainly going to have to earn it — in his first NFL start, he was facing a Saints defense that has been roasting quarterbacks all season with multiple fronts and coverages. New Orleans’ defense came into this game with the second overall ranking in DVOA behind the Steelers, and the NFL’s best mark in Defensive DVOA since Week 10. If the idea was to use Hurts’ running ability to open up the rushing attack as Saints head coach Sean Payton has done with Taysom Hill, it wasn’t going to be easy. And if Hurts was to beat the Saints’ preferred 2-Man defense as my colleague Mark Schofield pointed out this week as a possibility… well, it still wasn’t going to be easy.
Which made Hurts’ performance in a 24-21 win. Hurts finished the day with 17 completions on 30 attempts for 167 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions, adding 106 rushing yards on 18 attempts for good measure. Hurts, with the help of his coaching staff, was able to do every bit of the assigned hope — he made the passing game better with his running, and vice versa. It was the first time this season that a direct positive line between staff, targets, linemen, and quarterback was obvious for this team.
Pederson did say this week that he had looked at how Payton has deployed Hill to get additional ideas for Hurts, but this was far more than giving an iffy quarterback a few option packages with the hope that something will go well.
This 39-yard completion on third-and-7 to fellow rookie Jalen Reagor at the end of the first quarter came out of a mesh concept underneath New Orleans’ dropping linebackers, and gave Hurts an easy open read with yards after catch potential. Mesh is a Pederson staple, and it worked like a charm here. Reagor and receiver Travis Fulgham ran the crossers, and tight end Zach Ertz and receiver Greg Ward occupied the linebackers and safeties with routes up the middle. Ertz’s sit route off of mesh is another Pederson favorite.
Hurts and Lamar Jackson are the only quarterbacks in NFL history to run for more than 100 yards in their first career starts, so the designed quarterback run was a big part of the plan. Perhaps the most notable stat for the Eagles was this, per Pro Football Focus’ Kevin Cole:
Eagles sacks taken
Weeks 1-13: 53
Week 14: 0
— Kevin Cole (@KevinColePFF) December 14, 2020
Hurts only suffered three quarterback hits in the game, so it’s not as if the Saints were almost getting to him over and over. One of the reasons for this was Philly’s highly-effective use of play-action and run-pass options to create backfield mesh points that forced New Orleans’ defenders to read and react instead of pinning their ears back against the rookie. On this fake to running back Miles Sanders, you can see New Orleans’ defense compressed in the middle, giving Hurts an easy out for a nine-yard run. End Cameron Jordan is one of the best in the business, but he’s not going to beat Hurts to the edge without a serious headstart.
“I mean, it was a new experience for me, for sure. My first NFL start out there, I’m excited that I was able to do it with this group of guys, with this team,” Hurts said after the game, via the team’s official site. “We’re ready to get back to work and fix the things we need to fix.
“The guys just told me to be you. Go out there and be J-Hurts. Everything else will take of itself. We all had each other’s back. That’s the beauty in all this. We had each other’s back. We went out there against a really good football team. We had so much money we left on the table (missed opportunities). Moving forward, we just want to continue to build, learn from our mistakes, and hope we progress.
“We talked about energy. We talked about urgency. We talked about a lot of enthusiasm and being there for your brother. We control what we can control. Go out there and try to control the controllables. Go out there and play ball and have fun and trust in one another. That’s what we did today. Lot of grit. Lot of perseverance and we were there for one another.”
Sanders was uneqivocal in his praise.
“He’s a natural leader. He gave us that spark that started last week. I think we look like a complete team. Overall, I think this whole team did a helluva job.”
They did, which makes what to do with Wentz even more complicated than it has been. Obviously, had Hurts come out against a great defense and hit a rookie wall over and over, Pederson might not have been painted into a corner. But the Eagles are 4-8-1 this season and still somehow in the hunt in the NFC East, which means that this is not the time for auditions for next year. People are coaching and playing for their jobs at this point.
Pederson was more restrained, but that’s his job in a difficult situation.
“Sometimes you look for an opportunity to jump-start things and kind of reset a little bit,” the coach 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.”
Well, both things can be true. This win was clearly about one guy playing the game’s most important position at a level the other guy isn’t able to right now for whatever reason, and the resiliency came from that. How far can the Eagles take it? They have the Cardinals next Sunday, and Dallas and Washington to finish out the season, and we’ll see from there.