They aren’t who we thought they were. It’s as simple as that. So is the explanation. Jalen Hurts isn’t doing the things that made him a difference-maker. Darius Slay and Avonte Maddox have been hurt. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson is gone.
Mostly, it’s Hurts. He is not making the explosive plays with his legs that we saw throughout 2022. Those plays consistently make a difference in games. There’s your grand unified theory of the rise and fall of the 2023 Eagles. There is no mystery. All of the other noise is just that. Noise. The pouting wide receivers, the demoted defensive coordinator, the horizontal passing scheme, all are second-order effects.
They are the symptoms, the second-order effects, the inevitable fallout from a team that thinks it should be better than it is. Teams lose, players get frustrated, coaches get desperate, all of it builds and builds and then blows up in spectacular fashion. That’s how a team goes from 10-1 in Week 12 to wondering whether the season can be saved in Week 18. That’s why the Eagles are where they are now.
Everyone agrees that Hurts is a difference-maker. When a difference-maker stops making differences, the results look different.
The most telling play of the Eagles’ 35-31 loss to the Cardinals on Sunday came with 2:01 left in the third quarter. Hurts gained 9 yards around right end, and, in doing so, recorded his first rushing attempt of the game. That’s an amazing thing, wholly at odds with who the Eagles have been when they’ve been at their best. Hurts has made huge strides as a passer, both in the pocket and out. But when you look back at some of the Eagles’ biggest wins over the last two seasons, you will consistently see Hurts’ scrambling ability as the decisive factor.
Remember that shootout win over Aaron Rodgers and the Packers at Lambeau Field in 2022? Hurts had runs of 28 and 24 yards on the Eagles’ first touchdown drive. He broke off a 42-yard run to set up their third touchdown. Take any one of those away and maybe a 40-33 win is an overtime loss. Take all three away and the Eagles are almost certainly 13-4 instead of 14-3.
Thing is, each of those runs would have been his longest of this season. Same goes for the 26-yard touchdown against the Vikings in Week 2 of last season. That one came with 1:58 to go in the second quarter and left the Eagles enough time to get the ball back and add a field goal before the half. Those 10 points were the Eagles’ last of the game. Take away that run and maybe you have a 17-7 game in the second half. Maybe Minnesota plays it a little more conservative. Maybe Kirk Cousins doesn’t throw three interceptions in field goal range, two of them in the end zone.
