Eagles Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown sent Steelers, NFL an inappropriate message

PHILADELPHIA − Jalen Hurts didn’t even wait for the questions to begin before giving a brief opening statement.

“So this is what you all wanted to see, right?” he said.

But it doesn’t mean what you think.

Surely everyone was intrigued by AJ Brown’s one-word answer last week – “pass” – about what needed to be improved after an underwhelming win over the Carolina Panthers. Speculation about a strained relationship between Hurts and Brown followed, fueled by Brandon Graham.

Hurts threw for 290 yards, his second-highest total of the season, as the Eagles defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-13 on Sunday.

Brown and DeVonta Smith each passed for 100 yards with 110 and 109, respectively, and Brown and Hurts danced and hugged each other like everything was great after Brown’s 5-yard touchdown catch late in the first quarter.

“This was our moment to tell everyone to shut up,” Brown said. “Honest.”

Give Brown his diva moment. As Hurts said last week, Brown “damn wants the ball,” and Hurts made damn sure Brown got it.

But all the hand-wringing throughout the week over fixing the passing game was just an excuse for why the Eagles won their 10th straight game, a franchise record, and possibly win a Super Bowl, too.

This was evident in the second half when the Eagles held the ball for 24 minutes and 10 seconds while the Steelers only lasted 5:50. That included an incredible finish as the Eagles held the ball for 10:29 in the final, running 21 plays and gaining 99 yards.

“Death by a thousand cuts,” is how left tackle Jordan Mailata described the drive.

Saquon Barkley – remember him? − The man on pace to break Eric Dickerson’s NFL record of 2,105 rushing yards in a season had just 65 yards on 19 carries. On that final drive, Barkley carried the ball seven times for 10 yards.

And yet Barkley was hardly worried. With a little less than 10 minutes left, the Eagles faced a 3rd-and-6 from their 7-yard line and the Steelers were close to getting the ball back into good field position to cut the Eagles’ 14-point lead to shorten.

Hurts quietly hit Brown on a crossover pattern for 21 yards. The Steelers never sniffed the ball again.

“We won a game where we didn’t run for 200, 300 yards,” Barkley said. “So everyone – the media in Philly – can take a deep breath. We can move on and prepare for Washington.”

Make no mistake, the running game and defense make the Eagles Super Bowl contenders. The passing game is the proverbial icing on the cake.

But it’s not like Hurts never threw a pass. After all, he led the Eagles to the Super Bowl in 2022 and threw for 304 yards against the Chiefs in the Eagles’ 38-35 loss.

It’s just that Hurts hasn’t had to throw the ball much this season. He averaged 21.4 passes per game over the last nine games. The Eagles won them all.

“Look at how efficiently we’ve been passing the ball over the last nine weeks in this short stretch we’ve been in,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “I just think it’s a little exaggerated because we ran the ball so well.”

Of course, Brown caused a lot of disproportion with his “passing game” comment, followed by what he called “tough talk” throughout the week emphasizing the passing game.

Passing fantasy:Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown “tell everyone to shut up,” Eagles pass Steelers

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“It was a focus this week,” Brown said. “And we even overdid it. I think we did a really good job.”

Like the first three plays, when the Eagles fielded with an empty backfield and Hurts completed a 22-yard pass to Grant Calcaterra, a 7-yard pass to Brown and a 21-yard pass to Smith.

After all, Brown is proud. He had 1,496 yards in 2022 and 1,456 yards last season. Brown’s targets this season have been as low as his yards. He has 946 receiving yards this season despite missing three games early in the season with a hamstring injury.

But even Brown knows this Eagles team is different. That Hurts’ 32 pass attempts, his most since Week 3, are more of a departure than a shift in philosophy. After all, the Steelers only allowed 91.5 yards on the ground to start the game.

So yes, it could have been a game where the Eagles had to win by passing. Then they ran the ball anyway to end the game.

“That’s what I’m going to say,” Brown said. “We played the game the way it was presented to us. We ran the ball, which is fine. This week it was just something different. The last couple weeks we’ve been running the ball.” “The O-line has done a good job, Saquon has done a great job.”

This formula will not change. But every now and then, the Eagles have to show that they can pass the ball effectively when they need to – and to keep Brown happy.

But actually, Hurts had a passer rating of 100 or better eight times during the 10-game winning streak. Hurts was at 125.3 on Sunday. That meant he didn’t even make it into the top three during the streak, despite throwing for the most yards during the 10-game run.

“The approach was a little different this week,” Hurts said. “The grass will be green where you water it. We decided to water it (in the passing game) and saw it as the fruit of our labor. Obviously we watered the running game a good bit.”

So what was wrong with the passing game? Maybe nothing, except Brown wanting to prove it exists and Hurts wanting to remind everyone he can throw, even with a broken finger on his non-throwing hand.

““The scrutiny never stops,” Hurts said. “This is nothing new.” This is something that excites me. I appreciate being told that I can’t do it and that we can’t do it.”

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