With Jalen Hurts, you have to look beyond the stats

[time2rock]

With Jalen Hurts, you have to look beyond the stats

 

 

 

Reuben Frank

EAGLES INSIDER

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a football player with such a dramatic disconnect between his stats and his actual performance.

If somebody didn’t watch the Eagles-Lions game and was just following along online and checking out Jalen Hurts’ numbers, you probably figure he had a mediocre game.

Completed 56 percent of his passes, threw for 243 yards, no touchdown passes.

Hurts was one of only three starting QBs Sunday who completed less than 60 percent of his passes and didn’t throw a TD pass.

The others were Dak Prescott, who put up three points, and Trey Lance, who put up 10 points.

Hurts put up 31.

He became the first quarterback to generate 30 points in a season opener despite no touchdown passes and lower than 60 percent accuracy since Tom Brady against the Colts in 2014 in a game LeGarrette Blount rushed for four touchdowns.

We’re going to have to develop new ways to measure Hurts’ performance because conventional stats really don’t tell the story.

What Hurts did Sunday was make a bunch of winning plays at big moments that added up to a 38-35 win over the Lions.

If you’re playing fantasy, he didn’t help you much.

If you just care about winning and losing, he did.

Because sometimes an incomplete pass is the smartest play. And sometimes a handoff is the smartest play. And sometimes a scramble out of trouble is the smartest play.

Hurts had three throwaways Sunday when he was under terrific pressure, and those are plays where he’s able to use his speed and athleticism to turn a six- or seven-yard loss into an incomplete pass. Those are winning plays that hurt his stats.

Hurts was blitzed constantly and repeatedly escaped trouble and turned broken plays or potential sacks into big gains. And 90 rushing yards is 90 yards. A 16-yard run on third down helps the offense just as much as a 16-yard completion on third down.

If you forget the passing stats for a second and look at the big picture, Hurts accounted for 333 yards of offense, engineered four touchdown drives and didn’t turn the ball over.

Do you know how many quarterbacks generated 300 yards of offense Sunday without a turnover?

Three.

Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson – who are Super Bowl winners – and Hurts. And Wilson lost.

And this whole thing about how he didn’t throw any touchdown passes is just silly.

He threw a 54-yarder to A.J. Brown down to the 4-yard-line that would have been a touchdown if Will Harris wasn’t grabbing Brown’s jersey all the way down the right sideline. And he threw a 22-yarder to Dallas Goedert down to about the one-foot line that could have easily been a touchdown. Boston Scott scored one play later.

You think Nick Sirianni and Shane Steichen were sitting there on the flight back to Philly Sunday night bummed about no TD passes and 56 percent accuracy?

They were celebrating an offense that put up 31 points on the road in a season-opening win in a deafening stadium.

It just so happens that the Eagles have a dominating running game with three capable backs, and those rushing TDs count the same six points as passing TDs. 

And you’ve got to love an offense that opened the season with 200-plus yards both rushing and passing. That kind of balance makes the Eagles even harder to defend. The Eagles are now 28-3 in franchise history when they’re 200-plus in both.

What’s most important is that Hurts didn’t make any glaring mistakes. He underthrew a pass to Kenny Gainwell near the goal-line, had a couple passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage, could have had an intentional grounding called.

He wasn't perfect.

But overall, in less-than-ideal conditions, in a difficult place to play, facing more pressure than anticipated, without much help from the defense, Hurts did exactly what he had to do to win a football game.

Get the ball down the field. Run when it was smart to run. Avoid turnovers. Turn potentially disastrous plays into positive ones. Convert third downs (and a huge fourth down) with his arm and legs. 

Forget the stats for a minute. Forget the numbers and the percentages and the rankings.

Hurts is 9-7 under Nick Sirianni and 7-2 in his last nine starts. He’s got 12 combined touchdowns and just five INTs in those last nine games.

He’s 24, he’s started 20 games in his career, he’s showing growth in some key areas, and he’s got a calmness about him that allows him to make clutch plays at the biggest moments.

So forget about the numbers. This was a promising start to the 2022 season for Hurts, who doesn’t seem to be very good at piling up glossy stats but does seem to have a knack for winning football games.

Which is all that matters.

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-jalen-hurts-stats-eagles-lions-week-1-nfl

[UK_EaglesFan89]

Roob and his positivity. Look don't get me wrong there was a big overreaction to the win and you'd have thought it was a loss. The defense was bad and Hurts didn't throw a TD pass and our stud WR #2 didn't catch a pass and barely got a look. But Roob is just on one in terms of bigging up everyone within the organisation.