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It wasn’t the performance anyone wanted or expected out of Jalen Hurts, especially not against the New York Giants. The NFL’s sixth-worst defense came in with the perfect plan: to make Hurts throw the ball.
Which he did. The dual-threat quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles dropped back 31 times and threw three interceptions. Hurts looked utterly confused when the pocket collapsed or his first reads weren’t open. It was all by design, according to Giants safety Julian Love.
“We just tried to play physical and play straight up and kind of make him throw the ball, so to speak,” Love told reporters, via ESPN. “He’s very talented, but we wanted him to beat us throwing.”
Love wasn’t knocking Hurts, a guy he called “pretty dangerous at running the ball.” Of course, New York’s blueprint on how to stop the Eagles’ high-powered rushing attack will probably be copied around the league. Nothing lasts forever, not even cold November reign.
“Obviously, he didn’t play good enough,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said of Hurts. “And we didn’t coach good enough. And it’s all of us.”
Hurts, as he always does, took the brunt of the blame for the 13-7 loss. He simply wasn’t good enough.
“Everybody is going to hold themselves accountable for the things that they did and the things they didn’t do,” Hurts said. “I know as the quarterback of this team – and that’s who I am – I put this team in a bad situation in the first half and I put us in a very bad situation. We were very close to digging ourselves out of it but it wasn’t enough.”
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Eagles-Giants Snap Counts: Week 12
The most glaring name sticking out on the snap counts from Week 12 was DeVonta Smith. It wasn’t due to the number of snaps since Smith played on 61 out 67 offensive snaps. It was the targets he saw. The Eagles’ top pass-catching option was limited to four targets, including zero on the potential game-winning drive in the closing seconds.
Here is the rest of the snap breakdowns from the Eagles-Giants game:
Meanwhile, Jalen Reagor finished with just 45 total snaps yet seven overall targets. And he had two critical drops in the fourth quarter. Quez Watkins (55 snaps) was the No. 2 wideout in this one while Dallas Goedert saw only three targets on 64 snaps.
Another Big Day for Justin Jefferson
Eagles fans are tired of hearing about Justin Jefferson, right? The 22nd overall pick in the 2020 draft – the guy who went one pick after Reagor – caught four balls for 83 yards for the Minnesota Vikings in Week 12. He ranks eighth-best in receptions (67) and third-best in receiving yards (1,027) for the 2021 season.
Not to beat a dead horse but passing on Jefferson arguably set the franchise back. He set an NFL rookie record last season with 1,400 receiving yards on 88 catches. Reagor has just 56 receptions for 597 yards in his first two seasons (23 games).
“I’d say, one, obviously the guy you are talking [Jefferson] about had a phenomenal year,” Eagles general manager Howie Roseman said last January. “It is not like our heads are in the sand and we don’t see that and we didn’t spend a lot of time on that guy.”
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