Jalen Hurts falls on the sword after another turnover plagues another Eagles defeat

TAMPA, Fla. — Jalen Hurts pulled out his Andy Reid thesaurus and found every way possible to fall on the pirate sword after the Eagles were shot from the Raymond James Stadium cannon into their bye week with an abomination — a 33-16 defeat that felt even more lopsided and featured some of the same problems plaguing the Eagles as they limp to a 2-2 start.

Hurts used variations of “I have to be better” and “it starts with me” to answer multiple questions. The Eagles were without arguably three of their five most important offensive players in star receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson, a caveat worth mentioning from the jump, but they again failed to score in the first quarter, becoming the only team in the NFL to be scoreless in the opening frame through four games. And Hurts again turned the ball over in a critical spot, the Eagles trailing by just two scores late in the third quarter after starting off by allowing 24 unanswered points.

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The Eagles quarterback has four interceptions and three lost fumbles through four games. The Eagles are now minus-6 in the turnover department. There were more than a handful of reasons the Eagles lost Sunday, but if every other phase improves — like the defense learning to tackle and pressure the quarterback, Nick Sirianni’s fourth-down decisions always being right, and if everyone were healthy — Hurts’ inability to take care of the football might have them in this same position anyway.

Hurts wasn’t in the top three reasons the Eagles lost in Week 2 to Atlanta, but his decision to inexplicably chuck a deep ball into coverage on the interception that sealed the defeat, when isolated, stunted the Eagles’ chances at pulling off a win with a late field goal.

Hurts has 27 turnovers since the beginning of last season, and no NFL quarterback has more.

Asked how he processes that reality, and what the operation will be to improve it during the bye, Hurts said: “I got to be better. That’s the only thing I can say. I think things will be better once we establish an identity for ourselves, and we’re trying to figure that out.”

The Eagles may not have their identity yet. Tight end Dallas Goedert and running back Saquon Barkley both said after Sunday’s loss that the team was still searching for one, that part of the bye week would be figuring out what that is.

Right now, their identity is a porous defense, and an offense that, led by Hurts, has nearly as many turnovers as it does touchdowns.

There’s an argument to be made that Sunday’s turnover wasn’t on Hurts, and Sirianni made one. The Eagles had a first down at Tampa’s 19-yard line trailing 30-16 inside three minutes to play in the third quarter. Hurts did well to sidestep a blitzing Lavonte David, but David got to the quarterback as he went to uncork a pass that was intended for tight end Grant Calcaterra.

“That’s not Jalen, but Jalen gets credited for that,” Sirianni said.

But there’s an argument, too, that Hurts’ pocket presence in his fifth NFL season isn’t where it needs to be for a team that claims to have Super Bowl aspirations.

“I think it’s a matter of being decisive and knowing exactly what you’re about to do,” Hurts said. “I think if we get that ball off we have an opportunity to Grant Calcaterra down the middle of the field. Just didn’t end up having enough time in that situation.”

Hurts, who was sacked six times Sunday, wasn’t interested in using the missing players as an excuse for the offense’s performance. The Eagles finished the first quarter with zero yards gained on offense. They had zero first downs to Tampa’s 10. It wasn’t much rosier by halftime when Tampa had 287 yards to the Eagles’ 69 and 18 first downs to the Eagles’ six. At one point, after rookie wide receiver Johnny Wilson left the game to be evaluated for a concussion, two of Hurts’ three healthy wide receivers were practice squad elevations Parris Campbell and John Ross.

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“I didn’t play good enough,” Hurts said. “That’s what it comes down to. Put a lot of time in this week to take advantage of this game and what we had and the guys that we had a lot of trust in. We took advantage of some and some we didn’t. But, ultimately, it starts with me.

“You got to give guys opportunities and put guys in positions to be successful. I have to play point out there and distribute it, really run the show and lead it, lead the charge offensively and as a team. I got to be better at that.”

After Sirianni deflected the blame from Sunday’s turnover away from Hurts, he was asked about the totality of the issue, that the one constant right now has been turnovers from Hurts, who hasn’t had a regular season game without a turnover since Week 12 of last season.

“There’s many things that go into it,” Sirianni said. “It could be the call that we made. It could be the protection by a back or an offensive lineman. It could be somebody didn’t win down the field. It could be he held onto it too long. … At the end of the day, it’s a team game and it’s on all of us. To be minus-6, we all own that. All of us are responsible, starting with me.”

Right now, the Eagles need less sword falling and more action. The trajectory of their season depends on it.