Jalen Hurts has given the Eagles just what they’ve needed lately: a calming, stabilizing presence

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The best of Jalen Hurts boiled down to two plays Sunday, just two. Second quarter, fourth-and-3 from the Giants’ 41-yard line. Drop back. Hang in the pocket. Take a full-frontal hit. Loft a gorgeous deep throw down the left sideline to A.J. Brown, the ball falling into Brown’s hands as neatly as a coin through a soda-machine slot. A 14-point lead for the Eagles. “An aggressive play,” Hurts called it later, and a vital one.

Fourth quarter. First play. Third-and-7 at the Giants’ 34. Linebacker Matthew Adams bursts through the line on a blitz, a free shot at a stationary quarterback. But he slides down Hurts’ left leg like a firefighter down a pole, and though his knees buckle, Hurts stays on his feet, sprints to the right, gains 16 yards and a first down. Five plays later, it’s Tush Push time. Eagles 28, Giants 3. Good night, good luck, and before you exit the parking lots, make sure you sweep up the ashes of those Saquon Barkley jerseys you burned.

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Two great plays. That’s all. That was enough. For the second straight week, Hurts got through a game without committing a turnover, without making a throw or another decision that was befuddling in its recklessness or cluelessness, without doing anything to make it more difficult for the Eagles to beat an opponent they should beat nine times out of 10. When a quarterback has the kind of season Hurts had two years ago, when he outplays Patrick Mahomes in a performance worthy of winning the Super Bowl MVP Award, when he and his team agree to a contract extension that could pay him as much as $255 million, the great plays usually cease to be surprising. People figure they’re going to see them, and see them often. They become the expectation.

“You want to be able to win in multiple ways,” Hurts said, “and I think as we continue to build, we’ll continue to see that even more. That’s what the good offenses have. They’re capable of doing both. They’re not one-dimensional.

“Everybody knows what kind of ball we’re capable of playing. That’s why we’re held to that standard [by] everyone. So that reality is, you just need to continue to climb.”

He was correct all around. There is a standard for Hurts and the Eagles, and maybe now, nearly five years into his career with them, it’s time to adjust that standard. To lower it some. He was excellent last week against the Browns, maybe the best part of an otherwise unimpressive game from the Eagles offense, and he was clean and efficient and wasn’t called on to do too much against the Giants: 10-for-14, 114 passing yards — 89 of which went to one guy, Brown — a couple of QB-sneak TDs.

Mostly, his day’s assignment was basic: Don’t make a crushing and inexcusable mistake. Give the ball to Barkley. Get out of the way.

“He’s just really emphasized the things he wanted to work on and that we needed to work on for the success of the team,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “That’s something about Jalen Hurts: Anything that he feels or we feel or anybody feels that we need to get better at, he’s going to work his butt off to do so. I really admire him for that.”

He should. For all the tension that appears to be simmering beneath Hurts‘ sometimes-cryptic public comments about his head coach, each benefits from the other‘s presence. Though, compared to last week’s postgame press conference, he was notably more subdued Sunday, Sirianni generally speaks and carries himself as if he has an electric cable crackling through him, never more so than over the last two weeks. Hurts grounds him. He has been and should continue to be the Eagles’ stabilizing force, accepting and filling the role of the mature leader of the team.

As the franchise quarterback, Hurts has the power and leverage in his relationship with Sirianni, and he often speaks as if he knows it. He did Sunday.

“Obviously, he knows I’m behind him,” Hurts said. “He knows that communication is important amongst a team sport, and he’s been doing a good job. He’s really come in with good intensity, good intentionality, trying to deliver good messages for us to be focused and be on the same page. He’s also apologetic when he needs to be.”

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That’s as strong a defense of Sirianni as Hurts has ever delivered, and it’s a long time coming. There have been occasions when he has seemed hesitant to praise him, to stand up for his coach in the same way Sirianni has always stood up for him, especially during that string of nine straight games when Hurts couldn’t stop throwing interceptions or losing fumbles.

Sunday was better. Sunday was calmer for Siranni and cleaner for Hurts. Sunday was the most one-sided Eagles victory in more than a year. None of that is coincidental. Two great plays and solid, smooth, error-free football from Jalen Hurts. That’s all. That’s the proper standard now.