Jalen Hurts recognizes Eagles passing game’s room for improvement but reiterates his sole focus is winning

In the aftermath of the Eagles’ wild-card playoff win against the Green Bay Packers, Jalen Hurts is focused on the result.

It’s fair to acknowledge the uneven production and midgame stagnation from the Eagles’ passing game during the 22-10 win last Sunday — even Hurts did during his Wednesday news conference — but the quarterback also reiterated the priority he places on the final scoreline over the passing statistics.

“I think you guys need to understand that I don’t play the game for anything other than to win,” Hurts said. “My role in each game will be different and the approach in each game is different. You just want to go out there and do your job and take advantage of opportunities, obviously. I think some things are magnified a little bit more because there’s less opportunity in certain areas, but ultimately it’s about winning the game. We’re talking about playoff football.”

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Hurts finished Sunday’s game 13-for-21 with 131 passing yards and two touchdowns as the offense once again leaned heavily on running back Saquon Barkley to serve as the group’s steadying force. After starting the game with six straight completions, Hurts’ next nine dropbacks resulted in seven incompletions and two sacks.

His struggles were amplified by pressure as the Packers began putting extra defenders up to the line of scrimmage to stress the Eagles’ protection plans. According to Pro Football Focus, Hurts was 2-for-8 for 19 yards when pressured and had a passer rating of just 39.6.

Asked for his assessment of his performance after reviewing the film, Hurts conceded there were some missed chances the offense would like to have back.

“I think there are some opportunities, there’s always going to be something that you want back,” Hurts said. “You wish you could have done or taken advantage of, but ultimately I think we all made plays when we needed to the most and that’s what matters.”

Hurts & Co. will face another stiff test this Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams at Lincoln Financial Field, matched up against a defense that had nine sacks in a wild-card upset over the Minnesota Vikings.

Although he faced the Rams defense already this season in a 37-20 win at SoFi Stadium in November, Hurts said he isn’t sure what to expect in the rematch due to the nature of the postseason and the evidence of the Packers playing the offense differently last weekend than they had in the season opener.

“I don’t really know what they’re going to do,” Hurts said. “They’re a great team, I think even Green Bay kind of did some different things that we were not expecting as an offensive unit. It’s the playoffs, you have to be ready for everything.”

This isn’t the first time the Eagles’ passing game has come under scrutiny despite a winning result. Hurts finished the team’s Week 14 victory over the Carolina Panthers 14-for-21 for 108 yards and two scores in a game that ended with star receiver A.J. Brown voicing his frustration with the passing game.

Brown, who had four catches for 43 yards in the 22-16 win over Carolina, had an even smaller role against the Packers. He finished with one catch for 10 yards and just three targets, the lowest number of targets he’s had in a game he finished healthy since joining the Eagles before the 2022 season.

When asked if it would be important to get Brown more involved this coming Sunday against the Rams, Hurts said he’d like to get each of his primary targets, including DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, and Barkley more touches. It’s worth noting Barkley had a career- and franchise-high 255 rushing yards in the team’s first meeting against the Rams in Week 12.

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“They’ve got a great defense, they’ve been very disruptive up front,” Hurts said. “We’ve just got to come and execute, I think it starts in the trenches in a game like this. We’ve been able to run the ball effectively, so hopefully we can continue to impose our will up front.”

Brown, who has also been managing a knee injury that held him out of Wednesday’s practice, said he isn’t concerned about the passing game going into Sunday’s game.

“I’m always going to be optimistic about it,” Brown said. “Last week wasn’t our best performance. Luckily we got another opportunity to go out there and perform and that’s what the focus is on.”

Almost exactly a month removed from voicing his frustration about the state of the passing game with the hopes of holding his teammates accountable, Brown pointed to the group’s ability to figure it out recently as the reason for his confidence.

Hurts had 290 passing yards and two touchdowns against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 15 in response to the shaky performance against the Panthers and Brown’s comments afterward.

“The players in the locker room,” Brown said when asked what gives him confidence. “The coaching staff. We’ve done it before, so it’s not like it’s never been done.”