‘I hate hearing 5-0′: Eagles’ Nick Sirianni discusses Jalen Hurts’ attitude, A.J. Brown’s lack of touches

Jalen Hurts is well aware of his team’s perfect start to the season. But the Eagles’ starting quarterback doesn’t want to listen to any of the hype.

“I personally, honest — I hate hearing 5-0,” Hurts said. “I don’t like to hear it.”

Hurts insists the Eagles have yet to play to their potential. His thinking falls in line with that of coach Nick Sirianni, who maintains a “1% better every day” mantra.

But more than one month into the regular season, the Eagles are the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL, and perfection is bound to come with an uptick in attention surrounding the team. On Sunday night, the Eagles will host the Dallas Cowboys in an anticipated NFC East showdown at Lincoln Financial Field.

On Monday afternoon, Sirianni reiterated his messaging to the team.

“It’s the same as it’s always been — we’ve got to go 1-0 this week,” Sirianni said. “To go 1-0 this week, we’ve got to go 1-0 in the day we’re at. To go 1-0 in the day we’re at, we’ve got to be ready in our meetings, whatever we’re in at that particular time. ... Jalen understands that the next game is the most important one. That’s exactly what we preach as coaches.

“Does 5-0 feel good? Yeah! Do we want 6-0 to happen? Then we better do everything we need to do this week to ramp up for it.”

While Eagles rookie kicker Cameron Dicker was perfect in his debut, his counterpart, Cardinals fill-in kicker Matt Ammendola infamously missed the potential game-tying field goal at the end of the game. At first glance, Ammendola’s attempt from 43 yards appeared to hook wide right.

However, multiple replays displayed that defensive lineman Milton Williams might have gotten his right hand on the football, although it wasn’t clear-cut. For what it’s worth, Williams posted a photo of him attempting to block the kick on his Instagram account. Sirianni didn’t seem convinced that Williams played a factor in the miss that decided the outcome of the game, but he plans to ask him about it later in the week.

Sirianni rewarded his players with two scheduled off days, so he won’t be able to check in with Williams until Wednesday when the team reconvenes for practice.

“It’s hard to tell,” Sirianni said. “I’ll ask Milton when he gets in. I don’t know. It went pretty straight for a little bit, then it took that right turn, so I’m assuming he didn’t based on the kick’s trajectory. But he may have.

“There’s a clip that somebody sent me of how our sideline reacted after the miss, and how the fans in our stadium — Arizona’s stadium, which might as well been our stadium — react after the kick. That was a cool video.”

» READ MORE: Why are the Eagles 5-0? Easy. Jalen Hurts doesn’t do dumb stuff.

In what was considered as a surprise to many, Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown was affixed to the sideline for the team’s first four plays. After he finally hit the field, Brown was the recipient of Hurts’ next three passes. But that would be Brown’s entire workload for the day.

Brown, who signed a four-year deal worth $100 million this past offseason, finished with three catches and 32 receiving yards. He appeared in just 54 of 73 snaps on offense, which marked Brown’s lowest snap percentage (73%) this season.

With Brown neglected in the passing offense, the coaching staff and Hurts favored tight end Dallas Goedert and DeVonta Smith. Goedert finished with a game-high 95 receiving yards on eight catches, while Smith recorded a career-best 10 receptions.

Sirianni downplayed Brown’s lack of involvement, and pointed to the flow and pace of the game as main attributors for Brown’s final stat line. Despite the down week, Brown is still fifth in the NFL in receiving yards (436).

“Obviously we still have plays called for A.J.,” Sirianni said. “It wasn’t like he got his three [catches], and this is the week Dallas and DeVonta get a lot. It was the same thing for DeVonta in the first game [zero catches vs. Lions]. You always want your playmakers to want to get the ball in their hands. That’s why they’re big-time playmakers. They crave the ball, need the ball, want the ball. We know [Brown] wants that football. But sometimes the flow of the game doesn’t allow you to do that.

“Make no mistake about it, our pass game runs through those three guys [Brown, Smith, and Goedert].”