Eagles’ Jalen Hurts orchestrates another improbable comeback, but ‘enough is never enough’

Jalen Hurts was nearly at a loss for words.

The Eagles quarterback had just orchestrated a 37-34 come-from-behind victory against the Buffalo Bills, accounting for five touchdowns and delivering in each of the crunch-time moments his team needed him to down the stretch. It’s a performance Hurts has become reliable for, even after a sluggish first half in which the quarterback had just 33 passing yards and an interception on 36% completion percentage.

Still, roughly an hour after Hurts stood in the back of the end zone with his arms stretched wide, celebrating his walk-off touchdown run in overtime, the 25-year-old wasn’t sure how to describe the dissonance he was feeling.

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“I kind of had a reflection moment, what am I supposed to say, what do you guys want me to say?” Hurts said. “We just continue to find ways to win. We play together, we’ve shown our resiliency day in and day out, game in and game out, we’ve been challenged in a number of different ways, but we always find a way. That’s something you can’t really take for granted and it’s hard to quantify.”

There is one way to quantify the Eagles’ resilience this season: 10-1. The Eagles have played in eight one-score games so far this year and won seven of them. Sunday’s win marks the third time in as many games that the Eagles conceded a 10-point deficit before taking back control in the final frame and it’s the second straight week in which Hurts has been held under 50 passing yards at halftime only to resurrect the offense late.

He finished 18-for-31 for 200 passing yards and three touchdowns, while also contributing 65 yards and two scores on the ground. After gaining just two first downs in five consecutive series in the first half, he ignited the offense with touchdown throws to A.J. Brown, and then DeVonta Smith, and then Olamide Zaccheaus in regulation before calling his own number for the decisive score in overtime.

The throws to Smith and Zaccheaus in particular drew the best out of Hurts. Smith’s catch came from 15 yards out, when Hurts layered a pass over a Bills linebacker’s head and into a window between two defensive backs. Zaccheaus’ grab, a contested catch in the back of the end zone, came on a scramble drill when Hurts pointed the reserve receiver upfield and unleashed a 29-yard heave just before he reached the sideline.

For Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, Hurts’ second-half performance didn’t offer anything new. It’s just who he is.

“I don’t think there’s anything you learn about him,” Sirianni said. “You know that he’s clutch, he’s been clutch for us and clutch for this city and this team for the past three years now. He just kept going and put his head down and worked and made some big-time plays in the end.”

Eagles center Jason Kelce added, “I think it’s a Jalen performance. There aren’t too many guys that I’ve played with who are more clutch down the stretch. Especially last year, two-minute situations, game on the line, in the Super Bowl ... he’s been so good in crucial situations when things have to happen. That’s a trait not to take lightly. When you look at most of the best players, that’s a trait that they have to have. A big reason we’ve won the last three weeks.”

For Hurts, evaluating the entirety of the game left him with mixed emotions.

“I have not executed to the level of my standard and what that is yet,” Hurts said. “It seems to be enough. But in terms of the standard that I like to play to consistently and what I like us to play to consistently as a team, enough is never enough.”

For the entirety of the first half, Hurts’ play did appear to be insufficient. He threw his 10th interception of the season, a new career high, on the Eagles’ third drive of the game. The throw was reminiscent of multiple he’s had this year, a deflection off of Bills’ defensive end Leonard Floyd that caromed toward linebacker Terrel Bernard for the pick.

Hurts was also charged with a fumble three series later, when he awkwardly tried to hand the ball off to Kenneth Gainwell as the running back went to pick up a blitzing Bills defender. Buffalo capitalized off each of Hurts’ turnovers, scoring 14 points en route to a 17-7 halftime lead.

Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata said the offense made an effort to “simplify” things at halftime, although the first series of the third quarter ended with another Eagles three-and-out. The offense scored touchdowns on each of its next three series, though, sparked by a dominant showing from an offensive line featuring Jack Driscoll at right tackle and Hurts serving as a steady presence.

“[He’s] just clutch in clutch moments,” Sirianni said. “There’s going to be plays that he wants back from the first half, there’s going to be calls that we’re going to want back from the first half, but he made some big-time plays when they mattered the most.”

Of course Hurts got plenty of help. The defense kept things close during a stretch of the game when the Bills dominated time of possession. Buffalo ran 92 plays to the Eagles’ 65 and had 40-plus minutes with the ball.

Jake Elliott’s 59-yard field goal that sent the game to overtime also bailed the offense out after consecutive false-start penalties and an incomplete pass to Brown on third down.

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Perhaps most importantly, Jordan Davis’ third-down effort to chase Josh Allen out of bounds and force Buffalo into an overtime field goal gave Hurts a chance to win the game. He obliged with a quarterback draw against what several Eagles players characterized as a perfect look.

Still, the ever-stoic Hurts was measured in his self-evaluation. The Eagles are 10-1, but he’s unsatisfied.

Will he ever be?

“I talk about it all the time, it’s a standard,” Hurts said. “It’s in a sense manipulative to myself. Winning is the only thing that matters, but the standard is pretty darn important, too.”