The Eagles may have a new-look offense, but their success still hinges on Jalen Hurts protecting the football

Eleven NFL teams lost the turnover battle during Week 1 games. Only one of them won.

Spoiler alert: The Eagles were that lone victor. They beat the Green Bay Packers, 34-29, despite Jalen Hurts throwing a pair of interceptions and turning the ball over another time when he lost a faulty snap from Cam Jurgens.

“That’s not sustainable,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said of giving the ball away more than the opponent and still winning.

It isn’t rocket science. Teams that turn the ball over less often than their opponent tend to win more often. The Eagles were tied for second in the NFL in turnover margin per game in 2022 (+0.6) and fell all the way to 27th last season (-0.6). They went to the Super Bowl in 2022; last season, they got fired from the Raymond James Stadium cannons in Tampa Bay in a wild-card loss.

» READ MORE: Eagles OC Kellen Moore’s main job: Keep Jalen Hurts from further devolving into Carson Wentz

Hurts is at the forefront of those swings. In 2022, Hurts threw an interception on 1.3% of his throws, tied for the third-lowest percentage in the NFL. He was 27th at 2.8% last season.

The Eagles spent the offseason revamping their offense. Sirianni ceded control of the unit and hired offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to run the show, but while Hurts looked at times like a quarterback in command of a new-look offense, he reverted to the player from last season who couldn’t take care of the football when his team needed him to most.

“I made two unwise decisions,” Hurts said Thursday, his first time speaking to reporters since immediately after the game Friday. “Those are all things that I own. Those are things that I got to be better with, truly managing those situations and taking what they give me.”

On the communication with Jurgens, Hurts said they’re still finding a rhythm and a flow. The fumble vs. Green Bay came when Jurgens snapped the ball to an unsuspecting Hurts, who was making a check and looking in another direction. The center-quarterback combination nearly fumbled another ball away near the end of the game at the goal line, but Saquon Barkley jumped on the ball and preserved the Eagles’ chance at extending their lead with a field goal.

To his credit, Hurts mostly flushed those plays and, with the help of Barkley’s running, helped the Eagles win with efficient execution down the stretch.

Hurts and the bulk of the first-team offense did not take any snaps in the preseason, and despite the Eagles having game-like intrasquad scrimmages and a joint practice in New England, Friday was the first time Hurts has gone through a game plan with Moore and quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier. He called it a “trial run.”

“Everything is different because you’re working with different individuals,” Hurts said. “My process and how I prepared for a game last year, in some areas it might not be the same.”

That includes how things look and sound on the sideline between each series. Hurts included practice-squad quarterback Will Grier, who was with Moore last season with the Los Angeles Chargers and previously in Dallas, as one of his sounding boards.

Moore on Wednesday said he was “not overly concerned” with Hurts’ turnovers last week. “To me, they are outliers,” he said.

To Eagles fans, however, they are not, at least not lately. Hurts had just three games in 2023 without a turnover. Four if you count the playoff game, but the offense scored just one touchdown in a 32-9 loss. He had eight such games in 2023 and was turnover-free in the two playoff wins that got the Eagles to the Super Bowl, where his lost fumble that resulted in a Kansas City touchdown may have been the difference.

And while Patrick Mahomes also had just three 2023 games without a turnover, Hurts isn’t Mahomes-like when it comes to the other areas of the game to cancel out the turnovers.

Moore’s offense, with its motion and with Barkley on board, showed signs of new life Friday night. But whether it all works or not will depend on Hurts’ ability to limit the amount of times he hands the other team the ball. “It’s just about making good decisions,” Hurts said. He made a few bad ones Friday. Then, he ended the game with poise and control, both in throwing the ball and using his legs. Which version will the Eagles get moving forward?

“In the end, it’s my job to go out there and lead the football team, go out there and get us in the right play, get us out of certain situations, and ultimately play smart football situationally,” Hurts said. “I touch the ball every play, so you got to be wise with the ball in your hands, and I had some examples where I wasn’t wise with the ball in my hands. But in the end, things tend to turn on and click when you need them to and that’s what we work hard for, those moments.”