Jalen Hurts, MVP favorite, might have sent Aaron Rodgers into retirement as Eagles roll Packers
The best passer in history was outplayed by the NFC's new king of quarterbacks — who set an Eagles rushing record — as retirement looms for the injured 38-year-old.
In front of the nation and in prime time, Jalen Hurts outplayed the most talented quarterback who ever lived.
“That’s just who Jalen is,” said Nick Sirianni, his coach. “I don’t think he’s fazed by the moment.”
To the contrary. The Moment seems to make Hurts play better.
Hurts combined a breathtaking display of athleticism, maturity, and precision to produce a 40-33 win in one of the better performances by a quarterback in Eagles history. He ran for 157 yards, a franchise record for a quarterback and the fifth-most rushing yards for a QB in NFL history.
How’d he gain so many yards?
“I ran,” he said, quietly, “and they couldn’t get me.”
He threw for two touchdowns. He had no interceptions.
Hurts raised his star higher and higher, on the same field, on the same night, that Aaron Rodgers’ light grew dimmer and dimmer.
If you looked closely, you could see a torch pass.
This was never just Packers vs. Eagles. This always was Hurts vs. Rodgers.
It was a referendum on the quarterbacks. For a while, whenever an established quarterback faces Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, it always will be a referendum on the quarterbacks. There is no greater question mark in cleats than Hurts. He just keeps on answering those questions.
Most recently, Hurts welcomed Aaron Rodgers, the most talented passer in NFL history, to Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday Night Football.
It was Hurts’ finest hour; a 40-33 prime-time win over the best who ever did it.
It might have been Rodgers’ final hour.
The contrast in ability and desire was obvious and astonishing. Rodgers wasn’t only the second-best quarterback in the game Sunday night, he was the second-best quarterback on his team. Jordan Love, the controversial first-round backup Rodgers has resented since the 2020 draft, led the Pack to 10 points after Rodgers exited with two very nice touchdowns and two very bad interceptions.
Hurts knows something about in-house resentment as a 2020 pick. Carson Wentz dissolved into irrelevance as soon as the Eagles drafted Hurts in the second round of that draft.
Rodgers, by contrast, responded with back-to-back MVP seasons, but his passion has waned as abruptly as his abilities. Rodgers hasn’t ruled out retirement after 2022, especially considering how much 2021 diminished his profile, despite stellar regular-season play.
In 2021, Rodgers lied about his vaccination status, spread COVID-19 disinformation, played badly in a first-round playoff upset, then, at 38, teased retirement in the offseason until the Packers gave him a crippling, three-year, $150.8 million contract extension.
The Eagles will find themselves in a similar situation soon. Hurts is due an extension.
His price tag increases by the game.
» READ MORE: Is a contract extension for Jalen Hurts inevitable? Even the Eagles don’t know, but here are some possible answers.
Hurts broke the Eagles’ single-game rushing record for a quarterback ... in the third quarter. Michael Vick set it, at 130, in 2010 against the Giants. Hurts also went 16-for-28 passing for 153 yards with two touchdowns.
Rodgers is fading. So is Tom Brady. Dak Prescott is on his heels, but Hurts is the most valuable and most dangerous quarterback in the NFC. His passer rating of 104.3 and his 593 rushing yards both rank second.
His 10-1 record, of course, ranks first.
One hundred fifty-seven yards is a nice number, and he appreciates passing the likes of Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, and Randall Cunningham — all Black quarterbacks he has said he admires for both their accomplishments and their courage.
“It means everything. I have a great deal of respect for those guys — the guys who have come before me,” Hurts said.
So yes, 157 is nice. But 10-1 is far nicer.
“I’ve made myself clear,” Hurts said for, oh, the 100th time. “The most important thing is winning.”
He won on a momentous night against a Mount Rushmore quarterback.
It doesn’t matter that Rodgers arrived in Philly with a six-week-old injury in his throwing thumb; He’d compiled a 115.9 passer rating in the last two games, including a win over the Cowboys. It didn’t matter that he left with a freshly injured rib that ended his night, and maybe his season, though he said after the game he hopes to continue next week.
To what end? His team fell to 4-8. Further, the future in Wisconsin is bleak as the Hall of Fame beckons. He once was the Michael Jordan of football — Chicago Bulls Jordan.
He’s becoming Washington Wizards Jordan, with a Kanye West vibe, and, as with his Airness, it’s painful to watch A-Rod flail.
But even if Rodgers on Sunday, as for most of this season, wasn’t his incomparable old self, he hasn’t been the Pack’s biggest problem in 2022. Youth, injuries, and a shoddy run defense have pushed the Pack to irrelevance.
They entered ranked 27th against the run, and it showed. The Eagles gained 98 rushing yards and scored two touchdowns in the first 10 minutes and finished with 363, the second-best output in franchise history; their record of 376 was set Nov. 21, 1948, in a 42-21 win over Washington.
Hurts skewed Sunday’s rushing numbers, with big play after big play.
He converted three third downs in the first 16 minutes. First, on third-and-10, he faked his spy, Quay Walker, onto the ground, and ran through the tackle of Darnell Savage, who injured his foot on the play, and gained 24 yards. Second, on third-and-6, he scooted for 28 yards. Those runs set up the Eagles’ first touchdown.
For his third conversion, on third-and-2, Hurts scooted 42 yards up the right side. Somehow, Walker was on the left side of the field. Maybe he didn’t want to be embarrassed again.
That run set up the Eagles’ third TD. Hurts threw a lovely back-shoulder toss 30 yards for a touchdown to Quez Watkins.
By halftime, Hurts had run 10 times for 126 yards, completed 11 of 17 passes (three throwaways) for 128 yards and a touchdown, and hit five different receivers.
He fired a 14-yard dime to the left sideline, across his body, in the face of pressure, and converted third-and-12 at the Packers’ 19 midway through the third quarter. That framed Hurts’ 6-yard TD toss to A.J. Brown.
“He does a lot of things that are tough to account for,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We were in some situations where we are capable of making some tackles. We just didn’t make them.
“He’s an unbelievable talent.”
The genius of quarterbacking often exhibits itself not in the plays they make, but rather in the discretion they show. Such was the case with Hurts on Sunday. He escaped almost everything but forced nothing. For example:
He threw a pass away after he spun out of the massive arms of Devonte Wyatt, then ran away from fast rookie linebacker Kingsley Enagbare, who’d run a 4.8-second 40-yard dash in March. It happened at the end of the third quarter.
Enagbare spent the intermission with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. Enagbare was all of us.
Even Aaron Rodgers.