Eagles 17, Saints 0: Jalen Hurts’ steady hand, Miles Sanders’ long touchdown put up Eagles up at half

PHILADELPHIA — The Jalen Hurts era, however long it might last, is off to a pretty good start for the Eagles.

The rookie was 12 of 21 for 129 yards and a touchdown (91.2 passer rating) with seven rushes for 75 yards in the first half of his first career start against the Saints.

Philadelphia leads New Orleans, 17-0, at halftime at Lincoln Financial Field, though it could have been more after kicker Jake Elliott drilled a 22-yard field goal off the left upright as time expired in the half.

Hurts led an offense that averaged 8.2 yards per play, while the Eagles defense held the Saints to 3.6 yards per play across the first 30 minutes. Running back Miles Sanders had eight rushes for 96 yards and an 82-yard touchdown, while seven different wide receivers had catches.

On the other side, Saints quarterback Taysom Hill was 11 of 15 for 65 yards with an interception, but Eagles defensive tackles Javon Hargrave and Fletcher Cox both got home for sacks. Hill and running backs Alvin Kamara and Latavius Murray combined for 10 carries for 42 yards.

The Eagles appear to be in good shape entering the second half to pull off the upset of the NFC’s top team entering Sunday.

The evening started about as promising as it could for the Eagles. The defense held the Saints to a three-and-out on their first possession with cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman sniffing out a screen to Murray on the game’s first play for a loss of six and safety Rodney McLeod tripping up Kamara on another screen on third down.

That set the stage for Hurts’ first drive as a starting quarterback. And it got off to a promising start. Hurts converted a third-and-4 and fourth-and-1 himself, but when the Eagles got down to third-and-1 at the New Orleans 33, mistakes popped up again.

First, an illegal shift penalty wiped out a run for the conversion by Sanders. Then, wide receiver Greg Ward was called for a false start to push the Eagles back to third-and-11. Hurts ran for nine yards to set up a manageable fourth-and-2 at the New Orleans 34, but former Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins stuffed Sanders, and the Saints took over.

New Orleans moved the ball into Eagles territory with three completions to wide receiver Michael Thomas that covered 29 yards, but on the last of those three completions, cornerback Darius Slay stopped Thomas short of the first down. Wil Lutz came out for the 45-yard field goal, and he pushed it wide right to keep the game scoreless with 58 seconds left in the first quarter.

The Eagles were able to take advantage of the mistake, though. Hurts hit wide receiver Jalen Reagor for a 39-yard gain to get the Eagles deep into Saints territory, and Philadelphia faced fourth-and-2 at the New Orleans 15, coach Doug Pederson left the offense out there. Hurts stood in the pocket, took a lick from Saints linebacker Kwon Alexander and hit wide receiver Alshon Jeffery for a 15-yard touchdown.

The Eagles had a 7-0 lead with 13 minutes 25 seconds left in the first half.

Then, the Eagles defense forced another Saints punt. But the Saints defense finally got a handle on Hurts. After Hurts hit tight end Dallas Goedert for 19 yards, Sanders had a run and a catch that gained only a yard, and ultimately, Hurts had to throw the ball away on third-and-9, and the Eagles punted for the first time with him as the starting quarterback.

The Eagles got the ball right back, though, when linebacker Duke Riley snagged a Hill pass that bounced off Kamara’s hands for the team’s first interception since Week 7. The Eagles went three-and-out, but they were able to turn it into points. Pederson challenged an incompletion in the direction of tight end Zach Ertz along the right sideline, but the ruling on the field stood.

Kicker Jake Elliott was good from 44 yards to give the Eagles the 10-0 lead with 6:05 left in the first half.

The Eagles defense forced another punt, though Robey-Coleman missed an interception chance and cornerback Avonte Maddox was helped off slowly after a hard fall. Riley had another big play when he met Hill in the hole on a third-and-1 carry. Ward let the punt hit at the Eagles 20, and it rolled all the way to the four before it went out of bounds at the 4 to set up Hurts’ worst starting field position yet.

After a short run by Sanders and a false start penalty, Hurts gave the Eagles some breathing room when he pulled the ball out of Sanders’ belly and scampered for 15 yards. That set things up for Sanders to take a hand off from Hurts and rumble 82 yards through the Saints defense — including a stiff-arm on Jenkins — to give the Eagles a 17-0 lead with 1:35 left in the half.

Daniel Gallen covers the Philadelphia Eagles for PennLive. He can be reached at dgallen@pennlive.com. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Follow PennLive’s Philadelphia Eagles coverage on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

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