Eagles QB Jalen Hurts: ‘Winning is the only thing that matters’

In the Philadelphia Eagles’ first two games last season, quarterback Jalen Hurts had 576 passing yards and 147 rushing yards. In the Eagles’ first two games this season, Hurts had 363 passing yards and 72 rushing yards.

But Philadelphia has the same record two games into this season as it had last season – 2-0.

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“Winning looks a ton of different ways, and I say winning is the only thing that matters,” Hurts said after the Eagles defeated the Minnesota Vikings 34-28 on Thursday night. “Winning is truly the only thing that matters. …

“We’re a work in progress, and what better way to be a work in progress than sitting at two wins out of the gate in 10 days or however many days it was. And so look, we strive for progress, not perfection.”

In 2022, Hurts threw for 333 yards against Minnesota in the second game of the season. On Thursday night, the former Alabama QB had 193 passing yards against the Vikings, with 117 coming on two deep throws to wide receiver DeVonta Smith.

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But playing without three starters who were injured in Sunday’s 25-20 victory over the New England Patriots, the Philadelphia defense caused four fumbles and the Eagles offense gained 259 yards on 48 rushing attempts on Thursday night. Hurts contributed 35 yards and a pair of 1-yard touchdown plunges to Philadelphia’s rushing attack versus the Vikings.

“I think for us we found a way to get it done,” Hurts said. “… You’re talking about four turnovers and 255 rushing yards. That’s pretty impressive.”

Last season, the Eagles won their first nine games on the way to a franchise-record 14 regular-season victories, the NFC championship and a spot in Super Bowl LVII.

Hurts keep up his early production as he posted 3,701 passing yards and 760 rushing yards in 15 regular-season games and finished as the runner-up in the balloting for The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player Award in his second season as the Eagles’ starting quarterback.

“There are a lot more plays out there for us to make,” Hurts said of Philadelphia’s performance after two games. “… This is a disguise league. Sometimes it is quarterback versus defensive coordinator – all the time it is. And so it’s an adjustment. Everybody’s going to try to find the best way to attempt to slow us down. It’s about how we respond to that and how we execute.”

Philadelphia plays next in the Week 3 Monday night game. The Eagles will square off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 6:15 p.m. CDT Sept. 25 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

After Thursday night’s game, Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni was asked about owning a 2-0 record without looking as sharp as last year’s team did for so much of the season.

“You know, it’s way easier to correct when you’re 2-0 and no one’s feelings are in it,” Sirianni said, “so we can really press in this meeting tomorrow that we’re going to have with the players and hold ourselves accountable as coaches and hold them accountable as players. And that’s what we’ll do.

“And so, obviously, we didn’t play our cleanest game. I think the first week was a little bit more clean game for the defense and not as clean for the offense and a little bit vice versa tonight. We’re 2-0 and a lot of teams would like to be sitting at 2-0.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.