Jalen Hurts Wins First Start, Sparks Eagles over Saints to End Four-Game Slide

PHILADELPHIA – Eagles fans may wake up Monday morning asking themselves, “Carson who?”

Jalen Hurts made the quarterback change engineered earlier in the week pay off big time.

The rookie quarterback did the improbable in his first career start, leading the Eagles to a 24-21 win over the New Orleans Saints at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday evening.

The loss was just the third in 13 games for the Saints this season, while the win ended Philadelphia’s four-game losing streak and lifted its mark to a modest 4-8-1 with a visit to the Arizona desert on tap next week against the Cardinals.

Taking over for Carson Wentz, Hurts ran 18 times for 106 yards and completed 17 of 30 throws for 167 yards and a 15-yard touchdown to Alshon Jeffery. He became the first Eagles quarterback to run for more than 100 yards in a game since Michael Vick piled up 130 yards against the New York Giants on Dec. 19, 2010. The Giants weren’t the No. 1 ranked defense in the NFL at the time, like the Saints were.

“Going out there and maybe extending it sometimes, always helps,” said Hurts. “I think up front, we did a great job to allow some of those things to happen. One thing when I look back on this game, a lot of money on the table for us, a lot of money on the table we left out there. We’re very excited. We’re happy we got a W against a really good team, but we’re going to go back to work. … A lot to work on, a lot to build on, and I’m excited to go back to and get ready for the next game.”

Doug Pederson tempered his enthusiasm for Hurts afterward, even refusing to say he would start next week’s game.

“It took everybody in uniform to win this game, not just one guy,” said the coach. “And I’m going to repeat myself again. It takes a village to get this job done. Jalen was a part of it, yes. But it took a team effort to win, honestly.

“It’s great to get this win. These guys are excited. It’s been a while since we won a game. I’m happy for those guys in the locker room, for the coaches, the hard work that everyone put into this. We still got three games left, a great opportunity.”

Miles Sanders had two touchdowns and joined Hurts over 100, collecting 115 yards on 14 carries, with the bulk of that coming on an 82-yard TD run that gave the Eagles a 14-0 lead with 1:35 left in the first half. He added a 1-yard TD run with 6:22 to go in the game to make the score 24-14.

It’s the first time the Saints defense allowed a running back to go over 100 yards since Week 11 in November of 2017 when Samaje Perine did it for Washington, a streak spanning 55 games

For the Eagles, it was the first time they had two ballcarriers go over 100 yards in the same game since Dec. 19, 2013, when LeSean McCoy had 130 and Bryce Brown had 115 against the New York Giants.

“It was pretty dynamic and simple because Jalen was in there,” said Sanders. “It’s tough to stop when you have a quarterback that can run efficiently like that. … It’s hard to stop a read-option or whatever it is, play fake, when you have a guy like Jalen out there to extend a play with his legs. If it’s not there, take off and get a first down. That’s pretty hard to stop. We just have to keep this thing rolling, I’m excited, I’m excited.”

Hurts made one mistake and it nearly proved costly. After Will Lutz missed a 57-yard field goal after the two-minute warning, Hurts fumbled the ball back to New Orleans at midfield. The Saints scored a touchdown on a 20-yard throw from Taysom Hill to Jared Cook with 1:24 to go play that made the score 24-21.

On the ensuing onside kick, the ball bounced off Corey Clement’s foot and there was a mad scramble for the loose ball. Jalen Mills somehow recovered it and the Eagles were able to run out the clock.

New Orleans had allowed just 76.1 yards per game on the ground. Against the Eagles, it surrendered 246.

The Eagles defense survived despite losing three starting members of its secondary to injury – Avonte Maddox (knee), Darius Slay (head), and Rodney Mcleod (knee).

They got by with Jalen Mills moving from safety to corner, with Marcus Epps and K’Von Wallace getting in at safety, and Kevon Seymour, who was promoted from the practice squad, where he had only been since Dec. 2.

The Eagles defense sacked Taysom Hill five times and hit him 12 times. Javon Hargrave and Josh Sweat notched two sacks each, and Hargrave now has 4.5 this season, with 3.5 of those coming in the last two games. Sweat has six, two more than the career-high he had last year.

Hurts wasted little time revving an Eagles engine that had been stalled in the first half in seemingly forever. It was on the Eagles’ second possession that Hurts led a seven-play, 65-yard drive that ended in a 15-yard touchdown throw to Jeffery early in the second quarter to open the scoring.

The Eagles went on to take a 17-0 lead at the break, with Miles Sanders scoring on an 82-yard run with less than two minutes to play in the second quarter.

It was the first time the Eagles had led at halftime since Week 4 when they held an 8-7 edge over the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 4.

Meanwhile, it was the second straight week Hurts threw a touchdown pass on fourth down. Last one he tossed a 32-yarder to Greg Ward.

It was Jeffery’s first TD catch since Dec. 1, 2019, against the Miami Dolphins and his 20th TD reception as an Eagle with 21 overall, the other coming on a running play last year.

Hurts led the Eagles into field goal range with just a few seconds left in the first half, but Jake Elliott clanked a 22-yard field goal off the upright, otherwise, the Eagles would have led 20-0 at the intermission.

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