The most important position in football is the quarterback. Now, in some cities, the fans are more casual, but not in Philadelphia.
The Philly fans are a breed of their own; they live and die with their teams, especially the Eagles.
Some outsiders think Eagles fans boo because they are rude and drunk. The drunk part is not too far off because Eagles fans do consume their fair share of alcohol. However, their passion is often confused for rudeness. They boo because they care and desperately want their team not just to win but to dominate. Yes, they did throw snowballs at Santa, but that was more about the team being terrible than it was about any hatred for the holiday hero.
Some fans are now questioning/calling for QB Jalen Hurts to be benched after he had the worst statistical game of his pro career. Not helping his cause, this all took place on Monday Night Football.
Hurts had a grand total of 5 turnovers vs the Chargers in Los Angeles, which is very out of character for last year’s Super Bowl MVP. He even had two turnovers on the same play, which I’ve never witnessed before and I’ve consumed 100’s of hours of football in my life. On the double-turnover play, Hurts threw a pick to a defensive lineman, who then fumbled, which Hurts recovered on a bounce, and then Hurts fumbled the football back to the Chargers defense. Hurts is clearly not seeing the field well right now. He made some bad decisions on the field, but he made some good throws as well.
On the first play on offense, Jalen threw a deep ball to A.J. Brown that was dropped, one that Brown could have laid out to secure the grab. Drops for A.J. became a common theme on Monday night. Later in the ugly, but closely contested battle, Brown ran a route over the middle. On that play, Jalen’s throw was a tad high, but still very catchable. Brown saw a defender coming in for a big hit, and he took his eyes off the ball. This lack of focus by Brown caused the ball to tip in the air, which was subsequently intercepted. Towards the end of regulation, with the game tied at 16, Hurts threw a pass to Brown that was dropped in “the bucket”(meaning it was only gonna be caught by the wide receiver). Yet again, Brown dropped what many would say was the game-winning touchdown—forcing the Eagles to settle for 3 points, which the Chargers matched on the ensuing drive, making the score 19-19, and forcing overtime. The Eagles won the OT coin flip; however, that is all they would win on this night. LA proceeded to go down the field and get 3 more points, pushing the score to 22-19. On their only drive in OT, the Eagles faced a 3rd-and-16. Hurts threw a beautiful strike to a crossing DeVonta Smith for a first down. Unfortunately for the Eagles, Jalen tried to hit WR Dotson in the corner of the end zone from inside the 20-yard line, but the ball was tipped in the air on a great play by the defender and intercepted to seal the win for LA.
George Blanda, Joe Namath, Fran Tarkenton, Dan Fouts, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Mathew Stafford, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, Joe Flacco, Philip Rivers, etc, have all thrown 3(or more) interceptions in multiple games. This just proves that many good/great QBs in NFL history have had bad games throughout their playing careers. And I know Jalen’s stat line says he had 4 picks, but I only put 3 on him because the one that tipped off of A.J.’s hands should have caught. There have been reports of complaints coming from within the organization that Hurts has been too conservative, not attacking over the middle and downfield.
And now that QB1(Hurts) has increased his aggressiveness and struggled, should we pull the plug and bench him? Any thoughts of sitting Hurts are absolutely asinine.
My point is that no one is perfect; we all have bad days, and we, as Eagles fans, need to cut Hurts some slack.
Hurts has shown progress in his 4-plus years as the Philadelphia Eagles’ starting quarterback, even though he has dealt with constant turnover among his offensive coordinators. Not every game is going to be a dominant performance.
The NFL is a business conducted by highly talented athletes. And just like any business out there, you are gonna have your ups and downs.
So Eagles fans need to listen to Robert McCall (played by Denzel Washington) from the first Equalizer movie when he said, “When you pray for rain, you have to deal with the mud too.”
Which means achieving your goals (the rain) inevitably involves facing challenges, hard work, and messy aspects (the mud) that come with them, which requires resilience and a willingness to embrace the entire process, not just the easy parts.
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