Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders with a concussion after appearing to hit his head on the ground in the first quarter.
Hurts was scrambling on second-and-20 when he was tackled by Washington linebacker Frankie Luvu at the end of his 13-yard run. The contact forced Hurts’ head to bounce off the ground.
He was evaluated on the sideline before entering the medical tent. Hurts was then taken to the locker room and officially ruled out with a concussion.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett, who was traded to the Eagles in March, replaced Hurts and completed the drive with a four-yard touchdown pass to receiver A.J. Brown.
Jalen Hurts has the Philadelphia Eagles back in prime contention for the Super Bowl despite criticism about some of his passing numbers slipping year over year.
Hurts had 290 passing yards and two touchdown passes in Sunday’s win against the Pittsburgh Steelers. With a shiny chain on, he started his postgame press conference asking reporters if "that’s what they wanted to see?"
Domonique Foxworth, a former NFL defensive back and current ESPN analyst, said on Tuesday’s "Get Up" that the lack of backlash from Hurts’ remarks after that game was a result of "pretty privilege."
"He got up at the press conference after the game, and he acted like he was Josh Allen," Foxworth said. "Look at this man with his Kangol looking like Nino Brown… with three thousand million trillion dollars worth of diamonds on his neck, and he acting like he just went for 400 yards for three weeks in a row.
"Man, you had one good week passing. And everyone forgets it when he starts batting his eyes at you."
"Pretty privilege" or not, Hurts has the Eagles on top of the NFC East through 15 weeks.
He has 2,892 passing yards, 18 touchdown passes and only five interceptions this season. His completion percentage (69.2%) is the highest it’s ever been in his career. And, his 12 wins have nearly matched his 14-1 season as a starter in 2022.
Philadelphia is riding a 10-game winning streak with three games left.
But their quarterback Jalen Hurts and star wide receiver, A.J. Brown, might have their own issues.
The Eagles did win again on Sunday, but it was awfully close against the Carolina Panthers, and Brown called out the passing game. That led veteran defensive lineman Brandon Graham to say, "the person that's complaining needs to be accountable.
"I don't know the whole story, but I know that [Hurts] is trying and [Brown] could be a little better with how he responds to things," Graham said, before dropping a bomb.
"They were friends before this, but things have changed, and I understand that because life happens. But it's the business side, that we have to make sure the personal doesn't get in the way of the business," Graham said.
Graham later said he "made a mistake" to let that kind of cat out of the bag, and said he would apologize to both Hurts and Brown.
"I made a mistake and I assumed that it was something that it wasn't," Graham told ESPN. "I just want to win so bad that I don't just want to use the media when we need to talk about something and we can fix the problem ourselves. I didn't add to it in a good light, so that's my bad.
"I just assumed, and it made me out to look even worse because I had it all wrong and now people are going to run with that part. I really just want to win, man, and I want brothers to be able to just hash it out."
Brown and Hurts are in their third season as teammates, going to the Super Bowl in their first. Brown is on pace for his fifth 1,000-yard season in his six NFL seasons.
It wasn't the beatdown many expected, but the Philadelphia Eagles still took care of business at home against the Carolina Panthers in a 22-16 win on Sunday.
And it was Saquon Barkley, an MVP candidate this season, helping the cause with yet another milestone in his inaugural Eagles campaign.
Barkley set a record with nine games of over 100 or more yards rushing this season, totaling 124 yards on 20 carries.
But, while Barkley did tally triple digits in yards, he wasn’t able to find the end zone. Instead, it was Jalen Hurts getting tush-pushed from the one-yard line to score the first touchdown of the game.
Hurts, though, would get the other touchdowns with his arm, finding DeVonta Smith for his first score in more than a month, while Grant Calcaterra, who will be getting much more playing time with Dallas Goedert on the injured reserve, scoring his first career touchdown.
However, this game came down to the final seconds, as Bryce Young and the Panthers' offense had a chance to win the game after a perfect punt from the Eagles put them on their own three-yard line.
But Young quickly got out of the hole, finding Xavier Legette for 31 yards after scrambling around his end zone and almost getting sacked for a safety.
Then, a few plays later, Young spotted Adam Thielen, who had a team-high 102 yards on nine catches, on fourth-and-7 for 13 yards to keep the drive going.
On 2nd-and-4 from the Philadelphia 32-yard line, an absolutely crucial drop came off Legette’s hands, as Young got C.J. Gardner-Johnson to bite down, leaving the rookie receiver wide open near the end zone.
Legette appeared to haul in the ball and roll into the end zone for the game-tying touchdown. However, referees quickly called it incomplete, and the replay showed that the ball touched the turf during the roll.
So, instead of an extra-point attempt to take the lead, Young found himself running for his life on fourth-and-9 with no timeouts left. He attempted to find Thielen again downfield to convert, but Darius Slay swatted it away to move the Eagles’ win streak to nine straight games.
On the sports betting side, an anonymous bettor in Kentucky placed a $3.1 million bet on the Eagles, a massive favorite, to beat the Panthers. It was sweatier than they wanted, especially on that Legette play, but the bet cashed for over $400,000 in profit.
Looking at the box score, Hurts was 14-of-21 for 108 yards and his two passing touchdowns, while rushing for 61 yards on eight carries.
For the Panthers, Chuba Hubbard found the end zone on one of his 26 carries for 92 yards on the day.
Saquon Barkley was a headache for the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night.
The Philadelphia Eagles were able to make a 3rd-down conversion with 9:52 left in the game, and then Barkley got the ball. He ran for 14 yards on the next play. And two plays later, he beefed up the margin with a 25-yard touchdown run.
The run helped Barkley get closer to the 100-yard mark. He surpassed it on the Eagles’ next drive.
Baltimore scored a touchdown with 3 seconds left on the clock. Ultimately, Philadelphia won the game, 24-19, to pick up its 10th win of the season.
Barkley’s MVP-caliber season continued. He had 107 rushing yards on 23 carries. He also had two catches on four targets for 10 yards. It was the third consecutive game he rushed for at least 100 yards, and it was the sixth time out of the last seven games he hit 100 yards rushing.
Jalen Hurts was 11-for-18 with 118 yards and a touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert. He had 29 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown as well.
The Ravens could never break out of their funk after the first quarter. Baltimore was up 9-0 early in the game behind a 14-yard touchdown pass from Lamar Jackson to Mark Andrews. But they only scored another field goal before the half and a garbage-time touchdown to Isaiah Likely.
Tucker’s field goal woes continued in the game. He missed an extra point after the Andrews touchdown. He was 2-of-4 on field goal attempts.
Jackson was 23-of-36 with 237 passing yards and two touchdown passes. He also had 79 yards on the ground.
Philadelphia notched its 10th win of the season. Baltimore fell to 8-5.
Philadelphia Eagles star Saquon Barkley entered the record books with his performance in a 37-20 over the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday night.
Barkley rushed for 255 yards and two touchdowns in the win. He set a record for the most rushing yards in a single game by an Eagles player and finished with the ninth most in a single game. He was four yards away from passing Jamaal Charles, who had 259 rushing yards in a single game. Adrian Peterson has the record with 296 yards.
Barkley, who has had a resurgence this season, was the sparkplug Philadelphia needed. He ran for a 70-yard touchdown to jumpstart the team coming out of halftime.
He put the exclamation point on the game in the fourth quarter. He received the hand off from Hurts, made a move and zoomed through the Rams’ secondary for 72 yards.
Barkley also had four catches for 47 yards.
Kenneth Gainwell added a touchdown of his own late in the third to add to their lead.
Jalen Hurts was 15-of-22 for 179 yards and had a touchdown pass to A.J. Brown. The star wide receiver had six catches for 109 yards.
Los Angeles was within six points of the lead after Matthew Stafford threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson with 10:51 left in the third quarter. But after the Gainwell touchdown, the Rams missed a field goal on their next drive and punted after that.
Stafford threw a garbage-time touchdown to Cooper Kupp but the offense was far from what it needed to be to compete against the high-octane offense of the Eagles. They had no answer for Barkley.
The veteran quarterback had 243 passing yards on 24-of-36 passing. Puka Nacua led the team with nine catches for 117 yards. It’s the second straight game Nacua was over 100 yards receiving.
The Eagles (9-2) increased their NFC East lead over the Washington Commanders, moving two wins over them in the win column. The Commanders fell to the Dallas Cowboys in a barnburner earlier in the day.
Los Angeles fell to 5-6 as the NFC West continued to be as competitive as ever. The Seattle Seahawks picked up a win over the Arizona Cardinals while the San Francisco 49ers fell to the Green Bay Packers.
