When Hurts throws over this number, the Eagles lose
PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles face heavy criticism for how they win football games. Hurts doesn’t throw for a lot of yards and the Eagles don’t have a high number of passing yards in their wins, yet they find a way to advance in the postseason.
The amount of passing yards Hurts has in a game is subject to criticism. Hurts has thrown for 131 and 128 playoff yards in the Eagles’ two playoff games, both wins, as Philadelphia has advanced to the NFC Championship game. In the five games Hurts has thrown for less than 150 yards this season — the Eagles are 5-0.
The more yards Hurts throws, the less the Eagles win. Hurts has played seven postseason games in his career and has won all four games in which he has thrown for less than 250 yards and lost all three when he’s thrown for over 250. Plenty of this revolves around the Eagles trailing in games, but the Eagles led for most of Super Bowl LVII (Hurts threw for 304 yards) and still managed to come up short.
The Eagles are 3-0 when Hurts throws for less than 250 yards and 0-3 when he throws for more than 250 yards. When figuring in attempts for this season, the Eagles are 3-2 when Hurts throws 30+ times in a game. Philadelphia is 11-1 when Hurts throws for less than 30 attempts, in the loss was when Hurts exited the game in the first quarter with a concussion (Hurts had four attempts).
So do the Eagles care if Hurts doesn’t throw for as many yards in a game? Philadelphia had 65 net passing yards in the divisional round win over Los Angeles, which accompanies Hurts’ passing yards along with the yards Hurts lost on sacks (Hurts was sacked seven times).
“I think you’ve got to evaluate it from a big picture perspective,” said Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, who calls the plays. “Then we look through every detail of it. Too many sacks on our end. I focus on how I can help this process and put ourselves in better situations with some of the play calling.
“I thought we protected the football. We made some plays in some situational football when we needed to and gave ourselves a chance to win.”
When Hurts doesn’t throw for a lot of yards, the Eagles win football games because they built early leads and rely on their running game and massive offensive line to carry them in the season half. In their playoff wins under Hurts, the Eagles have rushed for 217.5 yards a game. In the losses, the Eagles have rushed for 84.0 yards.
The Eagles certainly win when Hurts throws less, resulting in less passing yards. The numbers don’t fit the narrative of the Hurts needing to throw more to win playoff games.
