“We still have our objectives to accomplish. We are aware that we won the playoffs this week. That’s not really what we’re examining. We are aware of our intentions,” Sirianni declared.
Jalen Hurts played better for the majority of the evening than he appeared or probably felt given his illness.
Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles will be devastated by the fourth quarter’s lost chance to reclaim the NFC East and preserve home-field advantage heading into the postseason.
Hurts witnessed the Seattle Seahawks, led by Drew Lock, come back in the closing minutes to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 20–17 on Monday night, thereby handing Philadelphia (10–4) their third consecutive defeat.
Hurts had a forgettable fourth quarter. With 8:08 remaining, he attempted to hit Quez Watkins on a deep pass that would have extended Philadelphia’s lead to 17-13, but instead he threw an interception in the end zone. With just over two minutes left, he failed to convert a third-and-7 at midfield, which probably meant Seattle never got the ball back.
Hurts also attempted one last desperate pass at hitting A.J. Brown down the sideline in the final seconds of the quarter, but Julian Love intercepted him for a second time.
“Was attempting to be combative at the time. We didn’t take advantage of the numerous chances we had to open it up in the game. That’s not what I did. I didn’t perform my job well enough,” Hurts remarked.
Following Philadelphia’s crushing defeats to San Francisco and Dallas in the previous two weeks, the defense has borne the brunt of the criticism. However, after the Eagles’ offense failed to score an offensive touchdown in Dallas last week, Hurts and the team are by no means innocent.
The solution was supposed to be to play the leaky Seahawks defense when they traveled to Seattle. And initially, it appeared that way after the Eagles’ two long scoring drives in the first half gave them a 10-0 lead.
However, that lead evaporated early in the third quarter and was not maintained after Philadelphia recovered a 17-10 lead halfway through the quarter on a touchdown run by Hurts.
“We really wanted to be able to get up two scores on them and we weren’t able to,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni stated, “I felt the defense was persevering and making some really good moves. In that game, all we had to do was pull away, and we didn’t.”
Hurts completed 17 of 31 passes for 143 yards and added 13 rushes for an additional 82 yards. Hurts didn’t want his illness to be an excuse, but he wasn’t feeling well enough to practice on Saturday. The next day, he took a separate plane to Seattle to avoid being around his teammates.
If Hurts’ illness had an impact, it might have manifested itself in the fourth quarter. For the final three possessions for Philadelphia, he completed 2 of 6 passes for 25 yards and 2 interceptions.
“He is a fighter. He is an opponent. He definitely made some great plays for us, even though the game obviously didn’t go our way,” center Jason Kelce said.
Philadelphia is on a precarious footing. Although they have already secured a postseason berth, the reigning NFC champions have not looked close to being Super Bowl ready in recent weeks. With 14 games played, their point differential of plus-18 is tied for the third-worst of any team with at least 10 wins in the season.
With two games against the lowly New York Giants and a visit from even worse Arizona, they have three weeks left to make the necessary corrections, and the schedule is favorable. While a 13-win season should be within the Eagles’ grasp, it might not be enough to win their own division.
“We still have our goals ahead of us. We know we clinched playoffs this week. We’re not really looking at that. We know what we want to do,” Sirianni said. “We want to win this division, but that’s the last time you’ll hear me say that. We got to go win a game this upcoming week.”