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Eagles News: Jalen Hurts puts the Cowboys loss on himself

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 9/28/21.

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NFL: Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

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Philadelphia Eagles, embarrassed by rival Dallas Cowboys, in jeopardy of free fall - ESPN
QB breakdown: Hurts, a Houston native, has struggled mightily against the Cowboys early in his career. He has five turnovers in two starts at Dallas, as compared to just two turnovers in five starts against all other teams. He has been able to lean on his rushing prowess regardless of how the passing game is going, but he scrambled once in the first half on Monday for two yards and finished with nine carries for 35 yards. His message to teammates: “I take responsibility for how this game went tonight. I’m going to learn from it and we’re going to be a better team from it, I believe that. ... We’re going to flush it and move on.”

Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Cowboys game - PhillyVoice
There’s no other way to say it — Jalen Hurts had a bad game. He underthrew a deep ball to Jalen Reagor that got picked off, and his threw behind a stumbling DeVonta Smith that ended up in the hands of Trevon Diggs for a pick six. After that play, Hurts and Smith discussed the play on the sidelines. Frankly, that pass probably would have looked even worse if Smith hadn’t stumbled, in that it would have been thrown even further behind him. Those were the lowlights. But generally speaking, all the most concerning aspects of Hurts’ game showed up Monday night. He threw inaccurate passes, he held onto the ball too long, and he was often too quick to bail from the pocket. After a Week 1 performance that helped his stock in his quest to be the Eagles’ long-term answer at quarterback, Hurts took steps backwards in each of his next two games. To his credit, Hurts took the blame for this loss. The last quarterback never did that.

Reality TV - Iggles Blitz
That is a great answer from Hurts. That is the right mindset and sends the right message to his teammates. That said, attitude isn’t enough. Great intangibles aren’t enough. Hurts has to play better. Hurts underthrew Reagor on a play in the end zone and it was picked off. He missed a wide open Dallas Goedert on a play that likely would have put the Eagles in or near the Red Zone. He threw over or behind receivers multiple times. Hurts threw a pick-six, although that should be more on DeVonta Smith for falling down. The numbers look okay, 25-39-326, with 2 INTs and 2 TDs. Reality says something very different. Hurts struggled, especially early. This season is a huge opportunity for him. Hurts can show the NFL he’s capable of being a good starting QB. Or he can play like tonight, where he looked like Rodney Peete or AJ Feeley. Teammates loved those guys as well. They just weren’t good enough to be consistently good starters.

Eagles overreactions: Loss shows what Eagles badly need - NBCSP
1. The Eagles still need a quarterback. He missed guys on easy throws, including one miss to Dallas Goedert on a wide-open crosser over the middle that led Peyton Manning on the ESPN Manningcast to put his head in his hands and interrupt himself mid-sentence. Monday was just Hurts’ seventh start as an NFL QB, and just his third in this offense, so it’s tempting to say he needs (and deserves) more time. We should also note that Jordan Mailata was out Monday, and the Eagles were already short Brandon Brooks. Landon Dickerson didn’t fare well in his first career start. Andre Dillard was no Mailata. But even when he had time to make throws and his guys found space in the second and third levels, Hurts wasn’t making plays at all on Monday night. He looked legitimately terrified at certain points, rolling out and looking to run almost immediately. That’s not winning football in the NFL. There are multiple reasons Hurts was a second-round pick, and we saw those reasons on Monday night. He needs to be much better, ASAP, or the Eagles should be ready to move on next spring.

Eagles completely underwhelm in loss to Cowboys, 41-21 - BGN
The Philadelphia Eagles fall to 1-2 after losing to the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football. Final score: 41 to 21. The Eagles defense had a decent game, despite what the score might suggest, but rarely got a chance to catch their breath with such poor and ineffective offensive play. Between dropped passes, balls being underthrown, and a couple turnovers, Philadelphia’s offense could not find a rhythm.

BGN Instant Reaction Show: Eagles loss to Cowboys was not pleasant to watch - BGN Radio
Eytan Shander and Jess (Towne) Taylor try to dissect what exactly happened during the Eagles 41-21 loss to the Cowboys on Monday Night Football.

NFL Week 3 Game Recap: Dallas Cowboys 41, Philadelphia Eagles 21 - PFF
Jalen Hurts had a rough experience in just his 7th career NFL start. The young signal caller was able to reel off two second-half touchdown passes to somewhat save face, but for most of the night, he was inefficient as a passer. Hurts had 2 interceptions, 0 big time throws, and 1 turnover worthy play in a game where he was regularly behind the sticks.

Who’s to blame for Eagles’ blowout loss to Cowboys? Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts among 8 culprits in rout to remember - NJ.com
HC Nick Sirianni: This performance was undoubtedly worse than Sirianni’s much-maligned play-calling outing from last week against the San Francisco 49ers. While Sirianni preaches game-planning to his players’ strengths, Monday’s miscues were the result of a one-trick-pony act that forced the Eagles off the field in a hurry and led to Hurts having to shoulder an unnecessary load on offense without any sense of relief. The Eagles used their running backs on just two carries in the first half, while the Cowboys used their running backs on 21 carries for 116 yards. By the way, the first time Sirianni called a run – midway through the second quarter – Miles Sanders picked up 24 yards, proving he should have been used more often early on. Sirianni also had a pair of passive fourth-down punts in the second quarter that the Eagles probably should have been aggressive on. Sirianni had been aggressive in the first two weeks, and the 49ers letdown likely forced him to be a bit more hesitant with his calls. The Eagles were 4-of-11 on third down and used their running backs on just three carries for 29 yards.

10 observations from Monday night’s loss to Dallas - PE.com
2. Here is what the Eagles’ offense did in its first seven possessions: Interception (43 net yards on drive), punt (5 yards), punt (7 yards), punt (29 yards), punt (27 yards), interception (28 yards), and punt (4 yards). By that time, the score was 27-7 midway through the third quarter. “We knew we had to score with this team because we knew they were able to score and score quickly,” Head Coach Nick Sirianni said. “I just felt like we would get the ball to midfield and it would stall out for different reasons, whether I didn’t call a good enough play, whether there was a pre-snap penalty or a penalty, whether there was some pressure. It was coaching, it was execution. We all had a hand in this loss.”

2021 NFL season, Week 3: What we learned from Cowboys’ win over Eagles on Monday night - NFL.com
Philadelphia can’t get out of its own way. The Eagles reached halftime with seven penalties, including a holding call on Isaac Seumalo that saved Hurts from being sacked a second straight time, but also buried the Eagles in a second-and-31 situation that effectively ended their chances of getting points before the half. The halftime statistical difference was ugly, with the Cowboys outgaining the Eagles, 261-121, running 42 plays to the Eagles’ 18, possessing the ball for 20:21 of the first 30 minutes of action, and Philadelphia failing to convert a single third-down attempt. The Eagles’ offense couldn’t get out of neutral for most of the game, forcing Hurts to scramble in vain throughout the game to no avail. By the time Philadelphia could pause to check the stat sheet, it was in a 20-point hole that meant it had no choice but to abandon the run, resulting in just two carries for Sanders. If the Eagles didn’t force a fumble in the Cowboys’ end zone and Quez Watkins didn’t haul in a miraculous completion (16.7 completion probability) early in the second half, they might have been flirting with a shutout. Their 13 total penalties certainly didn’t help.

Blame Eagles’ defensive embarrassment vs. Cowboys on Jonathan Gannon, but also Nick Sirianni’s offense - Inquirer
They say it’s a game of inches, but the Eagles were a country mile behind the Cowboys on Monday night. They were completely outclassed on both sides of the ball in a 41-21 rout at AT&T Stadium, and if not for the few inches Dak Prescott was stopped short of the goal line, the Eagles would have lost by more. But 41 points — more than Jim Schwartz’s defense ever allowed in his five seasons with the Eagles — would suffice in illustrating how coach Nick Sirianni and his defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, aren’t yet ready for prime time. Can they eventually get there? Of course. Sirianni had a strong debut on offense. And Gannon’s unit surrendered only 23 points in the first two games. But the game plan Monday night didn’t take into account the versatility of the Cowboys offense, and the Eagles never once had control of the game.

Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts fail to keep pace with Cowboys’ high-scoring offense - The Athletic
The offense’s lack of points wasn’t all on Hurts, though. For a coach who stated the objective was to keep pace with the Cowboys, Sirianni was curiously conservative on fourth downs. The Eagles punted on a fourth-and-5 from the Cowboys’ 46-yard line with just over five minutes to go in the first half and a fourth-and-5 from the Cowboys’ 49-yard line 20 seconds before halftime. A team that needed points more than field position would likely have trusted the offense to extend the drive — at least the first one, when there was enough time for the Eagles to sustain a scoring opportunity. “The chart said to punt in those situations,” said Sirianni, which leads one to wonder how conservative his charts are despite being part of an organization that skews toward being one of the most devoted to applying advanced data to their decisions.

Cowboys pluck, roast Eagles 41-21 - Blogging The Boys
A big win with plenty still for the coaches to work on is a great outcome. It was a flawed, dominant, thoroughly enjoyable stomping of our beloved rivals. Now Dallas faces a pretty soft looking portion of their schedule to try and pad their win total.

Blake Martinez injury: Giants LB suffers torn ACL - Big Blue View
The New York Giants confirmed Monday afternoon that middle linebacker Blake Martinez suffered a torn ACL in Sunday’s loss to the Atlanta Falcons Both Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network and Jordan Raanan of ESPN reported that the Giants’ worst fears regarding Martinez were confirmed when Martinez’s knee injury was diagnosed as a torn ACL on Monday morning.

7 winners and 3 losers from Week 3 in the NFL - SB Nation
Winner: Justin Herbert. The Chargers have been the bridesmaid in the AFC West for as long as I can remember, but it’s starting to feel like things are turning, and the biggest force of chance is Justin Herbert. I had the game between the Chargers and Chiefs circled as one to watch, and I’m glad I did — because dang it was fun to watch Herbert play. He finished the day with 281 passing yards and four touchdowns, spreading to scoring love to three different receivers. Herbert is showing no signs of dropping off following his record-breaking rookie season, and in fact he’s getting better. While he’s on pace to throw more interceptions than a year ago, he’s also upped his passing yards, completion percentage, yards-per-attempt, and touchdowns. It helps that Los Angeles has done a great job putting weapons around their rookie, and it’s paying huge dividends. On any given play Herbert has no fewer than three significant receiving threats to find, and they can be swapped out for a diversity of players to give defenses really tough looks to manage. With the Chiefs struggling so far we could be seeing a power shift in the division. Even if we don’t quite reach that zenith it’s clear the Chargers are close, really close.

The Newest Deshaun Watson Trade Rumors - Battle Red Blog
According to Jay Glazer, the Texans stance on the asking price for Watson has ‘softened’ (I guess this a Dairy Queen, and not a football team) after they had previously turned down three first round picks and three second round picks for Watson before the 2021 NFL Draft.

NFL Daily Kickoff, Tuesday- Cowboys destroy Eagles 41-21 + Justin Fields benched? - The SB Nation NFL Show
The Cowboys dominated a division rival on MNF, Matt Nagy might bench Justin Fields after one game, and good news for Andy Reid and the Chiefs.

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