So much for the Philadelphia Eagles giving Jalen Hurts first-team reps at quarterback. Hurts played just two snaps in the Eagles’ 23-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, a game where Philadelphia’s offense could’ve used a spark after throwing for just 180 pass yards and averaging 3.4 yards per attempt — against a Seattle defense that had allowed 343.7 pass yards per game heading into the matchup, the highest average in NFL history through 11 weeks.
The Eagles had plenty of reasons to actually play Hurts for a significant amount of snaps. Instead, Hurts completed a six-yard pass to Alshon Jeffery in the second quarter — only to never be seen again. Hurts only took one snap with Eagles starting quarterback Carson Wentz off the field.
“The plan was to use him when we could,” said Eagles head coach Doug Pederson on Hurts’ lack of usage. “The way the game started, we just didn’t have many opportunities, too many three and outs. I don’t think we got a first down until the second quarter. We just didn’t — we failed to execute. It just wasn’t in the cards, I guess, so to speak, early in the football game.
“But no more, no less than what we would use him each week.”
Carson Wentz didn’t give the Eagles any reason to sit Hurts, starting the game with four incomplete passes and finishing 25 of 45 for 216 yards with two touchdowns and an interception — his league-leading 15th pick of the season. Wentz was sacked six times and his wide receivers were ineffective, catching just nine passes for 46 yards.
Wentz wasn’t getting any help around him, but also struggled to make the simplest of throws on several plays during the game. He ranks second-to-last in the league in completion percentage (58.1%) and third-to-last in interception percentage (3.6), yards per attempt (6.0), and passer rating (73.4). At this point, taking Wentz out for Hurts doesn’t hurt the Eagles.
“It’s a challenge for quarterbacks to do that, but from an offensive perspective, if we can have a little change of pace there with Jalen and mix things up, whether we’re running it or throwing it,” Pederson said. “I thought the guys tonight, for the few plays that Jalen was in, they handled it well. It’s just something we’ll continue to work on.
“But yeah, it can be a little bit difficult, for either one of the quarterbacks unless they can get multiple snaps, but that just didn’t happen. We were too many three and outs.”
