Eagles QB After Tampa Win: 'This Game Is Very Humbling'

On Monday, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts will have reached a calendar year without losing a football game that he started and finished.

The last one came in Tampa on Sept. 29 of last year. On Sunday, Hurts exorcised that demon with a brilliant first half at Raymond James Stadium, completing 15 of 16 passes and handling Todd Bowles’ vaunted blitz packages with ease while building a 24-6 advantage.

When asked about that magical run, Hurts was as pragmatic as ever.

“You can be on top one day and at the bottom the next,” the reigning Super Bowl MVP said. “This game is very humbling, and I take that approach in it.”

Those words likely came easy for Hurts based on his second half against the Bucs, where the QB emerged from the locker room and did a 180, finishing 0-for-8 in the second half as the Philadelphia offense accumulated minus-1 total yards in the final 30 minutes, leaving things to an opportunistic defense to close things out in a 31-25 win.

“I think it was a great team win,” Hurts surmised. “Another gritty win, coming in and finding a way to win. We know this has been a challenging environment to play in and a really good opponent for us over the years. Just proud of the way that we competed. [We] didn’t quit, found a way, played very well situationally to an extent.”

Hurts boiled down the first half success and the second half issues to execution.

Things that came seamlessly early became muddy late.

Second Half Issues

“We talked about it at half time,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “When teams have leads like that, you look at a couple things. You look at, offensively, you can’t go three-and-out, and we went three-and-out. Offensively, you can’t turn the ball over – why do teams you know blow those leads? Well, we didn’t turn it over.

“... We were able to have enough of a lead to keep it on, but that’s not how we want to play, and we want to be aggressive. That’s not how we want to play the second half, offensively [or] defensively.”

In the production meeting before the game, however, Sirianni said he’s not in the entertainment business; he’s here to win football games, and few in the history of the game have had stretches like the Eagles over the past calendar year.

The table reads 20-1 since the Eagles left Tampa in 2024.

“You just got to be of the notion of getting better, stretching yourself every day, trying to grow every day, having that competitive mentality with things every day,” Hurts said. “That’s what we have as a team, that’s what I have and I want to continue to build off that.”

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