To Pooch Or Not To Pooch Was A Question Posed To Eagles' Jalen Hurts

PHILADELPHIA – Nobody asked, but here’s what I would’ve done on Monday night when the Eagles came to fourth-and-6 at the Packers’ 35 with 33 seconds left.

First, the idea wasn’t mine, but when a high school coach and friend texted me with the thought, I said, ‘Yes, that’s a great idea.’

Second, head coach Nick Sirianni was in a tough spot in that situation. Everybody thinks he should’ve punted, and maybe, yeah, he should’ve. Some think perhaps he should’ve run the ball. Instead, we know what happened. A deep shot to A.J. Brown was served up, one that fell incomplete at the goal line.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts answered a few questions about the play during his Wednesday press conference as the Eagles prepare for the Detroit Lions. He was kind enough to entertain my idea. Well, my friend's idea.

That idea? A pooch punt by Hurts himself.

“Are we still talking about this?” Hurts smiled.

My follow-up was, have you ever pooch-punted before?

Jalen Hurts: Pooch Punter?

“I think in hindsight, I have done that,” he said. “Yes, I have. In high school, I pooch-kicked a couple of different times. My pops was the last one that told me to do that one time. Ain’t nobody else asked me to do that since.”

So, Nick Sirianni didn’t ask. The Eagles’ head coach, who prepares his players for every eventuality, probably isn’t throwing a Hurts pooch punt into his practice script.

The thinking behind doing it was solid. It would have caught Green Bay off guard with Hurts in the shotgun thinking he was going to pass, which he ended up doing. Heck, maybe he could have rolled to his right a little like some college punters do, taking another couple ticks off an already short clock, before giving it a pooch.

Done properly, the ball would have bounced maybe inside the 20 and rolled. The Packers’ defense would have to scramble back to down it and stop the clock. Maybe even more time ticks off the clock, so instead of getting the ball back at the 36 with 27 seconds to go, maybe the Packers are inside the 20 with less than 27 seconds to go.

It would have been an element of big surprise. So, my follow-up to my follow-up was whether Hurts thought it would’ve been a good idea to pooch.

“It’s a matter of trust, man,” he answered. “Is the glass half-empty, or is the glass half-full? It’s a team sport. You play collectively as a unit. Defense played lights out. It was a defensive battle this past week.

“Obviously, when you have your opportunities to strike on offense, you want to take advantage of them. But ultimately, it’s a matter of trust, it’s a matter of alignment, it’s a matter of everybody being on the same page and going out there and executing. That (pass to Brown) was one of the plays that we didn’t execute. But ultimately, we executed enough to win the game.”

Not sure if that’s a yes or a no.

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