When Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni first shaved his head during Week 6, no one was expecting his bald melon to inspire a three-game winning streak. It was seen as a desperate publicity stunt, even after the fact as the Eagles barely survived a scare from the Browns on their home turf.
Yet, Sirianni’s trip to the barber ushered in the best stretch of football for an Eagles team left for dead prior to the bye week. Wonders never cease. Life always finds a way. Birds of a Feather … okay, enough with the tired prose. Perhaps the real reason the Eagles got back on track was due to a change in offensive philosophy.
Jalen Hurts has been lining up directly under center, shooing away the shotgun snaps that dominated the first four weeks. The Eagles ran 21 plays under center last week against Cincinnati which marked the most snaps under center since Week 13 of the 2021 season (via Next Gen Stats).
Further, the team has placed a dedicated emphasis on running the football while relying on more motion, up 65% in that department overall from last year. The offense has changed for the better, by design, and the wins are coming in bunches. No one has benefited more than Hurts.
“You can’t expect it to be perfect at any point, I mean everything is a work in progress,” Hurts told reporters on October 30. “And I think we’ve done a really good job of communicating and having those conversations trying to figure out what’s the best way to go out there and play efficient football and that changes throughout the course of the year. It’s about the vision and the mission.”
That vision is finding your identity, according to Hurts, and that mission is winning games by trusting each other and playing complementary football. When the franchise quarterback was asked what sparked the change in offensive philosophy, Hurts smirked and shot back a retort: “What changed?”
Then, after a reporter reeled off a list of stats, Hurts replied with a knowing look and explained his reasoning on why the offense looks improved. For the record, Hurts said he was “not directly” involved in the change.
“I think it’s a constant navigation from everyone, and everyone has a voice in that, and the number one goal, and I’ve told you my goals, and it doesn’t really matter how it looks, it doesn’t really matter how it gets done, it’s a matter of playing efficient ball and going out there and winning,” Hurts told reporters.
“And so we’ve been able to do that over the course of my tenure here and in a number of different ways … in navigating what is supposed to look like for this team this year, that’s always a challenge — it’s something that’s going to be presented naturally, but you seem to find it at some point throughout the year, regardless of who the coach is, regardless of who is calling it in and who is out there, and so the most important thing is just finding that at the right time and continuing to progress.”
Regardless of who the coach is, huh? We’ll leave that soundbite to be dissected in a different article. Interesting choice of words. Hurts ended his press conference with an encouraging message, one he borrowed from the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady. The quote was in response to a question regarding his unlikely rise up the depth chart back in 2020.
“Sometimes adversity builds the appropriate calluses for you to be able to forge a new path,” Hurts said, “and withstand the different storms that come your way.”
Other Eagles quotes from Wednesday’s press conferences …
Saquon Barkley, on losing out on touchdowns due to the Tush Push:
“I look at it like this, if I don’t want the tush push, go score … But, I’m going to try my best not to put the ball at risk to get a touchdown because at the end of the day, the most important thing is to win football games — that’s the only thing that matters.”
Eagles rookie Jalyx Hunt, on the pressure of playing in Philadelphia:
“There’s highs and lows in this city, for sure, but the hardest part is making sure we stay level in here. So, we gotta do everything the same way, and at the same intensity, so I think we found the intensity and the dedication, and the attention detail so we gotta just keep it flying no matter what is happening outside this building.”
Cooper DeJean, on Vic Fangio’s Eagles defense finding its identity:
“I think it’s getting close, you know, there’s always going to be things you can clean up. But, I think we can see it starting to come together but the thing is now we just have to continue to progress and continue to make things that much better within our system, because people are going to find out our weaknesses and try to exploit them, so our job is to take away those weaknesses so they can’t hurt us.”
Mandatory Credit: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
