The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Green Bay Packers 40-33 on Sunday night to go to 10-1 on the season. Eagles QB Jalen Hurts put on a show running and throwing the football.
Hurts was asked how he got loose for so many rushing yards so early in the game. “I don’t know how to answer that question, to be honest,” said Hurts, who had 102 rushing yards in the first quarter. Then he plainly added the explanation: “I ran, and they couldn’t get me.”
Hurts finished with 158 yards on 17 rushing attempts and completed 16-of-28 passes for 153 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions on a historic night. He became the first player in NFL history with at least 125 rushing yards and 125 passing yards in the same half of one game, and he broke the franchise record for rushing yards by a quarterback with the fourth-highest total for a QB in an NFL regular-season game.
The Eagles QB rushing record had been set by Michael Vick in a 38-31 victory over the New York Giants on Dec. 19, 2010. Hurts turned in the 11th 100-yard rushing game by a Philadelphia QB. His name is on the list twice now, the same number as Vick’s, with Randall Cunningham and Donovan McNabb appearing three times apiece.
“I have a great deal of respect for those guys, the guys that have come before me,” Hurts said. “Randall, Mike, McNabb, just the way they played the game, I always talk about how I admired the way they played the game. To be thrusted into that category, it’s a blessing. It’s a lot of hard work going into it. I have a ton of respect for them and their support, and they don’t even know how they affected me, impacted me in my time here. It’s an understatement to say how much I appreciate them, because I do, and they’ve guided me in more ways and they don’t even know.”
Hurts’ first touchdown pass on Sunday night came on a 30-yard throw Quez Watkins as the Eagles took a 27-20 lead with 13 seconds left in the first half. His second touchdown pass was a 6-yarder to WR A.J. Brown. The score provided the opening points of the second half as Philadelphia went ahead 34-20 with 7:19 left in the third quarter.
Hurts is the only player in NFL history with at least 6,500 passing yards and 1,500 rushing yards in his first 30 regular-season starts.
Philadelphia Eagles QB Jalen Hurts. Photo courtsey of Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
