Jalen Hurts quiets haters and leads the Eagles back to the Super Bowl: ‘I guess he let me out of my straitjacket today’

“All he does is win!”

That was Nick Sirianni‘s message to the world after Jalen Hurts carried Sirianni back to the Super Bowl.

Moments later, a classic from DJ Khaled blasted from the speakers at Lincoln Financial Field: “All I do is win, win, win, no matter what!”

Hurts did more than just win Sunday evening. He blew up. He cemented his worth. He comforted anyone who still questions a $255 million contract for a 195-yard passer in a league that has devolved into flag football with shoulder pads.

Hurts and his offense scored 55 points Sunday, the most in any conference championship game and the second-highest total in the club’s 54 playoff games. Hurts went 20-for-28 for 246 yards, with a passing touchdown, a running touchdown, and two Tush Push scores. He found A.J. Brown on fourth-and-5 for 31 yards down the sideline to set up a touchdown late in the second quarter. He left the game with 3 minutes, 53 seconds to play to a wild ovation, his last game at the Linc until September, but not his last game of the year.

Hurts and his Eagles have next week off before heading to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9. They will face the Kansas City Chiefs who edged the Buffalo Bills in the AFC championship game on Sunday night.

It’s only the fifth time in 17 games he’s started and finished this season that Hurts threw for at least 240 yards, and he indicated that the game plans devised by coordinator Kellen Moore and Sirianni have kept Hurts conservative by design.

“I guess he let me out of my straitjacket a little bit today,” Hurts said with a grin.

Make no mistake: Hurts, who usually is a retiring sort, was feeling himself Sunday night. After the game, a tan suit coat draped over his arm, wearing a black, collarless shirt, with a black-and-silver NFC champions hat on backward, he strolled into the coaches’ offices to pose with the George Halas Trophy. Hurts put his arm around owner Jeffrey Lurie on his right and GM Howie Roseman on his left, a fat cigar in his teeth, and waited for the photo flash. A few minutes later, back at his locker, he lit it.

He’d earned it.

The Eagles’ road to the Super Bowl was paved by Barkley’s unmatched season as a runner and the best Eagles defense since the Minister himself, Reggie White, added to his legend 35 years ago. Sirianni’s humility as a head coach, Moore’s innovation as a coordinator, and Vic Fangio’s defensive genius created a culture of comfortable competence and maximal execution. The Eagles forced four turnovers in their 55-23 win over the visiting Washington Commanders on Sunday evening. Barkley ran for 118 yards and scored three touchdowns on 15 carries.

But without Hurts, it’s all for nothing.

Without Hurts, Sirianni doesn’t get to go to two Super Bowls in three years.

“He deals with so much criticism, which just blows my mind,” Sirianni said. “Man, this guy wins. Winning, at quarterback, is more important than any stat that you go through.”

Hurts agreed.

“It’s not about me. I don’t even play the game for any statistical measure. Nothing more than just winning,” Hurts said. “You play the game to win.”

His teammates love that attitude.

“I feel great for him,” Barkley said. “I’m not taking anything away from Jalen, but — he’s Jalen Hurts, man! He wins. He doesn’t get his respect. But if we win this next game, they’re going to have to give it to him.”

As for the argument that Hurts succeeds because of Barkley and A.J. Brown and a great offensive line, Sirianni noted that great QBs seldom thrive on their own: Joe Montana had Jerry Rice and great backs, Tom Brady had Rob Gronkowski and Randy Moss, Patrick Mahomes had Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce.

“You tell me a quarterback who’s won like this that has [crap players] around him,” Sirianni said.

It is a great team, though, the best in Eagles history. It also has its best GM, Roseman, and its best owner, Lurie. None of that would matter without Jalen Hurts.

» READ MORE: Eagles GM Howie Roseman deserves more respect and credit for his best year ever. Here are his 10 best moves

Lurie might have kept Howie and Nick on board when their critics were calling for their heads, and he might have pushed to draft Hurts and pushed to pay Hurts the most money in franchise history. Roseman might have shopped for the groceries. The coaches might have concocted this potent stew.

All of that paved the road.

Jalen Hurts drove the bus.

Hurts entered the game injured, having twisted his knee against the Los Angeles Rams the week before. He’d missed the final two games of the regular season with a concussion. He also was sick Sunday night.

Hurts entered the game embattled, having finished the season averaging just over 193 passing yards per game, then averaging less than 130 yards in the two playoff wins that sent him to the NFC championship game.

He exited the game a winner. Again.

He was 39-4 in college. He’s 51-23 as a pro. If he gets No. 52, he’ll become the greatest QB in franchise history. Low bar, maybe, but it is what it is.

He speaks in aphorisms and parables, and he often refers to “The Standard.” What is his standard, he was asked Sunday.

“The standard is to win,” he replied.

In an era defined by analytics and statistics, how did he become so obsessed with winning?

“By losing.”

Sirianni loves that.

“I don’t want anybody else leading this team at quarterback other than him,” Sirianni said. “He’s a winner.”

Hurts has been dissected and minimized, often evaluated for what he’s not instead of for what he is.

Embattled and questioned and criticized for much of the last two seasons for everything from aptitude to attitude, Hurts has reached the Super Bowl for the second time in just four seasons as a starter. Most of the critics — from the stat-rich, win-poor legends to the talking-head failed NFL backups — cannot say the same. Most of them weren’t winners. Not winners like Jalen Hurts.

Hurts isn’t the NFL’s best quarterback. He can’t throw it like Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, never could, never will. He can’t run like Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels or Ravens superman Lamar Jackson; at least, he can’t anymore. He doesn’t diagnose defenses like Matthew Stafford, and he doesn’t have the magic of Mahomes.

You know what he does? He wins. And wins. And wins.

Hurts makes the plays that need to be made, with his legs, or his arm, or his brain, and Hurts protects the football like a momma bear protects her cubs. He has committed just three turnovers since Game 4. The Eagles are 13-0 in the last 13 games he both started and finished. His passer rating in that stretch is 102.7, which would have ranked sixth in the regular season, just behind ...

Whattaya know? Jalen Hurts!

Yep, he’s been this efficient all year long. Not especially pretty, and not especially productive, but pretty production doesn’t always win unless it’s efficient, and Hurts has been a model of efficiency.

So he isn’t Favre or Montana or Brady or Rodgers.

He isn’t supposed to be.

What he is, is, a stone-cold winner.

With one more win to go.