A Jalen Hurts critic changes his tune, why the Eagles are on upset alert vs. Bucs, and more of what they’re saying
It only took one good half from Hurts for Dan Orlovsky to start to come around. But not everyone believes in the Birds this weekend against the Bucs.
The Eagles managed to scrape out a win over the Los Angeles Rams in the last seconds of regulation after overcoming a 19-point deficit in the second half. Since the game, most of the dialogue has been centered around the team’s slow start, Jalen Hurts’ second-half performance, and the history between the Eagles and their Week 4 opponent, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Here’s what they’re saying about the Eagles and their upcoming game against the Bucs …
Jalen Hurts is ‘Him’
Although Hurts struggled in the first half against the Rams, he dominated through the air in the second half and finished with 226 yards and three touchdowns. Following the win, former NFL player Damien Woody had one word to describe the Super Bowl LIX MVP: “Him.”
“We just had this discussion in our production meeting for Get Up this morning,” Woody said on Unsportsmanlike Radio. “And I can almost feel like, in his head, he’s like, ‘How many times do I have to keep going out here and showing y’all that I’m that guy? Why do y’all keep disrespecting me?’
“The first thing I went to was that list — remember that list where Jalen Hurts was like No. 9? That’s the first thing I thought of. Like, everyone keeps talking about I can’t throw. What’s wrong with the passing game? This, that. And all he does is just go out there and he does what he needs to do to win. Isn’t that the ultimate winner? Isn’t that what winners do? Like, sometimes it might not look pretty but at the end of the day, he just wins.”
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Even a former critic of the Eagles quarterback, former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky, had to give Hurts his flowers after his second-half performance, and appeared on multiple ESPN shows to do just that.
“I think the most underappreciated part about Jalen Hurts — at least for me — has been, he’s become one of the most cerebral quarterbacks in the game,” Orlovsky said, after earlier in the day saying Hurts is a top 5 quarterback. “I don’t know what has been my hurdle with Jalen Hurts as far as finally being like ‘All right, dude. I get it. You’re one of the best in the game doing it.’
“And I think I just never really appreciated the cerebral part of his game where he just completely controls it. Like we’ve watched Joe [Burrow], like we’ve watched Patrick [Mahomes], like we’ve watched Josh [Allen], and like we’ve watched Lamar [Jackson]. I truly, truly am at the point where I put him in that category because of the way he plays in the biggest moments.”
Eagles vs. Bucs
On Sunday, the Eagles are heading into Raymond James Stadium to take on the Bucs in the Florida heat. The two teams have played five times in the last four years and the Eagles are just 1-4 in those games, including a pair of postseason losses.
In their last meeting, the Bucs handed the Eagles their worst loss of the 2024 season, 33-16, in a game that saw Mayfield throw for 347 yards and two touchdowns. It was an early-season game, and the Birds were without starting receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. It was also a Week 4 matchup, just like this week.
“Last year, they played them so early in the season and Tampa thumped them down there,” Chris Long said on the Green Light podcast. “I think the Eagles got a lot better as the year went on. They’re two different teams but the thing that scares me is, if I’m an Eagles fan, is Todd Bowles and the matchup with [Kevin] Patullo, who hasn’t really gotten his feet under him.”
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The former Eagles defensive end had some advice for the Eagles new offensive coordinator.
“If you’re the offensive coordinator for the Eagles, don’t outsmart yourself,” Long said, before echoing something Brown said after the win on Sunday. “Get the ball to your playmakers. You’ve got some of the best players in the league that can catch and carry the football. And playing with pace helps. And when it feels like it’s 103 degrees, it definitely helps. I don’t care if you live in Tampa or you live in Philly, everybody is going to be tired out on that field.”
The Eagles enter Sunday’s game as 3.5-point favorites, but Peter Schrager believes they could be on upset alert against the Bucs.
“I think the Buccaneers at home beat the Eagles for the third-straight time,” Schrager said on Get Up. “They’ve had Philly’s number. They are not scared of them … [Baker Mayfield] just wins when it matters most. I’ve got the Buccaneers beating the Eagles.”