Nick Sirianni corrected the wording.
A reporter asked the head coach how his Philadelphia Eagles responded after losing franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts to a concussion.
Hurts suffered a concussion in the first quarter of a 36-33 loss to the Washington Commanders on Sunday, forcing Kenny Pickett to play in relief after just four passes.
“What about adjusting immediately when Kenny walks in?” the reporter asked. “Because he’s obviously a very different quarterback than Jalen in terms of his plus-one [able to pass and run].”
Sirianni did not elaborate on the end of the question. Instead, he went along at first.
“There’s nothing we leave to ‘something we do along the way,’” Sirianni said. “There are times when we have to adjust certain things, but if that were to happen, we would go into the game with a plan. We go into a game with a plan like [two quarterbacks] would go down.
“That’s not something that just happens.”
If the response bordered on sensitivity, Sirianni might have a reason for it. Head coaches will rarely say out loud that losing their starting quarterback cost them a game. Sirianni instead repeatedly emphasized the responsibility within the entire team and especially on him as head coach.
And yet what Sirianni didn’t say hit just as hard as what he did say: No matter how well the Eagles plan for the loss of their franchise quarterback, their backups won’t be able to match the double jeopardy that Hurts brings .
Pickett doesn’t have Hurts’ arm and he doesn’t have Hurts’ long-standing chemistry with targets like AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith. Pickett doesn’t get regular practice reps at either, he confirmed, while the quarterback also reminded reporters that offensive coordinator Kellen Moore had not previously called a play with Pickett in charge of execution.
The nuance matters, because even if Sunday’s adjustments against the Commanders allow the Eagles to be better prepared for a Pickett return than in his first meaningful action (he had attempted three total throws in the first fourteen games of the Eagles), Philadelphia’s lofty postseason goals will suffer if Hurts’ injury lasts several weeks.
The passing game wouldn’t be the biggest casualty.
Take the Eagles run game with Hurts… and then without
After a pass-heavy win last week against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Eagles leaned heavily on the run game to start against the Commanders.
Saquon Barkley’s first rush went 19 yards and his next went 13 yards. Fellow running back Kenny Gainwell got a carry and Hurts picked himself up. In total, Philadelphia’s first drive included six carries and two incompletions. It doesn’t matter that they passed zero meters. With Hurts in the game and a shortened field on turnovers on downs, Barkley capped the Eagles’ first series with a 2-yard touchdown run.
And Philadelphia was ready to continue that.
Defensive tackle Jalen Carter stripped Brian Robinson on the Commanders’ first play of the next series, with the fumble giving the ball back to the visitors. Hurts found Smith for 11 yards and then scrambled for 22. Why wouldn’t he scramble again to lighten the load on second-and-20?
But that’s when Hurts hit his head. On a zone-read keeper, which exposes a quarterback more than just a pass, Hurts suffered the concussion that ruled him out for the final 54 minutes and eight seconds of the NFC East game.
At that point, the Eagles had rushed eight times for 79 yards and a touchdown, a whopping 9.9 yards per carry.
They kept the momentum going a little longer, as Barkley tracked lead blocker CJ Uzomah through the defenders with 2:29 to play in the first quarter, exploding as he reached the next level en route to a dominant 68-yard touchdown.
But what looked like a day in the first quarter where the Eagles’ lines of scrimmage would simply overwhelm those of the Commanders would not happen.
Without Hurts, the Eagles’ average yards per carry dropped from 9.9 to 4.3 yards included the 68 meter eruption. Remove that outlier, and the Eagles only combined for 2.13 yards on their non-Hurts carries.
Barkley gained 27 yards on 16 carries in the second half. Without a reliable run game, the Eagles found themselves in unfavorable runs and distances, unable to keep drives alive. They scored four field goals after halftime, but no touchdowns in the second half in a game they lost by three.
Five defensive takeaways weren’t enough to overcome a run game that was telegraphed without Hurts’ combined decoy and production.
Directly and indirectly hurts Philadelphia’s best rushing attack in the league
Ask a friend about the league leader in rushing touchdowns starting this weekend and you’ll probably blow their minds.
Derrick Henry of the Baltimore Ravens is a good bet, with a whopping 13 ground scores. James Cook of the Buffalo Bills tied Henry at 13, while a three-way tie at 12 includes David Montgomery of the Lions, Josh Jacobs of the Green Bay Packers and Kyren Williams of the Los Angeles Rams.
Barkley is one of four players who entered the weekend with eleven players.
But hovering above all the productive running backs with the most ground-enter scores this week was one quarterback: Hurts had 14.
At times, the Eagles have activated their signature “Tush Push” to send Hurts into the end zone. Other times, he simply reads the offensive line he has come to know so well and lets his athleticism and instincts take over from there.
When Barkley led the league with 1,688 rushing yards this week, he knew his skills were necessary but not sufficient ingredients to explain it. The Eagles’ offensive line is much better than the one Barkley ran behind with the Giants. Brown and Smith top a much deadlier receiving corps than Barkley’s counterparts who commanded defensive attention during his six seasons in New York.
And then there’s Hurts. His impact on the running game cannot be overstated. Just ask Barkley.
“A lot of the things we do in our run game are designed with Jalen,” Barkley said. ‘It’s kind of hard to keep doing the same things when he’s not around. So we had to adapt [and] just didn’t make the plays we needed to make.
The Eagles have already clinched their place in the playoffs. They are still determining their path to the division title and a home playoff game. Hurts could still recover quickly enough to clear the concussion protocol before the Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys next week, weeks before the postseason begins.
Sirianni said he had no updates on Hurts’ health or his return timeline after the game.
“Anything that has anything to do with the head is beyond our control,” Sirianni said.
It’s too early to say when Hurts will return. It’s not too early to say that the Eagles’ success, especially in the run game, will depend heavily on his availability.
“He’s our starting quarterback,” Barkley said. “Everything we do and what he can do is why we’ve been super successful.”
