The Eagles suffer a devastating third-straight loss against the Seattle Seahawks.
Seattle (AP) — Jalen Hurts performed better for the majority of the evening than he appeared or perhaps felt given his illness.
Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles will be devastated by the fourth quarter’s lost chance to reclaim the NFC East and preserve home-field advantage heading into the postseason.
Hurts witnessed the Seattle Seahawks, led by Drew Lock, come back in the closing minutes to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 20–17 on Monday night, so handing Philadelphia (10–4) their third consecutive defeat.
Hurts had a forgettable fourth quarter. With 8:08 remaining, he attempted to connect Quez Watkins on a deep pass that would have increased Philadelphia’s lead to 17-13, but instead he threw an interception in the end zone. With just over two minutes left, he failed to convert a third-and-7 at midfield, which probably meant Seattle never got the ball back.
Hurts attempted to hit A.J. Brown down the sideline in the waning seconds of the quarter, but Julian Love intercepted him again in a desperate attempt.
Was trying to be aggressive in that moment. We had multiple opportunities in the game to open it up and we didn’t do that. I didn’t do that. I didn’t do my job good enough,” Hurts said.
Following lopsided losses to San Francisco and Dallas, Philadelphia’s defense has been mostly held accountable over the last several weeks. However, after failing to score an offensive touchdown in Dallas the previous week, Hurts and the Eagles’ offense are by no means innocent.
The solution was supposed to be to play the leaky Seahawks defense when they traveled to Seattle. And initially, it appeared that way as the Eagles’ two long scoring drives in the first half gave them a 10-0 lead.
However, that lead evaporated early in the third quarter and was not maintained until Philadelphia recovered a 17-10 lead halfway through the quarter on a touchdown run by Hurts.
Really wanted to be able to get up two scores on them and we weren’t able to,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “I thought the defense was hanging in there and doing some really nice things. We just needed to pull away in that game and we didn’t.”
Hurts finished 17 of 31 passing for 143 yards and added another 82 yards rushing on 13 carries. He didn’t want his illness to be an excuse, but Hurts missed practice on Saturday and flew separately to Seattle a day later to stay away from his teammates because of how he was feeling.
If Hurts was affected by his illness, it may have been the fourth quarter when it showed up. He was 2 of 6 passing for 25 yards and two interceptions on Philadelphia’s final three possessions.
He’s a warrior. He’s a competitor. Obviously the game didn’t go our way, but he made some outstanding plays for us for sure,” center Jason Kelce said
Philadelphia is riding a tenuous line. They’ve already clinched a playoff spot, but the defending NFC champs have looked anything but Super Bowl ready the past few weeks. Their point differential of plus-18 is tied for the third-worst of any team with at least 10 wins through the first 14 games of a season.
They have time to get it corrected and the schedule over the final three weeks is favorable with two games against the lowly New York Giants sandwiched around a visit from even worse Arizona. The Eagles should have every chance to finish with 13 wins, but it may not be enough to even win their own division.
Our objectives are still in front of us. We are aware that we won the playoffs this week. That’s not actually what we’re examining. We are aware of our goals,” Sirianni declared. The last time you’ll hear me say that is that we want to win this division. This next week, we have to go win a game.”
