This was written down on our Monday list of things to talk about:

I kept thinking to myself on Sunday, “jeez, they’re gonna keep throwing that deep ball until they connect,” and to the Eagles’ credit, that huge fourth quarter completion to A.J. Brown was the catalyst for the touchdown that ultimately won them the game. Hurts loves throwing to those ‘go’ routes now, so much so that deep shots made up more than 30% of his attempts in the Chicago win.

When you look at the Next Gen chart, he completed four of those 12 passes while throwing two interceptions:

It’s high risk/high reward. You have studs in Brown and Smitty who CAN catch these balls, so you don’t worry too much about Hurts continually going to the well, because it typically results in a game-changing type of completion when it does connect. You just wonder if they end up against a Dallas or San Francisco in the playoffs and get hyper-focused on the deep ball, to the point where they’re eschewing the rest of the offense. It’s crazy what Orlovsky points out, that Miles Sanders in a career year got 11 touches while Hurts threw 12 passes 20+ yards down the field. Let’s be fun and explosive and hit those big plays, but balance remains important.