Jalen Hurts went 11 for 19 for 118 yards and a touchdown in Sunday’s win against the Ravens. He ran it nine times for 29 yards and a tush push touchdown.

Not the greatest statistical output of his career, but he didn’t turn the ball over in a game where the margins were razor-thin throughout.

If you’re keeping track, that’s now zero turnovers in eight of the nine games during this winning streak. He was totally clean against Baltimore, LA, Washington, Jacksonville, Cincy, New York, and Cleveland. The only sloppy game was against Dallas, when he fumbled and threw an end zone interception, and even then, you might blame the pick on Jerry Jones’ signature sun glare.

If you wanna ride that narrative, then the lost fumble while trying to escape the pocket is the only truly ugly giveaway since the Tampa game.

It’s important to keep highlighting this topic because it was the biggest one at the end of 2023. Hurts couldn’t get the turnovers under control. The totals were 15 interceptions and five lost fumbles. This year he only has four picks and four lost fumbles through 12 games, so he’s on pace to finish well below the career-high giveaway numbers he posted last season.


We’re framing all of this within the relatively-new discussion of “is Jalen Hurts a game manager?” In last week’s column, I wrote this:

We used to think of “game manager” as a derogatory term, because it came with the insinuation that the quarterback was hindered by some shortcoming, i.e. you had a noodle arm or weren’t very mobile in the pocket. The QB “manages” the game because he can’t take it over himself, which is antithetical to what we’ve thought about Jalen Hurts over the years, and in 2024, still. He’ll rip off a huge run here, a sideline bomb there, and hit on enough explosive plays to prove that he can change the course of a game on his own. In that sense, he’s not a Trent Dilfer or a Brad Johnson, two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks who handed the ball off, made low-risk passing attempts, and had generational defenses shutting down the opposition.

That was the formula for the Baltimore win, was it not? The defense played out of their mind, Saquon Barkley ripped off a big one, as he always does, and Jalen made some quality short tosses to Dallas Goedert while using his feet on the scoring drives. His best pass of the night didn’t travel very far, but hitting Goedert right on the money on 3rd and 7 in the 4th quarter moved the chains and led to the game-winning touchdown.

There’s a question of whether or not this version of Hurts is good enough to win the Super Bowl. Fair enough. But if the defense is playing this well, and Saquon Barkley is healthy, that question might be rendered moot. It may be N/A. Not applicable.