There’s an underrated Iron Maiden song called “Deja Vu” in which Bruce Dickinson proclaims that he feels like he’s been here before. That’s the case with all of the talk about Jalen Hurts and the passing game after the Green Bay win:

Do we have terrible memories around here? It was only about 3 months ago that the Eagles embarked on a lengthy winning streak that was defined by running the football, playing solid defense, and cutting down on mistakes. We talked at length about Hurts becoming a game manager and protecting the football, which was, if you’ll recall, the biggest offseason topic surrounding QB1 in 2024.

If you look at the Green Bay box score from last week, the formula was largely replicated. Hurts only threw the ball 21 times. The Eagles ran it 34 times, Saquon Barkley went for 119, and no one on offense coughed up the football while the defense took it away. You play like that and you’re going to win a lot of games. As long as it’s effective, they’re going to keep doing it.

So that’s the rub here, and where people kind of differ. There’s one faction that says, “the Eagles don’t chuck the ball because they don’t have to.” This faction believes the Eagles are good enough to win the Super Bowl if they keep doing what they’re doing. Another faction thinks that the Eagles WILL NOT win the Super Bowl if they don’t get the passing game going, because some opponent will inevitably find a way to slow down Saquon, and then what? Hurts is firing worm burners into the ground while playing from behind? Maybe, maybe not. And I think a third faction also exists, and those are the people who think that if the running game does get stuffed, that Hurts is good enough to pivot and go back to slinging the rock downfield to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

Regardless of which faction you fall into, haven’t we had this discussion before? And after the big drama that Brandon Graham created following the Carolina win, how did the Eagles’ offense respond? They torched the Steelers for 290 yards and two scores through the air, with one turnover. Throw in those early games against New Orleans and Green Bay and they’ve shown they can do some Hal Mumme Air Raid stuff when necessary.


Last, and certainly not least, did people forget that Hurts was just coming back from a concussion? The guy hadn’t played in almost three weeks and probably wasn’t going to be at his best. Now he’s hopefully shaken off some of the rust and is ready for the divisional round. Go Birds.