Hurts Returns Eagles #1 East Seed

The Philadelphia Eagles claimed the NFC East title and locked-in the number one seed in the NFC after a 22-16 win over the New York Giants.

Jalen Hurts returned to play following a shoulder injury several weeks ago and led Philadelphia to finish the season with 14 wins, the most in the conference.  The Eagles took control of the game from the start and held onto the lead even as the Giants defense pushed back at the end of the second quarter and fought harder in the second half of the game.

“Like you’re going to win some ugly,” said Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni. “There were parts of today that’s not up to our standard. We wanted to set our identity of who we are and just keep plugging away at it, but winning in this league is hard to do, and we won’t apologize for that. It feels good to be able to get the division and our 14th win.”

Sirianni talked about the teams’ accomplishments from last year until now. Philadelphia scored 59 touchdowns this season, the second most in the league. The Kansas City Chiefs scored 61. “This team has done some special things,” he said. 

Philadelphia started the games strong. AJ Brown broke the Eagles’ single-season receiving yards record with a 35-yard catch and run in the first quarter”. This surpassed Mike Quick who held the franchise record. Eagles led 16-0 at halftime. 

However, Philadelphia offense was unable to remain consistent as quarterback protection trailed off as the Giants defense stepped up. 

The Eagles were not as prepared for the Giants comeback. Early in the third quarter Giants safety Dane Belton intercepted Hurts pass in the end zone. Giants quarterback Davis Webb later scored the Giants first touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles held off the pass from Webb to wide receiver Marcus Johnson for the 2-point conversion.  Giants wide receiver Kenny Golladay caught a pass from Webb deep in the end-zone with less than two minutes remaining in the game. Hurts took a knee to end the game. 

“It was great,” said Giants head coach Brian Daboll about the interception. “I thought he had a chance for another one too, where it kind of zapped him. You are proud of all your guys. Belton who hasn’t played a bunch, but is playing and we have a lot of confidence in.Kenny [Golladay] made a great play.”

Webb completed 23 of 40 passes for 168 yds. Hurts completed 20 of 35 passes for 229 yds for the Eagles. “I had some things I had to battle within myself,” Hurts said on if he had concerns coming back after injury. “I want to be available for my team. I really feel like if you want something you have to do what you have to do to go get it.”

“Again, we won the division and that’s a great accomplishment that we wanted to be able to do,” said Sirianni.  “You know us, we want to do one game at a time, but we have a lot of bigger things in our minds right now.”