Hurts takes responsibility for team’s shortcomings
In just four months, rookie quarter back Jalen Hurts already has been apart of twice as many losses (10) with the Eagles as he was in three years at Alabama( three) and one year at Oklahoma (two). Howdoeshehandle that? “I put my head down,” Hurts said Wednesday.
And by that, he doesn’t mean hanging it in shame or defeat. He means focusing only on what’s in front of him.
“It’s about attitude and mentality,” he said. “Keeping your head down and seeing it all through and ... going out there and just playing and controlling what you can. So I just try and live by those things. In the face of adversity, it’s about how you respond to it. Some things come with time but my head’s downand I’m just trying to work. Work and win. Everything is about winning.”
Hurts showed in last Sunday’s 37-17 loss at Dallas how far he is from being a polished product who’s ready to help this team win consistently. In his third start since taking over for Carson Wentz, He scrambled away from pressure that wasn’t there at times, missed on some throws and forced some others. In the end, he was intercepted twice, sacked three times and lost one of two fumbles.
The offensive line also was penalized for six false starts, with Hurts taking the bulk of the blame.
“Anything that goes wrong offensively, I take ownership for,” Hurts said, “so it is something that I have to do better. We’ve been communicating with it. Obviously it’s a different voice back there for some of the guys offensive ly, so it’s just something that we’ re working on.
Hurts also is painfully aware that the Eagles have scored a total of just 13 points in the second half of his three starts — and none last week.
“I think that’s a matter of our consistency within our execution ... having the right type of focus consistently throughout the game, everybody being locked in,” he said .“You talk about these different penalties we’ ve had, all of them havebeen... self-inflicted wounds.
And a lot of this stuff is stuff that we can control.
“... You’ve got to learn from it. It means nothing if you don’t learn from it. I pride myself on learning from any experience, good or bad. So I think that’s the mentality we have moving forward.”
Showing what he can do in the Eagles’ final game of the season is not a priority for Hurts, who is fixated on the scoreboard only.
“I’ll always be my biggest critic ,” he said. “You know, I always have had a standard for myself and the things that I do. I think the mentality — what we’re trying to do is end it on a high note. I’m not sure what anybody else has said, but that’s wheremyheadis. Endit the right way, have some pride and go out there and play this game. Have some passion, show some passion.”