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    • How Jalen Hurts’ great gesture propelled Eagles past Cowboys
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    How Jalen Hurts’ great gesture propelled Eagles past Cowboys

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    ARLINGTON, Texas − So Jalen Hurts was late in the first half, coming off his worst moment in weeks.

    He had just lost a fumble at the Eagles’ 6-yard line when Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons knocked the ball loose before Hurts could pin it with his other arm. Dallas, without quarterback Dak Prescott, was about to take its first lead of the game.

    The fact that the Cowboys even got that chance came courtesy of Hurts’ first turnover to start the second quarter, when he threw an interception in the end zone trying to hit tight end Dallas Goedert.

    But on third down, defensive tackle Jalen Carter pushed his way into the backfield and threw Rico Dowdle for a two-yard loss, forcing Dallas to make a field goal. At that point, the Eagles still held a one-point lead in a turnover-rich first half.

    It’s what Hurts did next that allowed the Eagles to score 27 straight points, starting with the next drive that led to Hurts’ 14-yard TD pass to Dallas Goedert with 23 seconds left in the half. That led the Eagles to a 34-6 rout of the Cowboys.

    That left the Eagles (7-2) heading into a showdown for first place in the NFC East with the Washington Commanders on Thursday evening. The Eagles won their fifth straight game and led the Commanders by a half-game after Washington (7-3) fell 28-27 to the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier on Sunday.

    For Hurts, the turnovers were his first in five games. Instead of smothering, Hurts walked over to the defensive players sitting on the bench and shook everyone’s hands. He did the same with the offensive linemen waiting for the start of the next series, and with anyone he could find.

    “He hit all the linemen on the hand and said, ‘Let’s go. That’s out of our control. Let’s move on,'” right tackle Lane Johnson said. “When you play these games and have moments like that, you can choose two things: you can let it affect you, or you can try to be the best player you can in the next game, and the one after that.”

    It was a small gesture, for sure. But it also said everything about Hurts as a leader, as someone who took responsibility, as someone who made sure the two turnovers wouldn’t define him or the Eagles.

    “I don’t have any pride or anything involved in owning up to my mistakes,” Hurts said. “I made a mistake and it hurt the team. I was grateful to them. They had my back. Also the defense, in how they reacted and how they played.”

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    “Those of us who go on offense know we just have to keep pushing, keep moving forward, stay with it and keep throwing punches, and that’s exactly how we handled it.”

    And on defense, the Eagles dominated the Cowboys. They forced five turnovers and held the Cowboys to 146 yards of total offense. Sure, Cooper Rush isn’t nearly as good as Prescott, as Rush completed 13 of 22 passes for an astonishingly anemic 45 yards.

    But the defense made sure Rush never got a chance. So when Hurts went through the defensive line on the bench, they told him they had his back.

    “We’re good. He trusts us,” safety CJ Gardner-Johnson said. “We know that if something goes wrong during the attack, we are ready to pick him up and we are prepared to help.

    “Put out the fire. That’s what we all say on the field. The quicker we put the fire out, the easier we can get it going.”

    We saw this before, in the season opener against the Green Bay Packers in Brazil. Hurts turned the ball over twice inside the Eagles’ 20-yard line in the first quarter. Each time, the defense held the Packers to a field goal, leaving the Eagles down 6-0 instead of 14-0.

    Hurts and the offense then found their footing and won 34-29.

    Hurts and the offense also found their footing on Sunday.

    Hurts finished 14-of-20 for 202 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and the interception. He also ran for 56 yards and 2 more touchdowns. Hurts’ passer rating of 115 was his lowest in five games. He still became the Eagles’ second quarterback since 1970 to have a rating of 100 or better in five straight games, after Carson Wentz did so in 2018.

    Hurts also completed at least 70% of his passes in four consecutive games. Wentz and Nick Foles, both in 2018, are the only other Eagles QBs to do it.

    All this made Hurts’ gesture insignificant. Except that wasn’t the case.

    “I think one of the hardest things to do personally, and just dealing with this, is to be able to move on and say, ‘Man, this didn’t go as planned. How do I move forward?'” Eagles- coach Nick Sirianni said. “He moved on. He didn’t let one action affect the rest of his game. That’s what winners do.”

    This was in the context of Sirianni’s controversial misstep on Friday when he said Hurts was limited in training with an ankle injury last Wednesday after being listed on the injury report as limited due to rest.

    Hurts didn’t let that stop him, just like he didn’t let his turnovers stop him. That raised the question whether he had problems with his ankle on Sunday.

    “Did it seem like it hurt?” Hurts said. “You guys watched the whole game.”

    “That’s what this team is about,” running back Saquon Barkley said. “We never fold. We never panic. It starts with (Hurts).”

    Whether it’s his play on the field or shaking hands on the sidelines.

    Contact Martin Frank at [email protected]. Follow on X @Mfranknfl.

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