The critics said that quarterback Jalen Hurts wasn’t good enough as a passer to win the Philadelphia Eagles a Super Bowl.
After Hurts’ Super Bowl LIX MVP performance — 17 of 22 passes completed for 221 yards, three touchdowns (two through the air) and an interception — one of his most vocal critics has taken an “L.”
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ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky, a former quarterback, apologized Monday after the Eagles’ 40-22 throttling of the Kansas City Chiefs.
“What we’re going to say about Jalen Hurts, and what he proved last night, he’s unbreakable,” Orlovsky said on First Take. “He’s unbreakable, and he proved that this (mind) and this (heart), for an athlete, will always matter more than anything else, and you have to give Jalen Hurts credit. This a young man that was benched in the national championship game — benched by the greatest college football coach of all time. Didn’t break him. …
“I owe publicly Jalen Hurts an apology. I was probably one this year who’s been the hardest on him. I’ll go back a couple weeks ago when I said the passing game is not good enough right now, and I don’t think it’s going to get better. All he’s done since then is have his two best games of the year on the two biggest stages that the game has been on, the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.”
In routing the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game, Hurts accounted for four total touchdowns (three on the ground). He completed 20 of 28 passes for 246 yards.
Hurts already had an impressive resume when he arrived at this Super Bowl, but now he can say he was the quarterback who led his team to a championship. That distinction belonged to Tua Tagovailoa when Alabama won the national championship in 2018 and Hurts was denied a title by Mahomes and the Chiefs when the teams met two years ago in the Super Bowl. Hurts played better in both Super Bowls and this time he also got the title.
Hurts’ combined record in college and NFL is now 103-28.
Said Orlovsky: “All Jalen Hurts has done is constantly believe in himself, no matter what anyone has said. And again, I’ve been one of those people and constantly just going to work and not allow the outside noise — we all can learn from that — not allow the outside noise to affect him. He’s a big-game hunter.”
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