All year we’ve been worried about the wrong team.
Could the Eagles finally beat the Cowboys in Dallas? Could the Eagles handle the 49ers in a playoff game? Could the Eagles beat the Vikings again if they had to?
Turns out the team we need to worry about isn’t the Cowboys, 49ers or Vikings.
It’s the Eagles.
Because late December leading into the playoffs is when you’re supposed to be playing your best football, and right now the Eagles are playing their worst football.
And it’s fair to wonder if what we’re seeing is just the product of Jalen Hurts’ injury and two weeks of Gardner Minshew or if there’s something else at work here.
On the one hand, when you remove arguably the best player in the league from any lineup for two weeks, things are going to look awfully different. Especially if his replacement struggles. But on the other hand, the Eagles’ issues right now certainly do seem to go beyond quarterback play.
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The pivotal question facing this team right now is how many of those issues will disappear once Hurts returns.
And we won’t get an answer until Sunday when the Eagles either lock up a first-round bye or become the first team in NFL history to open a season 12-1 and lose its last three games.
Yeah, Minshew was terrible Sunday.
But Minshew isn’t why James Bradberry and Darius Slay have now gone eight straight games without an interception or why the Saints drove methodically down the field in 15 plays to open the game Sunday.
Minshew isn’t why an offensive line that prides itself as the best in the league has committed the second-most holding and false start penalties in the NFL or why the Eagles have allowed more plays over 50 yards the last two weeks than the first 14 weeks.
Minshew isn’t why Shane Steichen is developing an alarming habit of ignoring Miles Sanders early in games or why the defense has fallen to 24th in the league in rushing yards allowed per play.
That said, we’ve all seen the effect Hurts has on his teammates, the way his presence and his playmaking bring out the best in everyone around him.
When you remove him from the lineup, you’re removing an MVP candidate and eliminating the biggest reason the Eagles were 13-1 a week and a half ago.
But more than that, you’re removing the heart of the franchise. The person everyone turns to when there’s adversity. The guy whose work ethic inspires everybody in the building. The guy whose leadership and guidance have touched every player in that locker room on either side of the ball.
It’s not just about Hurts being a better quarterback than Minshew, although that’s a big part of this. It’s also about Hurts’ presence having a ripple effect that helps transform the Eagles from an average team to the best in the NFL.
With Hurts on the field, there’s just an order and an energy that’s simply not there when he’s not playing. Along with explosive playmaking.
You can just sense it. When the Lions began cutting into that 17-point Eagles lead, you looked at Hurts and knew everything would be OK. And they were.
When the Cowboys scored 17 straight points to cut the Eagles’ 20-point lead to three and had all the momentum, you knew Hurts would figure something out. And he did.
When the Eagles trailed the Colts by double digits in the fourth quarter, you looked at Hurts and knew he wouldn’t be denied. And he wasn’t.
Just getting Hurts back won’t instantly solve all the Eagles’ problems. Everybody on this team has to raise their level of play. The thing about Hurts is that he'll make sure they do.