Jalen Hurts silenced accuracy criticisms during dominant showing against the Atlanta Falcons
Going into the 2021 season, nearly every analyst in the NFL was criticizing Jalen Hurts, and their main reason was issues with his accuracy. Following Sunday’s blowout win over the Atlanta Falcons, Hurts looked to shut everyone up, throwing for over 260 yards and three touchdowns. According to PFF, only Tom Brady had a better showing during week one of the NFL season.
The accuracy was never as big of a concern as people made it out to be, and personally, I was worried more about decision-making than proper ball placement. Throughout the entire game, Jalen Hurts looked to have pinpoint accuracy, completing 27-of-35 passes on the day.
Throwing just eight incompletions on its own is tremendous, but it gets even better when you break down where those eight incompletions occurred. Looking back at the film from Sunday’s game, here is how those missed throws happened.
- Two passes were thrown away.
- Two tipped passes, one at the line of scrimmage.
- Two bad passes
- One spike
- One dropped by DeVonta Smith, both sides at fault.
Take away the spike and the thrown-away passes, and Jalen Hurts had just five incompletions last night. The lousy pass to DeVonta Smith was a slant route in traffic that was not perfectly thrown, but DeVonta also lost it while being hit during the catch. When throwing downfield, Jalen Hurts had just one incompletion on passing attempts over ten yards, going 8/9 for 122 yards and two touchdowns.
One could argue this is the result of a horrible Falcons’ secondary, and they wouldn’t be wrong. But seeing who some considered not to be a top-40 quarterback in the NFL making almost every correct read is still a great thing.
Decision-making is still being worked on, but Hurts is mobile enough to extend the play and buy himself time, and still make beautiful throws on the run while he gets comfortable with his reads. As teams learn the Eagles’ new playbook and they face more challenging teams, the complete picture will begin to formulate, but right now, the future seems bright for Jalen Hurts.
Mandatory Credit: USA Today Sports
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