Eagles Jalen Hurts Darius Cooper

Jalen Hurts clutches up on the final drive, Eagles escape Nashville heat with 24-20 win over Titans

Well, that was a whole lot more stressful than it should have been, but a win’s a win, and the Eagles got it done. Jalen Hurts capped a clutch 65-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown strike to Darius Cooper with just nine seconds left, lifting the Eagles past the Titans 24-20 on a brutally hot Sunday in Nashville.

The turf temperature hit an absurd 157 degrees, the game got way too close for comfort, but Philadelphia found a way to move to 2-0. And after that whole crew of us took over Broadway all weekend, it felt like a home game in the stands, which made the finish that much sweeter.

Jalen Hurts is HIM

The Eagles looked ready to run the Titans off their own field early, opening the game with three straight drives of at least 11 plays, including a 15-play march to start it. Total control but then the mistakes crept in, and a game they should have put away turned into a nail-biter.

Tennessee sacked Hurts three times and picked him off twice, turning those turnovers into 10 points. A Marcus Harris interception set up a Joey Slye 33-yard field goal with 1:56 left to put the Titans up 20-17.

So there was Hurts, 1:56 on the clock, 65 yards to go, needing a touchdown to save the Eagles from an embarrassing loss to a bad team.

He delivered, like he always seems to. Hurts drove them down and found Cooper for the game-winner with nine ticks left, the first touchdown catch of Cooper’s career. Hurts called the drive the result of execution, focus, and perseverance, and that’s exactly what it was.

The man finished with 264 yards and two touchdowns, and when it mattered most, in crunch time on the road, he was ice cold. Say what you want about the picks, but this is what separates the great ones. They erase their mistakes when the game is on the line.

DeVonta Smith is unreal

DeVonta Smith was an absolute stud, hauling in 10 catches for 117 yards. That’s the WR1 the Eagles need him to be this season, and he was reliable all day. Tank Bigsby ran for a touchdown, and Jake Elliott drilled a 58-yarder, because of course he did. When your kicker is casually knocking through 58-yard bombs, that’s a nice weapon to have in your back pocket.

Now the stuff that needs cleaning up.

Two Hurts interceptions and three sacks against a bad Titans team is not good enough. One of those picks, a Hooker interception on a pass to Smith in the end zone, wiped out points and set up a Ward touchdown.

The offensive line, which I’ve been harping on, gave up three more sacks, so that concern hasn’t gone anywhere and the run game was nonexistent, though a big part of that was Saquon.

Saquon Barkley suffered a stinger in his left arm on the OPENING play. Thankfully he returned to start the third quarter, but he finished with just 9 yards on four carries, only the fourth game of his career under 10 yards rushing.

Keep an eye on that arm, because a healthy Saquon is the engine of this offense, and the Eagles clearly missed him being at full strength.

The Titans Deserve a Little Credit

I’ll give Tennessee this much: they played hard and hung around, and new coach Robert Saleh said he thought his Titans outplayed the Eagles at times.

Honestly? He’s not entirely wrong, and that’s the frustrating part. Cam Ward threw for 183 and ran for a pair of 1-yard touchdowns. He got them to midfield on the final drive before his last pass under pressure hit the turf as time expired.

The Eagles let a clearly inferior team hang around, which was exactly my worry heading in. They survived, but they can’t do that against the good teams coming up.

Historic Company for Hurts and Sirianni

Even with the sloppiness, some genuinely impressive history got made. The Eagles improved to 15-4 in September since 2021, staying tied with Buffalo for the most wins in the NFL’s opening month over that span. This is a franchise that comes out of the gate ready every year.

Nick Sirianni is now 2-0 for the fourth time, the most by any coach in Eagles history, and he became just the fourth NFL coach to win his first six road openers, joining Sean McVay, George Allen, and Mike McCarthy.

Hurts trails only Roger Staubach among QBs to start their careers winning at least their first six road openers, and he’s just the fifth QB in NFL history to win six straight road openers during any stretch, joining Dan Fouts, Staubach, Bart Starr, and Fran Tarkenton.

That’s legendary company, and yet another reminder that the disrespect this guy gets is completely unwarranted. He just wins.

For The Eagles, It’s Survive and Advance

This was an ugly, sweaty, too-close-for-comfort win, and the concerns about the offensive line, the turnovers, and the run game are all legitimate but the Eagles are 2-0, they won on the road in brutal conditions, and Jalen Hurts came through in the clutch when it mattered most.

That’s what good teams do. They find a way even when they don’t have their best stuff.

The schedule gets a whole lot tougher now with the Bears, Rams, and Jaguars on deck, so this team has real work to do but you take the two-game head start, clean up the mistakes, and move on.

From all of us who took over Nashville this weekend with Phans of Philly, it was a hell of a trip capped by a hell of a finish.

Escape Nashville 2-0. On to Chicago. Go Birds.

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