Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts helped the Eagles to a 10-1 record to start last season and then many things spiraled out of control. In Week 18 against the New York Giants last season, the Eagles were utterly embarrassed against the Giants on the road 27-10.
Philadelphia trailed against New York 24-0 at the half. Hurts and the rest of the starters were pulled from the game and they were needed the next week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The game was out of reach for the Eagles to come back from and they didn’t want to risk other star players getting injured. Tampa Bay won that matchup against the Eagles 32-9.
In that matchup against the New York Giants, Jalen Hurts only completed 7-of-16 passes for 55 yards and one interception. He only rushed for four yards on two carries. The Giants defense made him quit in that matchup and then Hurts did something interesting after that game.
Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts Called Former New York Giants Defensive Coordinator Wink Martindale
Martindale was the defensive coordinator for the New York Giants last season. After the game, Hurts decided to call the former Giants defensive coordinator to see how he could prepare for the following week’s matchup. They spoke for 30 minutes discussing the Giants’ game plan and where the Eagles’ protection was weak, according to Jim McManus and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN. Martindale said:
“I’ve been doing this for 40 years and it’s the first time I’ve had an opposing quarterback call me up. I thought it was pretty cool that the guy called. It shows you what kind of pro he really is. He’s just looking at every angle that he can to get better…It was very effective and he knew it, and he just wanted to know why we did certain things that we did. Then he went to work on that.”
The phone call did not seem to matter much because the Eagles were embarrassed the next week in the wild-card round. Baker Mayfield carved up the Philadelphia Eagles’ defense. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense was very good against Phialdelphia’s offense, which seemed to lose its juice.
Jalen Hurts did complete 25-of-35 passes for 250 yards and one touchdown, but the damage was limited. Tampa Bay sacked him three times in that playoff game. It was an interesting way for Hurts to learn about himself when he called Wink Martindale, but it didn’t seem to matter at all what they tried to do late last season. The defense was also responsible for the second-half collapse.
