Eagles don’t need perfection from Jalen Hurts. It sure helps when he is for the Super Bowl champs

By Canadian Press on October 20, 2025.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Hurts emptied some frustration as he walked into the Eagles’ locker room after he gave his lagging offense a jolt by throwing for 326 yards in a win over Minnesota.

“We ain’t (expletive) losers no more,” Hurts was caught saying in a social media post.

No, the Eagles certainly aren’t losers anymore after a rare two-game skid raised concerns about everything from a predictable offense to first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo’s job security to a running game that has yet to reach the heights set in last season’s run to the Super Bowl.

Well, fixing two out of three isn’t bad.

Hurts directed a passing game that flashed reminders of why he’s been both an NFL MVP runner-up and a Super Bowl MVP.

Hurts completed 19 of 23 (82.6%) attempts for 326 yards and three touchdowns, all for 25-plus yards without an interception and he finished with a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Hurts is the third player in Eagles history to post a perfect passer rating, joining Nick Foles in 2013 and Donovan McNabb in 2007.

Hurts threw for his most passing yards since he went for 380 against Tennessee in 2022.

“You don’t have a game like that without the guys around you,” Hurts said.

While 158.3 might seem like a random number, the calculation for the perfect passer rating goes like this: A QB must attempt a minimum of 10 passes, have a 77.5% completion rate and have a minimum of 11.875% of passes result in touchdowns, with 12.5 yards per attempt and no interceptions.

That’s a lot of math and numbers to say that Hurts was indeed impressive.

No weird social media posts needed this week.

Hurts hit wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith for a combined 304 yards and three touchdowns in large part from an expanded number of plays under center and throwing deep.

“This is what we felt was the best thing to do this week, and so we’re happy to walk out of here with victory given the formula we had,” Hurts said. “Obviously, I have some things that we need to clean up and can be better but won’t be able to dive into that until I watch the tape.”

He’s going to have a hard time finding mistakes amid the passer perfection.

What’s working

The defense. Jalyx Hunt returned an interception for a score and the Eagles held Minnesota to 1 of 6 scoring chances inside the red zone. Rookie Andrew Mukuba recorded his second interception of the season in the second quarter and became the first Eagles player with multiple interceptions in his first seven career games since Rasul Douglas had two in 2017.

What needs help

Hurts could only smile when asked about the possibility of retired defensive end Brandon Graham rejoining the team.

The 37-year-old Graham retired in March after the Eagles beat Kansas City in the Super Bowl. The former first-round draft pick out of Michigan in 2010 retired as the career leader in games played for the Eagles with 206, ranked third with 76 1/2 sacks and has the most postseason sacks with 5 1/2.

Graham is one of four players who participated in both of Philadelphia’s Super Bowl wins: following the 2017 season against New England and last season against Kansas City.

The Eagles are thin in pass rushers because of injuries and the surprise retirement of Za’Darius Smith.

Graham did not rule out a return last week on his “Unblocked” podcast, saying only that “you’re always going to feel like you can do something.”

Stock up

The receivers were naturally the beneficiaries of Hurts’ perfect passer rating. Hurts hit Brown for two touchdowns and Smith for a career-high 183 receiving yards that included a 79-yard score.

Stock down

Saquon Barkley ran for 44 yards on 18 carries. He has just 369 yards and is averaging a paltry 3.3 yards per carry with only three rushing touchdowns. Barkley has failed to top 88 yards in a game this season and his longest run against Minnesota was all of nine yards (though a 13-yarder was brought back because of a holding penalty).

Through seven games last season, Barkley had 658 yards rushing with five touchdowns and his most dominant games yet to come.

Hurts said the idea to get Barkley more involved just didn’t happen once the passing game exploded.

“I really didn’t want to say directly what we were going to do, because I’m just not that type of competitor to put that out there. But the thing was to come in and establish the run,” Hurts said. “That’s what we wanted to come in and do, and the game just flowed the way it did.”

Injuries

The Eagles lost starting center Cam Jurgens (knee) and two key backups on defense, LBs Azeez Ojulari (hamstring) and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. (ankle), to injuries in the first quarter. Starting CB Adoree’ Jackson (concussion) was sidelined in the third quarter.

Key numbers

5-2 — Philadelphia has started 5-2 or better through seven games for the fourth consecutive season, tied for the longest stretch in franchise history (1947-50).

Next steps

The Eagles need the offense to stay sharp when it returns home Sunday to face a Giants team that thumped them 34-17 just two weeks ago. Hurts was sacked three times and had an interception.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

Dan Gelston, The Associated Press

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