Jalen Hurts didn’t hide what he thought about Jeffery Simmons’ comments once the Eagles had walked out of Nissan Stadium with a 24-20 win.
After Philadelphia’s comeback finished Tennessee on Sunday, Hurts found Simmons on the field and made the point with a grin: “You started that s---,” Hurts told Simmons with a smile. “I had to finish it.”
That was the clearest sign yet that Hurts took the Titans star’s remarks to heart during the week. Before the game, Simmons had said Tennessee’s defense needed to make Hurts “be a QB” to beat Philadelphia in Week 2, and the line sparked plenty of debate about whether it was a shot at the Eagles quarterback.
Hurts wasn’t giving much away when asked about it Sunday. He wore a stern expression and said he heard Simmons’ comments, but he stopped short of explaining how they landed with him. After the game, though, the exchange between the two spoke loudly enough on its own.
Hurts ended up delivering the decisive drive, which made him the hero of the afternoon. With 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter, he hit DeVonta Smith for 20 yards to move the Eagles to the Titans’ 3-yard line. On the very next snap, Hurts found Darius Cooper for a 3-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone, putting Philadelphia ahead by four.
The performance wasn’t spotless. Hurts threw two bad interceptions against Tennessee. But when the game was on the line, he delivered exactly the kind of finishing drive that settled the argument.
Afterward, Simmons said his comments were never meant the way some people took them.
“We saw he can throw the ball down the field,” Simmons said after the game. “He’s a Super Bowl MVP.
That wasn’t a shot at Jalen. Thing was if we could keep him in the pocket and eliminate him from scrambling and running, which I think we did a hell of a job with that, and making him go sideways.
We can be successful, especially getting them to third down.
“Cause we saw on the second downs, it was like GBOT. Jalen was trying to find something downfield, and he will take off running.
You’ll see that all over tape. That was my point of making Jalen Hurts stay in the pocket and just be a quarterback.
It wasn’t, ‘Oh, he can’t be a quarterback in the pocket.’”
Still, after Hurts led the winning march and then sought Simmons out afterward, the message was unmistakable.
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