Jalen Hurts Won The Disaster Contest

The Chiefs are no longer getting away with it, and maybe the Eagles aren't either. The defending Super Bowl champs are still leading the NFC East with an 8-5 record, but anyone who has watched this team closely will be forced to admit that the eternally pessimistic Eagles fans have a point this time—something is clearly not right here.

The Eagles lost their third straight game on Monday night, dropping a 22–19 overtime snoozer to the Chargers. Pretty much everyone who participated in this game came out of it embarrassed, but none more so than Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who this morning finds himself the personification of everything that has felt lacking about this Eagles' season.

Hurts threw four interceptions, lost a fumble, and produced zero touchdowns. Those numbers look bad enough on their own, but it's the details that really make this performance sting. For one thing, Hurts's counterpart didn't play much better, though that had more to do with the Chargers' pathetic offensive line than anything else. Justin Herbert spent the entire game trying to avoid grievous bodily injury while getting sacked seven times and throwing for just 139 yards to go along with one interception and one touchdown. A team as talented as the Eagles should be able to win by several touchdowns any time the opposing quarterback is having that bad of a night, but Hurts insisted on making the game's biggest messes. None were worse than a play in the second quarter, on which Hurts became the first player to commit two turnovers on one play since 1978, which is as far back as the Elias Sports Bureau is able to research. After having his pass over the middle picked off by defensive lineman Da'Shawn Hand, Hurts recovered Hand's subsequent fumble, only to then fumble the ball himself and cede possession back to the Chargers.

Somehow, those weren't his most damaging turnovers of the night. The big one would come in overtime, while the Eagles were driving into Chargers territory following Los Angeles' field goal on their first possession. Hurts drove the Eagles down to the Chargers' 33-yard line, and had just over two minutes left to try and grind out a game-winning touchdown or, at worst, a field goal that would probably result in a tie. Hurts ended up going for the win on first down, and things really did not work out for him:

It's hard to imagine a more embarrassing single-game performance for a quarterback than one that includes a double-turnover play and a walk-off interception. Even Jake Delhomme feels bad for this guy.