Hurts uncovers his 'swag,' helps Eagles stop skid

MINNEAPOLIS -- As quarterback Jalen Hurts made his way into the visitors locker room following the Eagles' 28-22 win over the Minnesota Vikings Sunday, he shouted, "We ain't f---ing losers no more."

Hurts said he played with "some fire" following back-to-back losses to the Denver Broncos and New York Giants, and that was evident to teammates as he threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns and ended with a perfect 158.3 passer rating -- just the third Eagles signal-caller to do so.

"He's got so much swag," left tackle Jordan Mailata said. "When he's in control, you can see a look in his eye."

Hurts said that during the team's slide all he could think was the opportunities to finish down the stretch in games. The Eagles were dead last in yards per play (3.9), score percentage (24%) and punt percentage (53%) in the second half this season entering the game.

Philadelphia flipped that script against Minnesota, as Hurts threw for 240 yards and a pair of scores in the second half. He averaged 20 yards per pass attempt over that span, the highest rate in the second half by a quarterback with at least 10 attempts since Kirk Cousins in 2016 Week 11 (10.3 YPA), according to ESPN Research.

The offense got off to a hot start in the third quarter, with Hurts finding DeVonta Smith for a 79-yard touchdown on their opening series off of play-action. Smith identified a vulnerability in the Vikings defense when the Eagles went under center and told whoever would listen at halftime that they could take advantage of it.

"Smitty basically saw something and was like, 'I'm telling you, it's there.' K.P. [offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo] trusts him, we called it and we hit it," running back Saquon Barkley said.

Smith finished with a career-high 183 receiving yards on nine catches while A.J. Brown posted four catches for 121 yards and two scores.

The Eagles ranked 30th in passing offense entering Week 7 in part because they had trouble getting Brown and Smith going. That changed in a major way Sunday: Hurts went 13-of-17 for 304 yards when targeting his wide receivers in this game, the second-highest yards total in his career.

"The thing was to come in and establish the run, that's what we wanted to come in and do and the game just flowed the way it did," Hurts said. "We were able to be efficient in the pass game, KP was very timely and I think we were able to doctor up some things on the sideline and work through some things but those guys made big-time play. Smitty had a hell of a day. Tough. Size ain't nothing to him the way he plays. It was good to see."

The Brown-Hurts connection has been lacking in particular but they were on the same page against the Vikings, including on a game-sealing 45-yard fourth-quarter reception on 3rd-and-9 that was the result of a check at the line of scrimmage.