PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Hurts skipped the preseason, the NFL MVP runner-up is just too essential to danger an harm to play a meaningless snap.

He additionally is aware of the best way to run an offense, placing up among the finest all-around numbers by a Philadelphia Eagles quarterback in franchise historical past. He even led the Eagles to the Super Bowl, a feat positive to be acknowledged at Thursday’s residence opener towards the Minnesota Vikings.

But perhaps, simply perhaps, even with coaching camp and joint practices and offseason exercises, the preseason video games on the sideline may need thrown off Hurts a bit.

His closing line in Week 1 was as pedestrian because it will get: Hurts handed for 170 yards and a landing and rushed for 37 yards with a fumble in Sunday’s win over New England.

Did the break day damage? If it did Hurts, who mixed for 35 passing and speeding touchdowns final season, was loath to confess it.

“No, I don’t think there was an adjustment period there,” he mentioned. “They were prepared really well. Put a lot of time into it. I think for us we just continue to grow through that. We all have standards. I have standards and they’re very high.”

PHOTOS: NFC champion Eagles attempt to shake off lackluster opener towards Vikings

Hurts wasn’t alone among the many elite QBs who slogged their means by means of the NFL’s opening weekend. Hurts additionally has stout cause for optimism that he could make a quick turnaround in these numbers towards the Vikings.

Last season, additionally in Week 2 towards the Vikings, Hurts had 301 complete yards within the first half within the breakout sport of his younger profession and completed with three complete touchdowns in a 24-7 win.

Consider, Hurts hit 5 receivers on 5-for-5 passing - highlighted by a 19-yard strike to A.J. Brown - within the opening drive and completed the drive himself with a 3-yard scoring run. In the Week 1 win towards Detroit final season, Hurts failed to finish a go on 5 makes an attempt and the Eagles turned the ball over on downs on the primary drive of the sport.

So perhaps it’s a sample.

Or perhaps Hurts and the Eagles may run into hassle towards a revamped Vikings protection below new coordinator Brian Flores.

After rating second-to-last within the NFL in yards allowed and giving up the fourth-most factors within the league final season below defensive coordinator Ed Donatell, the Vikings turned to Flores and turned over greater than half of their beginning lineup.

The early outcomes for Minnesota weren’t terribly promising - the protection allowed a fourth down conversion to increase Tampa Bay’s drive for the tiebreaking subject purpose and later let the Buccaneers drain the ultimate 3:52 off the clock Sunday with a 15-yard facemask penalty and two third down conversions for a 20-17 victory.

“They create a lot of issues with the pressures that they bring at you, and so we see that they’re aggressive, well-coached, tackle well,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni mentioned.

TRYING FOR A REBOUND

Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson had six receptions for 48 yards in final season’s loss to the Eagles. Kirk Cousins was pressured into three interceptions.

Jefferson had 150 yards on 9 receptions towards Tampa Bay.

INJURY REPORT

Eagles working again Kenneth Gainwell and security Reed Blankenship are out with rib accidents whereas cornerback James Bradberry is within the concussion protocol.

Defensive deal with Fletcher Cox is questionable with rib accidents. The Eagles already positioned linebacker Nakobe Dean (foot) on the injured reserve earlier this week.

With Gainwell out, the Eagles might look to show to D’Andre Swift to deal with the workload.

“You can always get it to him by just handing it off to him, but I see him being able to play any role that he’s in because of the type of back and the skill set that he has,” Sirianni mentioned.

BLANKED IN THE OPENER

Eagles tight finish Dallas Goedert, who had six catches for 60 yards within the Super Bowl, was focused solely as soon as in New England and did not have a catch.

Goedert shrugged off the zero in his stat line. The Eagles know Goedert’s time to make clutch catches will come.

“Yeah, you never want it to happen, but it does,” Sirianni mentioned. “I said to our coaches, ‘it’s not like we were throwing it to some bums on the outside.’ We were throwing it to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.”

Smith completed final season with 95 catches for 1,196 yards, after he was shut out in receptions within the season opener towards Detroit. Hurts labored shortly to get Smith concerned, connecting with him a team-high seven occasions the following week towards the Vikings.

“It’s not something that hasn’t happened before and it’s always turned out fine,” Hurts mentioned.

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