Eagles’ Kenny Pickett comes up just short in relief of injured Jalen Hurts: ‘I think he settled in well’

LANDOVER, Md. — Kenny Pickett may be getting the blame for how the Philadelphia Eagles offense looked once Jalen Hurts exited the game on the 11th play with a concussion. His teammates certainly didn’t feel that way. 

Pickett, a first-round pick just two years ago, entered the game in relief of Hurts once he exited the game to be evaluated for a concussion. The Eagles had a 7-0 lead when Hurts exited, as Pickett finished the 8-play, 57-yard drive by going 3 of 3 for 20 yards and a 6-yard touchdown pass to A.J. Brown to put the Eagles up two scores. 

This was just the beginning of an okay performance by Pickett, just going by the box score. Pickett finished 14 of 24 for 143 yards with a touchdown and an interception (72.0 rating), a game which the Eagles fell to the Washington Commanders by a 36-33 final. 

“I don’t believe in moral victories, but shout out to Kenny,” said Eagles quarterback Saquon Barkley. “He came in and did a really good job putting us in a situation to win a football game.”

The Eagles’ offense clearly wasn’t the same without Hurts, as the Commanders put more defenders in the box to key in on Barkley. To Barkley’s credit, he still had 25 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown with Hurts out — 68 of which came on the touchdown run in the first quarter. 

After that quarter? Barkley had 22 carries for 41 yards — averaging just 1.9 yards per carry. 

“They loaded the box, but we get it each week,” Barkley said. “The dynamic of Jalen definitely helps. A lot of things we do in our run game is designed with Jalen. It’s kind of hard to continue to run the same stuff when he’s not in there. We just didn’t make the plays.” 

The Eagles certainly had their chances to help Pickett out, as there were two crucial drops in the fourth quarter. Barkley dropped a throw on a wheel route that would have went for a big gain and DeVonta Smith dropped a third-down throw from…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/eagles-kenny-pickett-comes-up-just-short-in-relief-of-injured-jalen-hurts-i-think-he-settled-in-well/

Author : Jeff Kerr

Publish date : 2024-12-23 16:41:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.