What happened on brutal pick-6? ‘He never looked back at me'

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Gardner Minshew spoke to the media after the Eagles’ Week 17 loss to the Saints and discussed two critical 4th-quarter plays that hurt the Birds.

Jalen Hurts would have looked up. Jalen Hurts wouldn’t have thrown the pass.

Jalen Hurts would have won the game.

Maybe that’s an unfair way to look at things and perhaps it’s too simplistic. But backup quarterback Gardner Minshew struggled mightily in the Eagles’ 20-10 loss to the Saints on Sunday and it’s really hard to imagine the Eagles’ MVP candidate making the same fatal mistake.

So what happened on that brutal pick-6 in the fourth quarter?

“It was initially press (coverage),” a visibly frustrated A.J. Brown said after the loss. “Me trying to get Gardner’s attention to look up but he never looked back at me. The DB actually called the route out and they basically doubled me on the play.”

Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore sat on the route, picked off the pass and scampered into the end zone for a 12-yard pick-6 to put the Saints up by 10 points. That was the game. The Eagles went from driving with a chance to either tie or take the lead to the game basically being over.

Was the miscommunication just the result of a lack of familiarity between Brown and Minshew?

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Brown said. “I just don’t think he looked up. He saw one look and just stayed with that look.”

Oof.

Lattimore basically confirmed as much. He said the Eagles have been running that all game and he finally picked up on it. Minshew locked in and threw an ill-fated pass. Sure, Brown’s effort left a little to be desired but that ball shouldn’t have been thrown.

“We ran that same play earlier and it was the same coverage and they made a great adjustment to jump the route,” Minshew said. “I should have seen that leverage when we made the motion. I assumed since it was the same coverage, [Lattimore] was going to play it the same, but he made a great adjustment and made the play to beat us.”

It was a bad play from Minshew.

There was a lot of that on Sunday night. The numbers actually looked better than the eye test. Minshew completed 18 of 32 passes for 274 yard with a touchdown an in interception. But the offense was anemic with Minshew at the helm on Sunday. He never looked comfortable, threw errant passes and couldn’t get that side of the ball going.

“Obviously, [Minshew is] going to want plays back,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “We're all going to want plays back, right? I'll have to look at the tape right there. Obviously, [Lattimore] made a good play on the interception in a critical time on that one.”

There was a lot that went wrong offensively for the Eagles on Sunday. In addition to Hurts, they also missed Pro Bowl right tackle Lane Johnson. The rest of the remaining offensive line struggled with missed assignments and penalties. The play-calling left plenty to be desired.

But you get the feeling that if Hurts played on Sunday, the Eagles win. You got the same feeling in the loss on Christmas Eve.

“Jalen’s not on the field,” Brown said. “We’re not thinking about what he would do or none of that. We’ve got to focus on who’s playing and try to win a game with the people I’m playing with.”

Hurts missed his second straight game with a right shoulder sprain and while head coach Nick Sirianni wouldn’t commit to Hurts’ returning for the regular season finale, things certainly seem to be trending in that direction.

Maybe Hurts’ return won’t be a magic cure-all for the offense and for the team. But it will undoubtedly give the team a huge boost.

“I think Jalen is obviously a special player,” Jason Kelce said. “I thought Gardner played good enough to win today if everybody else executes and plays up to the level they’ve been playing at all year. Myself included. Obviously, a new quarterback, there’s familiarity and things like that. I thought Gardner played fine.”

Remember all the talk about Hurts being a system quarterback? That he wasn’t a deserving MVP candidate?

Forget all that.

If we learned anything on Sunday afternoon, it’s just how important Hurts is to the Eagles and how badly they need him back in the offense.

Can the Eagles win with Minshew at the helm in a game where the Giants will likely be resting their starters in Week 18? Yeah, maybe, probably. But after this loss, you can’t take any chances.

Because Jalen Hurts matters that much.

“We'll evaluate that as the week goes,” Sirianni said. “Obviously if he's ready to go, he'll play.”

The Eagles better hope that’s the case.

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