Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (Post-Game Transcript)
On why the offensive struggled in the second half:
“Well, one, I’d like to give my respects to the 49ers, how they came out and played. They made plays when they needed to. Their coaches coached well. At the end of the day, we didn’t make the plays when we needed to make them, and that’s something that we’re all looking at internally first.”
On his general thoughts about the offense this season:
“Obviously you want more consistency and there’s a desire to improve steadily throughout the year. But it’s hard to look at it from a big picture perspective right now. I think just having the opportunity to go make something happen, and not doing so for whatever reason. Those are the things that we all have to improve [upon].”
On the final fourth-down play and whether the 49ers came out defensively that wasn’t expected:
“No. They played a quote cover-four structure, and I just didn’t make the play. I own it. I own it all.”
On his first season with Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo and whether the two were able to grow together throughout the year:
“I think I’m always growing. I’m always taking in my experiences and learning from everything that we go through. I think it’s tough to single out one individual, especially in a moment like this. We all got to improve and that’s how I look at everything that we go through.”
On the offense finding the explosive plays again:
“Well, I think finding a rhythm and whatever you define aggression as, maintaining the fluidity and the flow throughout four quarters of the game, so I think there’s opportunity for us to improve in that. Just finding a rhythm. Ultimately it is just all something that you either learn from it or you don’t.”
On the toughness of trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions:
“I think it is always hard to duplicate. Everything was there in front of us and so just have to really, really, really improve from it. Obviously, we all could have executed better, but it takes everyone being honest with themselves on that and challenging themselves to grow from it.”
On whether mistakes were being repeated weekly:
“No, not necessarily, but the mentality was where all we got and we all we need and we’re here and we’re going to go try and make it happen and give our best and obviously it wasn’t enough, but there are a lot of things that we’ll be able to look back on and say, ‘Okay, this is an area we need to improve upon and this is how we can grow and we just got to grow from it all.’”
On if the team was “honest with themselves” in September, October, and November:
“I think winning is hard. Nothing about it is easy, especially when you’re trying to repeat. Everything was clear for us and what we wanted to accomplish this year and we came up short, and so you have no choice but to learn from it, especially if you have a great passion about it. And that’s my approach. That’s my approach with it all. I think when I look at this game, and I know this is a little different, it kind of answers a question that you asked before, we’ve got to take advantage of our opportunities when they’re there and we’ve got to be smart and rhythmic in what we do and how we do it. Ultimately, when I see our defense get the ball back like that, I mean, we’ve responded with touchdowns and those are the times we capitalize, especially on short fields. I take ownership for not being able to put points on the board. It all starts with me and ends with me. And so there’s a sense of a lot there that you can learn from. I think as a team, as a collective group and personally for me as a quarterback, how you see the game, how you feel the game, and ultimately just, ‘Okay, how can I find a way to win?’ We weren’t able to do that today.”
On what makes repeating as champions especially difficult:
“That’s the first time that this team has been in that situation and this unit has been in that situation, to have the opportunity to do it, and hopefully we have another opportunity to do so at some later date, but I look at how you respond to it all and so I think for this year and this team and this collective team, there’s a lot that we’ve gone through our experiences this year to learn from and you just want everyone to be intentional on learning from it.”
On what could have been the issue connecting with Eagles WR A.J. Brown on a couple of pass attempts:
“Yeah, we just didn’t make the plays.”
On what seemed to be the reason why the offense could not get going throughout the season:
“I think competitively everyone on our team had a great desire to win and achieve the ultimate goal, especially here right now, having everything in front of us. It was about winning and that’s something that we didn’t collectively do and that starts with me, so I take it very personally on that.”
On how he reconciles having only 19 points this game with the type of talent the offense has:
“Obviously you want more, obviously you work for more. But it’s an assessment of how we can improve in the end. Regardless of what it looks like, it’s about how you learn from it, how you respond from it. And so, it’s not on any individual, it’s on us as a unit, this team, this year and we’ve got to improve from it.”