Eagles head into bye week with 6-2 record and Jalen Hurts playing at a high level

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Hurts is playing his best — just as he did in the Super Bowl — to at least revive his candidacy for NFL MVP headed into the second half of the season.

Hurts has thrown for 505 yards and seven touchdowns without an interception over his last two games. He had a perfect passer rating in a win over Minnesota. Hurts ranks third in the NFL in passer rating and, in more fan-friendly metrics, has thrown 15 touchdowns against just one pick this season.

Oh yeah, and Hurts, who also has five rushing touchdowns, keeps winning.

The reigning Super Bowl champions head into their bye tied for the most wins in the NFC at 6-2 and they beat Tampa Bay in September to give them an early edge in the race for the No. 1 seed. Green Bay is technically atop the conference at 5-1-1.

“I think it’s so important that we are completely locked in and focused on finding ways to get better,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “Identifying issues, identifying strengths, and this is a really important week. We’ve benefited from this week in the past, whether that be going into playoffs or whether it’s in the regular season.”

Eagles fans will gleefully recall how well Hurts, Saquon Barkley and the rest of the team played last season after the bye: the 2-2 Eagles ripped off 10 straight wins and lost only once on their way toward the franchise’s second Super Bowl championship.

“I think the best is yet to come,” Hurts said.

Who’s going to doubt him?

Hurts has already beat Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes, Los Angeles’ Matthew Stafford and Tampa Bay’s Baker Mayfield en route toward the top of the NFC East.

More QB challenges are ahead, starting with next Monday night’s game against Jordan Love in Green Bay. The Eagles then return home to play Jared Goff and the Lions in a game many last season had pegged as a potential championship game showdown, until Washington pulled off the upset in Detroit.

“There are going to be tests along the way, but you have to embrace those challenges as they come,” Hurts said. “And I think we do that as a group.”

The potential scary news for the rest of the NFC is this: Barkley just finally may be getting hot.

Last season’s AP Offensive Player of the year and a 2,000-yard rusher, Barkley slogged through the first seven games with meager outputs blamed on just about everything: defenses crowding the box, injuries on the offensive line and bad calls from first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.

Against his old team, the Giants, Barkley broke loose. He had a 65-yard touchdown run on his first carry on the way to 150 on the ground in the game in a 38-20 win that proved there’s plenty of life left in his legs (even if back-to-back 2,000-yard rushing seasons remains well out of reach).

With the game out of reach, Barkley didn’t play again once he suffered a groin injury.

Barkley, though, said he should be good to go against the Packers and the extra days because of the bye should only aid in his recovery.

A dangerous Barkley means a dangerous Eagles offense.

He has eight rushing TDs of 60-plus yards in just 1-plus seasons with the Eagles, the same amount as the next three Eagles since 2000 combined. He leads all NFL running backs with 10 games with 150-plus yards rushing and he leads among backs with nine multi-TD games (including playoffs) since 2024.

“I thought that was just a matter of time,” Sirianni said. “We’ve been close with our run game and it popped (last Sunday). We want to build on that and continue on that, but I think that was just a matter of time because we have the players up front. Saquon looks great, and he was able to find some space to get some of those explosive runs that we were used to seeing from him.”

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