Breaking Down AJ Brown And Jalen Hurts’ Career Days
Well, this weekend went about as expected on the gridiron. The juggernaut Philadelphia Eagles took care of business at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers, beating them 35-13 in an easy 7th straight victory. While the Eagles winning has become expected at this point in the season, the way they go about their business is always interesting, mostly because of their ability to win in such different ways from week to week. In week 8, it was the combination of Jalen Hurts and AJ Brown that carried the birds past the Steelers. The two self-proclaimed “best friends” looked like they had the chemistry of guys who had been playing together for 7 years rather than 7 games, and it led to 3 of the birds’ 5 touchdowns on the day. Let’s take a look back at the breakout performance for the Eagles’ young star duo.
First off, the stat line: AJ Brown finished his day with 156 yards and 3 TDs to his name, both career highs for the 25 year old wide out. It was an absolutely spectacular stat line that doesn’t even truly do justice to how good #11 looked. Jalen Hurts, not to be outdone, had a career high 4 passing TDs on the afternoon, also a career high performance. Normally when you have your starting QB and top WR setting career highs in the same game, that means there’s some kind of good chemistry between the two. If this is how Brown and Hurts look together after only 8 weeks, can you imagine what they could possibly grow into? The sky seems to be the limit for the birds’ young pairing, and that’s without mentioning how good DeVonta Smith could still be in the WR2 spot.
Those are just statistics, though, and while admittedly very good ones, they don’t tell the full story of just how good the Jalen Hurts-AJB connection was Sunday. The first TD hookup between the two was a beautiful show of faith by Hurts on a play that Brown admitted postgame that he wasn’t supposed to get the ball on. Hurts threw a 50/50 deep ball with Brown in double coverage, and the former Titan high-pointed the pass perfectly in between two Pittsburgh defensive backs. The next TD pass was even better, though, possibly the best throw of Hurts’ career. It was double coverage again, and required a 27 yard dime from #1. He delivered a drop in the bucket, and a 14-7 lead on that throw. The 3rd touchdown was beautiful in its own right, a 29 yard strike that resulted in AJ Brown pointing at 2 Steelers defenders and reminding them that they can’t cover him. It wasn’t even a great game by Hurts and Brown, all of this was in THE FIRST HALF ALONE (they did play a great game in total, too). If this connection continues, this team is going to be nearly impossible to stop. Their record now says that they already have been.
