The Philadelphia Eagles got down big early in their Wild Card game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jalen Hurts was partly responsible for that.
Hurts missed a wide-open Quez Watkins on a third down play in the first quarter. For whatever reason, Hurts felt like the pocket was collapsing and scrambled to his left. That caused him to miss Watkins, who had come open on a post route over the middle and had nothing between him and the end zone.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES #Eagles pic.twitter.com/o3YjIrEkXS
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) January 16, 2022
The worst part about the play was that Hurts couldn’t have had a cleaner pocket.
Protection was great. Watkins coming wide open but Hurts already gave up on the pocket and started to scramble. Tough look here…#Eagles pic.twitter.com/9a33ukziE1
— Donnie 'RightSide' Seymour (@RightSideVP) January 16, 2022
Hurts will undoubtedly be kicking himself when he watches film of that play. Had he stepped up and kept his eyes down the field, he probably would have seen Watkins.
Between Hurts missing an open receiver and this questionable roughing the passer call, the Eagles couldn’t have had much worse of a start on Sunday.
