Eagles Jalen Hurts seems to understand he has a turnover problem

The turnovers the Eagles continue to commit are breathtaking.

They haven’t won the turnover battle in 12 straight games now. They haven’t won the turnover battle since a 21-17 win on Monday night, Nov. 20, against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium last year. Their record since then is 4-8, including Sunday’s 33-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Eagles’ turnover rate was -10 last year, which was sixth-worst in the NFL. This year they are already -6 and have 13 games left.

Quarterback Jalen Hurts is the source of the problem. He had 20 turnovers last year and six this season.

“We have to make sure as coaches that we do the right thing with him,” Sirianni said. “At the end of the day we are at minus 6. We all have to own that. We all need to put our name to it. Obviously I haven’t done a good enough job so far… Everything is being evaluated.”

The Eagles have a release week to figure this out, and they need to start reducing turnovers. But not only that, but they are also pushed out by the other team.

That’s because of the defense. The only two they have forced this season were two interceptions by Reed Blankenship. This is just as bad as the Eagles turning the ball over.

It was nice to see Hurts’ streak of seven interceptions end, but his lost fumble after the Eagles reached the Tampa 19 was his third turnover inside the red zone this season.

“You can point fingers all over the place, but this is all mine,” he said after his career record fell to 1-4 against the Bucs. “There are a lot of different things that play into it. Ultimately it’s about protecting the ball. That’s the goal.”

To his credit, Hurts has said he needs to get better at least a half-dozen times. He seems to understand that he has a turnover problem, although in this case he had a built-in excuse since he was without his top two receivers, AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith, but declined to lean on it.

“I didn’t play well enough,” he said. “We had chances. Take a lot of time this week to take advantage of this game and what we had and the guys we had a lot of trust in. … Ultimately, it starts with me. I had a lot of faith in the people we had out there. I don’t think I did enough.”

Brown missing three games in a row and Smith missing for the first time has certainly made it difficult for the Eagles to find an identity. Hurts believes the team will be better once an identity is solidified.

“I think it’s a challenge when you always have different moving parts. So given the opportunities you have, it’s really a so-what-now-what-now mentality, and that’s the approach that I took and I don’t think I’m good enough in those areas was,” he said.

“I have to score points out there and spread them. Really run the show and lead it, lead the attack offensively. I need to get better at this.”

Hurts is in his fifth season. He’s probably still learning. Learning should never stop, but sales must.

When asked what’s top of mind for him to improve, he said: “Production, ball handling and just efficiency. We need to score points and that starts with me.”

His fumble after the offense reached the 19 was a major turning point in the loss. A core would have been there, and the Eagles would have cut the Bucs’ deficit to one point with a full quarter still to play.

“I think we get the ball away, we have the opportunity to occupy Calcaterra in the middle of the field, but in the end we didn’t have enough time in that situation,” he said.

The Eagles are paying him well to get better, and he needs to start cashing in on that $255 million and handing over the football. He has won a lot of games in the last two years, but after the end of last year, the decline seems to continue.

Does that hurt? Is it Sirianni? The answer still needs to be written.

“We have great ambitions as a football team,” Hurts said. “We have grown together and we will experience different adversities that will challenge us. “We just have to continue to grow and learn from everything we experience.”

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