In the buildup to the Wild Card round clash between the Eagles and the Packers, a major subplot has been the health of the teams’ respective QBs. Both Jalen Hurts and Jordan Love will be entering the field, fresh off recovering from their injuries. The duo is pivotal to their team’s success and their return is a great boost for both squads.
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On one side, we have Eagles QB Jalen Hurts, whose passing game has taken a step back this season after the addition of RB Saquon Barkley. Despite that, the Eagles talisman has thrown for 2,903 yards with 18 TDs.
Hurts’ rushing game, however, is the real deal as he has managed to improve his last season’s yardage [605] and TDs [15] with two games lesser — 630 yards and 14 rushing TDs.
In comparison, Jordan Love’s rushing is essentially nonexistent this season with 83 yards and 1 TD. But, it’s the passing game where Love outshines his counterpart, with 3,389 yards thrown for 25 TDs.
Purely based on head-to-head stats, Jalen Hurts is the clear winner with more well-rounded statistics. But when it comes to the duo’s respective records against each other’s teams, the stats lie on a much more similar plane.
Both Jordan and Jalen have 2 TDs apiece against each other, while their passing yards are also similar — 278 and 260 yards, respectively. The two signal-callers’ QBRs show little difference, with Hurts posting a 65.5 against the Packers and Love recording a 69.3 against the Eagles.
As balanced as these stats sound, they seem to lie heavily in Jalen Hurts’ favor when one looks at them with a bigger lens. Nick Sirianni’s Philadelphia Eagles have been simply sensational defensively this season, as they rank second-best in the league for points allowed [17.8 per game]. The Packers’ defense, while comparable, ranks sixth with 19.9 Ppg.
While the Packers edge out the Eagles in rushing yards allowed [1,689 and 1,771 respectively], Jalen Hurts & Co. remain numero uno in fewest passing yards allowed — 174.2 Ppg. This, right here, is a potentially game-deciding stat, considering Jordan Love is a pass-heavy QB.
So it’s not surprising to see the betting odds having the Philadelphia Eagles as their outright favorites for this match. The bookmakers have Hurts & Co. at -251 in comparison to the Packers being listed at +206.
On top of all this, the Eagles will be entering the field with two key advantages — 1) the psychological advantage of having gotten the better of the Packers at the start of the season (in Brazil) and second, the home-ground advantage.
Keeping all this in mind, it’s hard to see the Eagles lose this game.
