Jalen Hurts vs. Sam Darnold Matchup Preview
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We’re in week four of the NFL season and the 1-3 Eagles head out to Carolina to play the 3-1 Panthers, and the QB matchup is something to take note of.
After four weeks, Jalen Hurts of the Eagles has seemed very promising. If he stays on the track he’s on, he will be a top candidate in the MVP race.
As of now he’s on pace to finish with 4,668 passing yards, 28 touchdowns, and eight interceptions. This is excluding his very impressive rushing stats.
Sam Darnold of the Panthers on the other hand would finish with about 100 more yards than Hurts, but with seven fewer touchdowns and four more interceptions.
Darnold is a quarterback that played on a very bad New York Jets team to start his career. Moving over to the Panthers, we have gotten to see how good of a quarterback he really is.
Darnold has looked very impressive thus far, however if you are someone who looks at stats, Hurts is clearly having the better season. Although, the Dallas game was atrocious for Hurts. But he has shown some sparks in every other game.
The Eagles run defense has been absolutely horrible so far and I don’t imagine it will get any better. Their pass defense hasn’t been much better but fortunately for the Eagles, the Panthers don’t have a receiver on the same skill level as Tyreek Hill or Deebo Samuel like they had to face last week.
After the Cowboys offense went off last week against the Panthers, both of these teams should have solid offensive play. Hurts’ stats should be lower than last game as I assume head coach Nick Sirianni should incorporate the run game more this week. On paper, Darnold will likely look like he won the matchup whether the Eagles win or lose. With star running back Christian McCaffery out this week, the pass game will be the Panthers main source of offense.
Matchup aside, both of these quarterbacks have a lot to prove, and should have great games on Sunday. Personally, I would love to see Darnold succeed this season. He had to suffer his first couple seasons on the Jets and now he has his chance to shine. That being said, I’m bleeding green all day, Hurts is my QB1 and I’m confident in his ability to lead us to our second win of the season.
