We know Galen Hurts is always hard on himself. We know he always strives for perfection. We know he expects more of himself than anyone else.
However, it was strange to hear Hertz say on Sunday that he feels like he let the team down.
after winning.
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But this is Galen Hurts. This is the tape he has set himself.
“As an opponent when you have the ball in your hands at the end of the game, you want to take advantage of it and not give the opponent a chance to win the game, tie the game, whatever it is,” Hurts said.
“I don’t look at anyone but myself. I look in the mirror and I look at myself and ask myself, ‘What more could I have done not to put the team in this situation near the end of the game?’ How can we get to the end zone? “
Hurts could have celebrated a 20-17 win over the Cards in Glendale, Arizona, but chose instead to question his performance.
And Hurts wasn’t bad at all on Sunday. He completed 72 percent of his passes for 239 yards, twice from TD, and scored no turnouts in scoring his eighth straight win in the regular season. He became the sixth QB in the Eagles’ history to shoot 35 passes in a game and completed at least 72 percent of his passes without interception.
But the way the match ended was frustrating to watch, and it was frustrating for Hurts.
The Eagles led 17 games through 7:58 and took the lead in Cameron Decker’s goal with a 1:45 left.
But Hurts wanted six.
“What more could I have done to put us in a better position?” He asked rhetorically after the match: “I feel in many ways, I let them down.
“Only with the chances we didn’t take advantage of and the ball touching my hand in every game. Those are the mixed feelings I have.”
Hurts imperfectly threw to Ques Watkins in the end zone in the Eagles’ last offensive game of the match – the third and goal from 5 ahead of 1:52 from the left.
The play never got a chance, and luckily Hurts didn’t catch the ball.
Cameron Decker followed him with a game-winning field goal, but Hurts hated leaving the game in the hands of the Eagles’ defense and Kickers Cards.
“The worst feeling was when we went off the field, when I went off the field until the end of the game, we kicked a field goal,” he said. “Decker put in a great show and put this team in a great position, but there’s nothing I can do.
“I can’t control what their striker does. He missed it. He made Kikrana. I can’t control that, but I can control what we’re going to do in the second quarter, in the first quarter, when the ball is in my hands. I can do it.”
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Hurts said he had flashbacks to the 2016 BCS Championship game, Alabama’s 35-31 loss to Clemson at Raymond James Stadium.
Hurts’ 30-yard track gave TD a Crimson Tide lead with 2:07 from the left, but TD’s short pass from Deshaun Watson to Hunter Renfrow in 0:01 gave Clemson the win.
“We go in there and score goals, great play,” Hurts recalls. “I left like less than two minutes on the clock. So I watch them go down and he (Watson) goes and wins the match.
“That’s all the things that flashed through my head at that moment. In the end, it’s about the way you execute and it’s about the confidence you have on both sides of the ball.
“I don’t like to put the team where their attacker has a chance to tie or win the game, or have our defense on the field. If I can control it, I want to take advantage of that. That’s just my competitive nature with it.”
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