The road back to respect for Jalen Hurts began with some of his first words after his worst game of the season. In the Eagles’ locker room a week ago, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith and Jordan Mailata, among others, had complained about the poor performance of the team’s passing attack in a narrow win over the hapless Carolina Panthers and watched the game tape. There was no need to know what the problem was. Anyone watching in real time could see it. Hurts was too hesitant. Hurts was too cautious. Hurts had the receivers open and, for whatever reason, didn’t want to throw them the damn ball.

In those situations where criticism is coming his way, Hurts can stand up and go on the defensive. He can begin speaking in public, not with the bluntness that a quarterback and leader must sometimes display, but only in vague aphorisms, as if his real full-time job was writing fortune cookie messages. This time it was different. This time, Hurts was direct and honest, leaving no doubt that he, too, understood what the problem was with the Eagles and who needed to solve it.

“We did a bad job,” he said, “and it starts with me.”

Seven days later, in a game and against an opponent that promised to test the toughness and resilience of Hurts and the Eagles, he pulled off the best of the week storm and stress pretty much irrelevant. This was a 27-13 Eagles victory over the Steelers that really wasn’t that close, especially when it came to which team controlled the game, and this Hurts at his best, better than in his first 13 games this season: 25-for-32 for 290 yards, targeting Brown and Smith a total of 23 times in 19 balls and throwing a touchdown pass to each of them on the back foot.

To play so well under those circumstances — against a team coached by Mike Tomlin, against a defense with TJ Watt and Cameron Heyward and Minka Fitzpatrick — was to answer every question about whether Hurts has what it takes to win big for the Eagles Game. It was a refutation of all the critics who claimed he had lost the mojo that made him so special in the 2022/23 season. The man who matched up with Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LVII and who defeated the sport’s best quarterback that night in Glendale was still in there somewhere. And just like that, he was back at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday.

The easy joke to make before kickoff was that Hurts might throw the ball to Brown after about 17 Eagles offensive plays. After all, Brown was the one who summed up the offense’s weaknesses against the Panthers: “Passing.” Anyone who interpreted this quote as an indication that Brown hated Hurts, or disliked Hurts, or was bound to cause stomach cramps in Hurts’ driveway knows nothing about Brown. He is loved by his teammates, including Hurts. Yes, Brown had created a chance for a team that had won nine straight games, but the only question was whether Hurts would be up to the challenge.

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He did it. Nick Sirianni described Hurts’ troubles to reporters on Friday as “something that’s going on.” Whatever it was, the coach insisted that the quarterback would do everything in his power to fix the problem. “He’s getting better and better and winning football games,” Sirianni said, “which at the end of the day is the most important thing – winning football games. And Jalen does it better than pretty much everyone else.”

Give him credit. With the exception of a fumble in the first quarter caused when Watt made a great play to take the ball away from him, Hurts couldn’t have been better on Sunday. He was timely with his throws, knew exactly where he was going with the ball, and didn’t do anything that was either too timid or too risky. The Eagles won’t win a Super Bowl and might not get out of the NFC while Hurts holds and pumps the ball and is so afraid of making a mistake that he can barely function.

That’s what he looked like last week against the Panthers, and all anyone wanted from him was simple: Find the balance between the turnover machine he was in the first four weeks and the extremely careful caretaker he was in the last there had been time. He found it. No complaints or controversy here, at least not for another week. The Eagles did a great job on Sunday, and it started with the player who had the most to win and lose. It started with Jalen Hurts.