Why was Jalen Hurts still on the field in the final moments of a blowout loss?

When the 49ers made it 42-19 with about 5 ½ minutes left, that’s when the time was right to throw up the white flag.

Time to surrender.

Get Jalen Hurts out of the game and to the safety of the sidelines, let Marcus Mariota finish out the last few minutes of garbage time, wait for the clock to hit 0:00 and go start preparing for the Cowboys.

While you’re at it, get Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and D’Andre Swift out of there, too.

Get the subs in, keep the starters healthy for the crucial next five games and postseason and live to play another day.

It didn’t happen.

The Eagles started their final offensive drive of their worst home loss in eight years on their own 15-yard-line with 5:19 on the clock.

For the record, they’re 0-305 in franchise history when they enter the fourth quarter down 23 points. But this was 9 ½ minutes into the fourth quarter and it’s a safe bet they’re 0-and-something in those situations, too.

And out comes Hurts. And out comes Brown and Smith. And out comes Swift and Kelce and the starting offensive line. 

Down 23 with 5:19 left in a chippy game filled with trash talking, late hits and sideline skirmishes, Hurts was still in the game.

One series after missing five plays to be checked for a concussion following a vicious hit after a scramble late in the third quarter.

It didn’t make any sense before Nick Sirianni talked about it, and it definitely didn’t make any sense after Sirianni talked about it.

Sirianni was asked post-game why play the starters in that situation.

“We were still down two possessions,” Sirianni said. “There was some time. We had our timeouts still. Just trying to continue the game.” 

Then is was pointed out that it wasn’t a two-possession game, that the Eagles actually trailed by 23 points.

Sirianni said only: “Yeah, we’re going to fight to the end.”

Fight to the end? It was the end.

The Eagles ran nine plays from 5:19 to 2:13 before going out on downs. All nine were pass plays. Hurts didn’t leave the field until the 49ers took over just before the two-minute warning with backup quarterback Sam Darnold running out the clock.

So the most important person in the franchise was still out there at risk with the Eagles trailing by three touchdowns, two two-point conversions and a PAT with less than 2 ½ minutes left in the game. With two timeouts remaining.

Hurts has gotten hurt late in each of his two seasons as the Eagles’ starting quarterback. He missed a game late in 2021 with an ankle injury that hampered him throughout the rest of the season and required postseason surgery and missed two games late last year with a shoulder injury that never fully healed until the Super Bowl.

The Eagles’ 42-19 loss dropped them to 10-2, still the best record in the NFL and still with a legitimate shot at the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

But it sure seemed like the Eagles dodged a bullet. Swift got banged up in those final seconds and had to be helped off the field. That could have easily been Hurts. 

When a game is that physical and there’s clearly bad blood between the two teams, the last place you want Hurts long after the outcome has been decided is on the field, throwing every snap against one of the NFL’s toughest defenses.

Sirianni has done an incredible job as Eagles head coach. He’s now 33-13 in three years here and is on the brink of becoming the first coach ever to lead the Eagles to the postseason in his first three seasons.

But even the best coaches make mistakes, and this was a big one.

Fighting to the end makes a lot of sense when fighting to the end can help you win a football game.

Fighting to the end is great. But not when there's nothing left to fight for.

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