PHILADELPHIA — With home-field advantage on the line, Jalen Hurts wasn’t leaving anything to chance. Come hell or high water, Hurts was going to play in a game the Philadelphia Eagles needed to win to clinch the NFC East and No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs.

Whether Hurts needed another week to rest his shoulder strain wasn’t important. The goal was the lock up the NFC East, something the Eagles failed to accomplish in the two games he was out.

“I don’t really want to get into it,” Hurts said. “I played.”

Hurts shook off the rust in his return, completing 20 of 35 passes for 229 yards and an interception (65.1 rating), using a vanilla game plan where the Eagles coaching staff clearly didn’t want to showcase anything in the event Philadelphia sees New York again in two weeks. Or let any other potential opponent can see how Hurts looked with the normal playbook at his disposal.

The Eagles didn’t have Hurts move outside the pocket much, instead avoiding the hits that could make that shoulder injury worse with the playoffs looming. Philadelphia needs Hurts to have a chance to win the Super Bowl, just like it needed Hurts to clinch the NFC East and the No. 1 seed.

Hurts is 17-1 in his last 18 regular season starts, after all.

“I had some things I had to battle within myself. I knew I wanted to be available for my team,” Hurts said. “It’s really tough being out, let alone taking some losses when you’re out. I want to be available for my team. I really feel like if you want something you have to do what you have to do to go get it. Today we did just enough to get that goal.

“Coming into this game [I’ve] been really pushing myself beyond measures to try and be available. We do what we have to do. We’re the number one seed and we are the NFC champs and that’s the goal we set out to do. Now I can continue to recover and be ready for playoffs.”

How bad is Hurts injured? He was good to go for Sunday regardless of the injury, but there were always going to be bumps and bruises along the way.

“We didn’t feel like there was more risk, but I know he was hurting. He was hurting bad,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “But that’s the kind of competitor that he is. That is the kind of person that he is and the kind of teammate and leader that he is that he was able to go out there and tough through it.”

If the Eagles had everything clinched by Week 18, there might not have been an opportunity for Hurts to go out there and shake the rust off. Whether Hurts was hurting or not, the long-term benefit for the Eagles was to have him get some meaningful snaps before the postseason.

There won’t be a vanilla game plan for Hurts in two weeks.

“I think everything happens the way it’s supposed to. I was pushing myself to be available, and it wasn’t an easy thing,” Hurts said. “It wasn’t easy; it’s still not easy. But we’re here, we’re thankful, and we’re looking forward to what’s to come.”

J3ff Kerr:

cbssports.com