Hurts accounts for 4 TDs as Eagles roll past bumbling, Prescott-less Cowboys 34-6

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Jalen Hurts had just lost a fumble that could have put Philadelphia behind in the first half against Dallas.

An inept Cowboys offense missing quarterback Dak Prescott couldn't do anything with it, and Hurts didn't make another big mistake after that.

Hurts threw two touchdown passes and ran for a pair of scores, and the Eagles rolled to a 34-6 victory over the bumbling Cowboys on Sunday in the first game since Prescott tore a hamstring.

“Momentum is an illusion in a sense,” Hurts said. “Just treat every play like its own.”

Hurts shook off two sacks from Micah Parsons in the star pass rusher's return from a four-game absence with an ankle injury, the second sack leading to the fumble that put Dallas on the Philadelphia 6-yard line with the Cowboys trailing 7-3.

After his defense held the Cowboys to a field goal, Hurts led an 84-yard drive in the final two minutes, capped by his 14-yard touchdown to Dallas Goedert, the tight end who missed the previous three games with a hamstring injury.

The Eagles (7-2) took over first place in the NFC East with their fifth consecutive victory while defending division champion Dallas (3-6) fell to 0-4 at home in a fourth straight loss overall.

Earlier in the first half, Hurts threw an interception in the end zone with a chance to take a 14-3 lead.

“Obviously didn’t start the way we wanted it to start,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “But there’s something to be said for guys that can rebound and play a really good game after things don’t go right early on.”

Cooper Rush didn't look anything like the replacement who went 4-1 filling in for Prescott two years ago, going 13 of 23 for just 45 yards. Rush won the first four games in that 2022 stretch before throwing three interceptions in a loss at the Eagles.

Picks weren't the problem this time. Just about everything else was.

Rush lost two fumbles among five turnovers for the Cowboys, and was replaced briefly by Trey Lance early in the second half and then for good in the fourth quarter as frequent boos cascaded from the crowd. Lance threw an interception.

Prescott won't be back anytime soon, if at all this season. The franchise QB plans to seek one more medical opinion before deciding whether to have season-ending surgery on the hamstring he tore in last week's 27-21 loss to Atlanta.

“Understand that you know our quarterback’s out,” Parsons said. “Things ain’t always going to be how you expect it. And it kind of just got to be the light. It’s one of them years where, like I say, it’s challenging, but we’ve got to be the light for everybody.”

The worst offensive showing for the Cowboys at home since AT&T Stadium opened in 2009 — just 146 total yards — won't do much to quell talk about the future of coach Mike McCarthy, who is on an expiring contract.

“Yes, I believe that,” owner Jerry Jones said when asked if he will stick with McCarthy through the season. “I don’t believe we’ll make a coaching change during the season.”

The inept Dallas offense gave Hurts plenty of time to settle in after the rough start. He was 14 of 20 for 202 yards with 56 yards rushing before getting replaced by Kenny Pickett with the Eagles leading 31-6 in the fourth quarter.

Hurts finished with a passer rating of 115 to become the first quarterback in NFL history with a touchdown pass, a rushing TD and a 100-plus rating in four consecutive games. He's also the first QB with at least 10 rushing scores in four consecutive seasons, and four career seasons.

“He didn’t let one play affect the rest of his game,” Sirianni said. “That’s what winners do. That’s what Jalen Hurts does, and I’m so accustomed to him doing that because when he makes a mistake, he’s able to put it in the past. That’s not as easy as it sounds.”

Hurts opened the scoring with a tush-push TD after Rush dropped a snap and lost the fumble at the Dallas 17. Hurt had an 8-yard run to go with the toss to Goedert and a 5-yarder to Johnny Wilson.

One of the Dallas fumbles was into the Philadelphia end zone by Ezekiel Elliott when Dallas had a chance to take a lead in the second quarter. Elliott was back in the lineup after missing the trip to Atlanta because he was late for meetings.

The five takeaways for the Eagles, led by two forced fumbles and a recovery by linebacker Zack Baun, were their most in two years.

“I just thought that they played fast, they started fast,” Sirianni said. “They played great throughout the entire game. I love when we tackle well.”

Eagles CB Darius Slay injured an ankle in the first half. ... Cowboys LB DeMarvion Overshown left with a knee injury in the second half. ... Cowboys rookie LT Tyler Guyton was inactive with a neck issue.

Eagles: Washington at home on Thursday night.

Cowboys: Houston at home next Monday night.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Dallas Cowboys fan Dewayne Dailey watches play against the Philadelphia Eagles in the second half of an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Trey Lance throws a pass in the second half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy watches play against the Philadelphia Eagles in the second half of an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)

Philadelphia Eagles' Jalen Hurts prepares to throw a pass in the second half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)

Philadelphia Eagles' Dallas Goedert (88), Kenneth Gainwell, center, and Jahan Dotson (83) celebrate a touchdown catch by Goedert in the first half of an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott watches play against the Philadelphia Eagles in the second half of an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Cooper Rush (10) prepares to throw a pass to CeeDee Lamb, left, in the first half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) carries the ball for a long gain as Dallas Cowboys' Jourdan Lewis (2) attempts to make the stop in the first half of an NFL football game in Arlington, Texas, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

NEW YORK (AP) — What a wonderful year 2024 has been for investors.

U.S. stocks ripped higher and carried the S&P 500 to records as the economy kept growing and the Federal Reserve began cutting interest rates.

The year featured many familiar winners, such as Big Tech, which got even bigger as their stock prices kept growing. But it wasn't just Apple, Nvidia and the like. Bitcoin, gold and other investments also drove higher.

Here's a look at some of the numbers that defined the year. All are as of Dec. 20.

Remember when President Bill Clinton got impeached or when baseball's Mark McGwire hit his 70th home run against the Montreal Expos? That was the last time the U.S. stock market closed out a second straight year with a leap of at least 20%, something the S&P 500 is on track to do again this year. The index has climbed 24.3% so far this year, not including dividends, following last year's spurt of 24.2%.

The number of all-time highs the S&P 500 has set so far this year. The first came early, on Jan. 19, when the index capped a two-year comeback from the swoon caused by high inflation and worries that high interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to combat it would create a recession. But the index was methodical through the rest of the year, setting a record in every month outside of April and August, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. The latest came on Dec. 6.

The number of times the Federal Reserve has cut its main interest rate this year from a two-decade high, offering some relief to the economy. Expectations for those cuts, along with hopes for more in 2025, were a big reason the U.S. stock market has been so successful this year. The 1 percentage point of cuts, though, is still short of the 1.5 percentage points that many traders were forecasting for 2024 at the start of the year. The Fed disappointed investors in December when it said it may cut rates just two more times in 2025, fewer than it had earlier expected.

That’s how many points the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by the day after Election Day, as investors made bets on what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean for the economy and the world. The more widely followed S&P 500 soared 2.5% for its best day in nearly two years. Aside from bitcoin, stocks of banks and smaller winners were also perceived to be big winners. The bump has since diminished amid worries that Trump’s policies could also send inflation higher.

The level that bitcoin topped to set a record above $108,000 this past month. It's been climbing as interest rates come down, and it got a particularly big boost following Trump's election. He's turned around and become a fan of crypto, and he's named a former regulator who’s seen as friendly to digital currencies as the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, replacing someone who critics said was overly aggressive in his oversight. Bitcoin was below $17,000 just two years ago following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

Gold's rise for the year, as it also hit records and had as strong a run as U.S. stocks. Wars around the world have helped drive demand for investments seen as safe, such as gold. It's also benefited from the Fed's cut to interest rates. When bonds are paying less in interest, they pull away fewer potential buyers from gold, which pays investors nothing.

It's a favorite number of Elon Musk, and it's also a threshold that Tesla's stock price passed in December as it set a record. The number has a long history among marijuana devotees, and Musk famously said in 2018 that he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 per share. Tesla soared this year, up from less than $250 at the start, in part because of expectations that Musk's close relationship with Trump could benefit the company.

That's how much revenue Nvidia made in the nine months through Oct. 27, showing how the artificial-intelligence frenzy is creating mountains of cash. Nvidia's chips are driving much of the move into AI, and its revenue through the last nine months catapulted from less than $39 billion the year before. Such growth has boosted Nvidia's worth to more than $3 trillion in total.

GameStop’s gain on May 13 after Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” appeared online for the first time in three years to support the video game retailer’s stock, which he helped rocket to unimaginable heights during the “ meme stock craze ” in 2021. Several other meme stocks also jumped following his post in May on the social platform X, including AMC Entertainment. Gill later disclosed a sizeable stake in the online pet products retailer Chewy, but he sold all of his holdings by late October.

That's how much the U.S. economy grew, at annualized seasonally adjusted rates, in each of the three first quarters of this year. Such growth blew past what many pessimists were expecting when inflation was topping 9% in the summer of 2022. The fear was that the medicine prescribed by the Fed to beat high inflation — high interest rates — would create a recession. Households at the lower end of the income spectrum in particular are feeling pain now, as they contend with still-high prices. But the overall economy has remained remarkably resilient.

This is the vacancy rate for U.S. office buildings — an all-time high — through the first three quarters of 2024, according to data from Moody's. The fact the rate held steady for most of the year was something of a win for office building owners, given that it had marched up steadily from 16.8% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Demand for office space weakened as the pandemic led to the popularization of remote work.

That's the total number of previously occupied homes sold nationally through the first 11 months of 2024. Sales would have to surge 20% year-over-year in December for 2024's home sales to match the 4.09 million existing homes sold in 2023, a nearly 30-year low. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump dating back to 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. A shortage of homes for sale and elevated mortgage rates have discouraged many would-be homebuyers.

FILE - A sign for a Nvidia office building is shown in Santa Clara, Calif., on Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - The Tesla Cybercab is shown at the AutoMobility LA Auto Show, on Nov. 21, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - Construction workers frame a new single-family home on Dec. 6, 2024, in Owensboro, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

FILE - People walk past the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 26 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)