Diagnosing the Eagles’ issues after a two-game losing streak

What’s wrong with the Philadelphia Eagles? The alarm has sounded after Thursday night’s collapse against the Giants in an eye-opening 34-17 loss that marked the second defeat in a four-day span for the defending Super Bowl champions, who had won 20 of their past 21 games prior to last Sunday's loss to the Broncos.

Surely, the lopsided defeat to a one-win Giants team was a wake-up call for a team that had skated by over the first four weeks and had covered up some glaring deficiencies.

The Eagles’ problem isn’t talent. They have plenty of blue-chippers and nobody would argue their roster is worse – 17 points worse, especially – than a Giants team that didn’t even have its best offensive playmaker.

But the Birds are in a rut. They’re going through some unexpected issues and having problems finding the right answers for those questions. Many of their offensive issues – blocking, passing, coaching – are all intertwined as we’ll point out below in our diagnosis of what’s wrong with the Eagles, who suddenly don’t look like the best team in the NFC:

The offensive line isn’t the same

Chief among all Eagles problems is the offensive line. The entire design and structure of the offense is predicated on the line being dominant. It’s been far from that. Cam Jurgens post-back surgery isn’t the athletic, fluid mover the way Cam Jurgens pre-back surgery was. Landon Dickerson, who’s had two knee surgeries since the Super Bowl, has looked like a shell of himself. His replacement, Brett Toth, is nowhere near the level of past Eagles interior line backups. Left tackle Jordan Mailata has missed some blocks at key moments that aren’t necessarily rare but stand out more when things aren’t going well, and right tackle Lane Johnson has dealt with a neck injury. Tyler Steen is fine, but he’s not the same people-mover at right gaurd that Mekhi Becton was last year. Steen doesn’t naturally create wide-open run lanes the way Becton did by just being more massive.

Despite this, pass protection has actually been pretty good. Jalen Hurts has had time to throw. What has held the offense back is the overall inability of this group to reset the line of scrimmage in the run game against teams that, on early downs especially, are getting downhill quickly. The Eagles have to hope that Jurgens eventually gets back to his 2024 form as the distance grows from his offseason surgery and that Dickerson can get right.

Saquon Barkley hasn’t been a game changer

Because the o-line hasn’t been as dominant, Barkley hasn’t had as many opportunities to break long runs. People might forget, but the biggest difference between the 2023 and 2024 offenses wasn’t anything in the pass game, it was the changeover from a good running back like D’Andre Swift to a transformational one like Barkley. The Eagles can't be the same offense if they’re not running the ball effectively, and getting the home runs from Barkley that boosted them so many times last season. Even in the pass game, outside of his wheel route touchdown against the Broncos, Barkley has mainly just caught a bunch of short dump-offs that leave with him little space to maneuver.

Even in his Giants days, Barkley was always known for his unusual running style that would net him several runs of 3-to-5 yards and then a few of 20-plus and 40-plus that would change a game’s momentum and inflate his total yards and average yards per carry. But those haven’t happened yet. You can blame the play caller, quarterback, and anyone else you want for the offense’s shortcomings, but until the Eagles start running the ball with explosion, they can’t get back to being an elite team.

The pass game has little rhythm

The modest run game has forced Jalen Hurts and the pass offense into less advantageous down-and-distance scenarios. Effective offensive concepts for the Eagles, like RPOs and play action, aren’t as easily executable on second-and-medium or second-and-long, and third downs over the past few weeks have been disastrous as teams are mixing up man and zone coverage – and changing the picture presnap to post snap – to switch up what Hurts is seeing. Even when the Eagles do appear to move the ball well – Dallas Goedert has been an effective weapon over the middle – they haven’t been able to sustain those drives and marry the short pass game with the deep strike. Right now, the Eagles are a shot-play offense, and even some of Hurts’ signature deep balls haven’t been connected. They’ve got to stay ahead the of the sticks, which goes back to the run game, but Hurts has also been a staple of the run game and lately hasn’t been able find enough lanes to keep defenses honest. The result is a lack of sequencing in play calling, where one play can set up another, and then set up the next.

Kevin Patullo is learning on the fly

People already want Nick Sirianni to fire first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, which is ridiculous. The Eagles are 4-2, not reverse, and we’re six weeks into his first season as the play caller. The idea that Sirianni must always hire an experienced play caller is a fun, low-hanging fruit argument but not grounded in reality. Head coaches are at the mercy of who’s available. Sirianni was fortunate last offseason that a proven play in Kellen Moore became available because the Chargers had cleaned house. Who else should Sirianni have pursued – Chip Kelly? Doug Pederson? Press Taylor? Remember this: the Eagles offense conceptually is the same as it’s been for the past few years. Nobody was singing Moore’s praises last year after six weeks, when the Eagles scored 21 points Week 2 against the Falcons, 15 in Week 3 vs. the Saints, 16 in Week 4 against the Bucs, and 20 in Week 5 against the Browns. Folks, the Eagles have scored more points this year through six weeks than they did last season.

People tend to remember what they saw last, and the Super Bowl and NFC Championship might cloud the fact that the Eagles ranked 29th in pass offense last year and that many of the offensive concepts Moore had leaned on in his previous stops as an OC – heavy motion, going under center, passing early – were scrapped early as the Eagles’ offense went back to being conceptually what it had been during the Hurts/Sirianni era. Nobody is totally absolving Patullo of the early failures of the Eagles’ offense, and it’s fair to suggest Moore was better at dialing up the right plays at the right time from the same menu Patullo is using now, but Patullo is also working through some issues Moore didn’t have to deal with – a less-dominant offensive line and a run game that hasn’t produced enough backbreakers.

Growing pains have taken a toll on the defense

For the most part, the Eagles’ defense has been fine. There's no excuse for their lethargic effort against the Giants, even without Jalen Carter and Quinyon Mitchell, but overall, the defense isn’t problematic. One glaring absence in the two-game losing streak is the lack of a takeaway. The Eagles had at least one takeaway in each of their first four games, and those meant the difference in one-score victories. But it’s fair to note that the losses of Milton Williams and Josh Sweat have taken some sting away from the defensive front.

Carter is dealing with a shoulder – and now a heel – that has made him a tick less imposing on a snap-to-snap basis, and the overall edge group of Jalyx Hunt, Za’Darius Smith, Josh Uche and more recently Azeez Ojulari have flashed at times but have lacked the same production and dominance of last year’s group. Moro Ojomo had a great training camp but likewise has flashed more than put together a string of dominant snaps. This has forced Vic Fangio to increase his blitz rate, which has left 1-on-1s against Kelee Ringo and Adoree’ Jackson, neither of which is playing at the level Darius Slay played at last season.

If you absolutely need to finger-point, you can quibble with some of Howie Roseman’s offseason free-agent additions. The Eagles aren't as deep up front and in the secondary as last year. But this isn’t a bad defense and it’s got plenty of talent even if it doesn’t finish No. 1.

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