Eagles offense isn’t showing up, and it’s exhausting the defense

There are many accurate criticisms of the Eagles this season — the first-place 8-4 Eagles — who have lost two games in a row and have been embarrassingly bad on both sides of the ball during stretches in 2025.

Jalen Hurts isn't comfortable in the pocket. The defense can't stop the run. The play-calling is predictable and unimaginative. The offensive line is battling injuries, and Saquon Barkley is half as productive as he was last year. Insert your frustration here.

The defending Super Bowl champions are still legitimate Super Bowl contenders, despite their struggles, with a wide-open NFC and a lead (albeit shrinking) in the division. But the offensive stats are beyond depressing.

In 12 games played this season, the Eagles' offense has been out-gained in 10 of them. In what universe is that a recipe for winning football? But somehow, they have eight wins.

Yes, they've protected the ball and the defense has stepped up in multiple games to help drag the team to victory. They've also been mired with a schedule dotted with juggernauts — wins against the Lions, Chiefs, Packers, Buccaneers and Rams (all playoff hopefuls) are nothing to sneeze at. But the numbers do not instill any confidence that the Kevin Patullo-led offense can turn things around.

There is an alarmingly stark contrast to last season's offense right now and it's obvious when watching the team on the field every Sunday. The Eagles had 6,242 yards of total offense in 2024, the 8th most in the NFL, and did it on 1,114 offensive snaps, the third most.

As last year's Eagles sprinted to a world championship, their defense allowed both the fewest yards and fewest plays from opposing offenses during the regular season. Not surprisingly, their 32:21 time of possession also led the league.

In total, they had 1,510 more yards gained than their foes over 17 games — more than 88 yards per game. That's what you expect to see from a contender.

It's despairingly different now:

Scrimmage yards: -509

In exact contrast to last season, the Eagles are a bottom-third team in total defense, as far as yardage goes, having relented 4,166 of them (347.1 per game) — the 10th most in the NFL. That wouldn't necessarily be a problem if the offense picked up the slack, but through 12 games they have gained just 3,657 yards, 24th most in the NFL (304.7 per game). That's created a deficiency of 509 yards in total — more than an entire game's worth of yards have been picked up by Eagles opponents (or 42 per game).

Offensive snaps: -84

As a result of their three-and-out issues this season, the Eagles have run 84 fewer plays (or seven per game) than their opponents. That's more than an entire game's worth of snaps extra that the defense has had to be on the field. During their title season, Philly's offense had 115 more snaps than the defense had, which allowed the unit to stay fresh.

This issue is nothing new. Prior to their epic 2023 collapse, the Eagles played 79 defensive snaps in a Week 11 win over the Chiefs (to just 56 on offense, a 23-snap difference) and then an insane 95 defensive snaps in a Week 12 overtime win over the Bills (to just 66 on offense, a 29-snap difference). Philadelphia would go on to lose six of its next seven games, including an early playoff exit.

This stuff matters. And the Eagles are in danger of replicating that collapse again.

When it's outlined this simply, it's hard to deny that the Eagles' offense is in total crisis mode right now. In Week 13 against the Bears they had the ball for just over 20 minutes in total. And in Week 14 when they fly to L.A., they'll be facing a Chargers team Monday night that ranks second in time of possession so far this season.

The defense, understandably, is going to show signs of fatigue as it did at home on Black Friday against Chicago. There is a trickle down effect that goes beyond fantasy stats, and beyond just points for and against. The toll the lackluster offensive production is taking on the entire organization is an ugly one.

The trend must be bucked. After the Chargers, the Eagles will mercifully have a pair of easy games against the Raiders and Commanders. If they aren't able to flex some offense over the next few weeks, there's no rational reason to have any optimism about the impending postseason.

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