It would make more sense if it was one or the other.
You could envision a scenario this year where, under a first time play-caller in Kevin Patullo, the offense struggled to find its identity in the early part of the season, struggling to move the football and put up some low-scoring efforts. You could also envision a scenario where an offense that returned 10 of 11 starters, most of them Pro Bowlers who have played with each other for the last three seasons, led by a franchise QB who is beginning
his fifth season as a starter with more talent around him than any team in the league, would hit the ground running, even with a first time play-caller.
Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen both scenarios play out, segmented into two separate halves in each game. The differences between the two version of the offense have been jarring to watch, and confounding.
What is going on here?
Thankfully, the Eagles have managed to win all four games during this, their most difficult stretch of the season, finding a way to beat the Cowboys and Rams at home and the Chiefs and Bucs on the road. While being 4-0 isn’t all that matters, it is the most important thing in the grander scheme of the 2025 season, and if you watch other teams around the NFL, even the best ones, the Eagles are playing good, complementary football for longer stretches of their games than any other team in the league right now. That said, the Eagles have been outgained in each of their first four wins this season. That’s not sustainable.
The offense shouldn’t be like this. It makes absolutely zero sense for it to be like this.
In Week 3, they were at the worst in the first half against the Rams, with -1 net yards of passing. At halftime, the coaching staff made adjustments, they went no huddle, and put up 203 net passing yards in their stirring comeback victory. Then they came out like gangbusters in Tampa, with 130 net passing yards in the first half, only to suffer an even worse half of offensive football after halftime, with -18 net passing yards.
Jalen Hurts completed zero passes in the second half on Sunday. There is no world in which Hurts, who has Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert to throw to, should not be able to complete a pass in any half of any football game.
The head coach remains the same. The quarterback is the same. The wide receivers are the same. The offensive tackles and center are the same. The tight end is the same. Heck, even the new offensive coordinator has been with the team in a senior role since Sirianni was hired in 2021. Patullo is not new to the operation. The results should not be so Jekyll and Hyde.
Of course, it’s not as if the Eagles’ offense plays in a vacuum. Sometimes, like on Sunday, the opposing defense imposes its will and creates confusion.
Hurts and the Eagles were ready for Todd Bowles’ blitz-heavy tendencies in the first half. Hurts went 15-for-16 with 172 total yards, two touchdowns and no turnovers against a defense whose blitz schemes have historically given him fits. It’s clear the coaching staff was preparing to face the blitzes all day long, and credit to Bowles for recognizing Hurts had an answer for everything and pulled back on those blitzes in the second half.
Patullo, Sirianni and Hurts never adjusted back. You can argue Hurts, as a Super Bowl champion QB and bona fide superstar, should have been able to figure out a way forward, but he couldn’t. Receivers weren’t open. A.J. Brown, understandably frustrated with a gameplan that featured nothin but curls, verticals and the occasional in-breaker, voiced that frustration after the game.
Three straight curls to A.J. Brown, all of which were blanketed? Seriously? Is that Patullo or Hurts?
Perhaps more concerning was the Eagles couldn’t take advantage of Bowles’ change in strategy in the run game. Over his first four games of the season, Barkley has rushed for 88, 60, 46 and 43 yards, with his yards per attempt decreasing each week. There are a couple potential explanations for this as well.
Landon Dickerson appears to be playing through an injury. He doesn’t look right. He is losing one-on-one battles he traditionally wins. Cam Jurgens should not be asked to spend his entire day trying to block bigger defensive tackles straight-up. He’s a pulling center, in the same style as Jason Kelce, and yet they’re not running the ball in that style right now. Tyler Steen has been fine, but Mekhi Becton was better a year ago. And Lane Johnson has been in and out of the lineup over the last two weeks. Fred Johnson has been decent replacing him when called upon, Matt Pryor has not.
The line has had multiple people coming in and out of the game, making it difficult to achieve synergy, and it’s clear defense are focusing on stopping Saquon. The explosive plays aren’t there. Last season, Barkley ripped off 17 rushing plays of 20+ yards, an average of one per game. This season? He has none.
Perhaps it may be time to try a running attack that doesn’t feature two and three tight ends who can’t block and asking Barkley to smash his face into the backs of a sea of humanity in the middle of a clogged offensive line? Maybe some lateral runs where he can be in space?
Are we being overly negative? Hurts seemed to think so, speaking to reporters after the game. “You guys may look at the record and be a hound for negativity in some regard,” Hurts said, “but regardless of where you are, when you’re just early in the season, you’re still searching to try and elevate and play to a standard of execution.” (quote via the Inquirer’s Jeff McLane).
But obviously it’s not being negative to point out that a quarterback should not go an entire half without completing a single pass when surrounded by a group of Pro Bowl caliber players. And no one is saying it’s entirely on his shoulders either, although any responsible person should be willing to accept some responsibility. Yes, at the end of the day, winning is the most important thing, and you can be annoyed at the questions, but it would be stupid not to observe what happened and wonder why things have been so up-and-down offensively.
It’s not as if the offense slowed down or failed to keep up the first half pace. In the second half, they couldn’t do anything. The same thing happened in the first half of the Rams game. They were inept in every phase of their attack. In their last four halves, the offense went from being the worst in football to the best, started against the Bucs as the best and finished as the worst. Hurts was on fire in the first half and then didn’t complete a single pass in the second, looking lost as he surveyed Bowles’ defense.
There were only two temperatures — scalding hot or freezing cold. No in between. And that’s just weird.
Sirianni is right when he says the blame should be laid everywhere. It’s clear the coaching staff has had an uneven first four games. They are doing a lot of things right for significant portions of the game, then seemingly reverting back to tendencies that have proven not to work. The line has had issues, the receivers perhaps could run better routes, perhaps Barkley’s runs could be better. Hurts has at times been brilliant, then befuddled.
The good news is these Eagles at least have shown the ability to put together a high octane offensive performance and, to their credit, they have made enough winning plays over the first four weeks against quality opponents to go 4-0. They are protecting the football, something Baker Mayfield didn’t do on Sunday that cost them the game. Like last year, Hurts and the coaching staff are going to err on the side of caution, and it’s hard to argue with the results.
Fans are understandably worried about a repeat of the 2023 collapse. There are a multitude of reasons why that won’t happen. The defense is in much better shape than the ‘23 team, and one can be sure the offense learned some lessons from those final two months that they won’t repeat this year. No, the better comparison is last year’s Chiefs, who seemed to play nothing but one-score games and won them all, up to the Super Bowl last year.
If the Eagles repeat the 2024 Chiefs’ 15-2 regular season, we’d all be happy with that.
That said, it’s mystifying that an offense that is this familiar with each other and that has shown the ability to play at a high level, could also be as hot-and-cold as they are, in-game. It hasn’t cost them yet, but the concern is valid that, one of these weeks, it will.
