DeVonta Smith. Saquon Barkley. Lane Johnson. Landon Dickerson. Dallas Goedert. Tank Bigsby. Quinyon Mitchell. Jonathan Greenard. Zach Baun. Marcus Epps.
Nine starters and one vital back-up. All injured either coming into the Eagles’ fall-from-ahead 24-20 loss to the Rams at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday or hurt during an excruciating afternoon that dropped the Birds to 2-2 on the still-young-but-getting-older season.
Even if the Eagles came into the game with an offensive system that had been in place
for four or five years and knew what they wanted to be, losing that many players in one game would be difficult to overcome. But when you’re under yet another first-time offensive coordinator and playcaller, and when you’re going up against one of the most high-powered offenses in the NFL, sometimes the attrition and misfortune of injuries is too much to overcome.
For most of three-and-a-half quarters yesterday, the story of the day was “resilience.” No, the Eagles had not played well on offense, but it was somewhat understandable without Smith, their No. 1 wideout, and Johnson and Dickerson, both of whom anchor the offensive line. When Barkley went down on the first series of the game, Bigsby, Will Shipley and Darius Cooper stepped up and made enough plays to take advantage of L.A. mistakes and put up a 20-10 lead.
Their depth was being tested but they were hanging in there. The numbers, including a ghastly 0-for-12 on 3rd downs, would be less important than the grit showed by Jalen Hurts and an offense trying to cobble things together while short-handed.
But with Sean Mannion calling plays in just his fourth NFL contest, it became clear he, and Hurts, are still searching for easy-button set of layup plays that can help them convert short distances in pressure situations. In seven of their 12 failed third down opportunities, they needed less than five yards, and on the all-important 4th-and-goal from the 2 in the fourth quarter, there was nothing dependable or reliable in the playbook for Mannion and Hurts to turn to. No security blankets.
Even without Smith in the lineup, there should still be at least 2-4 plays the offense can choose from in order to pick up five yards, or give themselves a real shot at the goal line. But there is nothing in the bag they feel good about yet.
It all comes down to forming an identity. The Eagles searched for one all last year under Kevin Patullo and never found one. That search continues through four games under Mannion. And while some patience should be reserved for the new OC, it is reasonable to expect some improvement as the weeks move along. Nick Sirianni is correct that progress is not always linear, but it also should look better than it has over the last two weeks.
Their struggles in the second half of football games is truly concerning. One week after being outscored 17-0 after halftime, the Eagles were shut out 14-0 in the second half against the Rams. That’s 31-0 over the last two weeks.
Now, it’s fair to wonder how things might have gone had Hurts not bobbled the snap on 3rd-and-2 at the goalline late in the 4th quarter and managed to hand the ball off to Bigsby, who was still in the game at this point. It looked as though Bigsby would have at least been able to get it close to the goal line, if not score. Had he done so, the game would have been over.
But if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.
Mannion was supposed to craft an offense that would put defenses into conflict, never knowing when the Eagles were going to run or pass. But so far, it’s pretty much a guarantee that if Hurts is under center, they’re handing it off to a running back. They’re only going to pass out of the shotgun, and that’s problematic. Is that a function of Hurts’ comfort or a lack of imagination from Mannion? We asked many of these same questions last year under Patullo. Those questions, and the quarterback, remain.
It is difficult to find an identity without a competent offensive line and, right now, they don’t have one. They haven’t had one since the Super Bowl 59 squad walked off the field. Dickerson’s absence forced a reshuffling of the offensive line that pushed Cam Jugens to left guard and Drew Kendall to center. Kendall has been fine, but Jurgens has struggled. And with Lane Johnson out and Tyler Steen also finding difficulty, as well as a predictable pattern for defenses to hone in on, it’s been almost impossible for the Eagles to form the kind of run-first identity Mannion would ideally like to have.
As such, there is no play-action. Nothing to put defenses in conflict.
Should Hurts have been able to do a little more against the Rams in the second half? The film grinders will watch on All-22 and let us know if meat was left on the bone, but it didn’t look as though Hurts had much of a chance in the passing game on Sunday. The makeshift offensive line couldn’t hold up to a superior Los Angeles pass rush and, with the game on the line, wilted.
The search for an identity on offense will clearly be hampered by the loss of star players and key offensive linemen.
Defensively, even without Mitchell, Greenard, Baun and Epps, the defense should have been able to hold a 10-point lead with 6 minutes left and the Rams backed up to their own 2-yard line.
Quick aside: Sirianni’s decision to go for it at the goal line was the right call. Had he kicked the field goal, the Rams still could have gone ahead with two touchdowns, which is what happened anyway. Sirianni had to believe that, even if the Eagles fell short there, the defense would at least force a struggling Matt Stafford to take more time off the clock to travel 98 yards than they did, and he had to believe they would be able to prevent the Rams from scoring twice in that short amount of time.
But Vic Fangio’s unit, who had played admirably to that point, was unable to get the job done. Mitchell’s absence in the secondary was felt, as was Baun’s play-making and ability to cover receivers out of the backfield. The pass rush, which had been so effective all day, suddenly ran out of gas. Jalen Carter’s name was barely uttered on Sunday.
Ultimately, the losses on defense were too much to overcome.
Moving forward, the concern is how long these missing players will be out. Reports indicate Smith’s hamstring injury is one that could keep him out for multiple weeks. The injuries to Barkley and Biggs didn’t look good. No one knows, as of this writing, what forced Johnson to miss the game on Sunday, and even when Dickerson comes back, no one is sure how he’s going to look. Will the defense be without Mitchell long-term? How about Greenard? Baun’s concussion?
There is a real danger of this football season looking like the 2005 Eagles who, coming off a Super Bowl, ran into a calamity of injuries (and Terrell Owens’ nonsense) and suffered a lost season under Andy Reid.
Sirianni and Hurts have never had a losing season. This Eagles roster is top-heavy and, when the top is hurt, there’s not much there waiting in the wings to replace them.
It is in situations like these that Mannion has to prove that he can be a creative problem-solver and Hurts can be adaptable. They must work together to find an identity or, at the very least, a collection of plays they can rely on to get them 5-7 yards throughout a game.
Perhaps that’s easier said than done but, that is why the Eagles hired Mannion, after all.
The NFL season is one-quarter of the way done. The training wheels need to come off now. If we’re going to see a fully functional Mannion offense, it has to start now, even if they are under-manned.
Yes, injuries complicate the search for an identity.
But an identity still must be found if the Eagles want to avoid a lost season that appears to be lurking over the horizon.
