In the 10 days leading up to last night’s depressing 19-16 overtime loss to the Chargers in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Eagles tried to convince the fanbase, and probably to as large an extent themselves, that they could solve the offensive ineptitude that has mysteriously plagued this team since training camp.
Nick Sirianni was reportedly more involved in the offensive gameplan and installation this week. Jalen Hurts went back and watched copious amounts of tape from previous seasons. As a way
of boosting morale, someone brought in a huge inflatable rabbit, “the positivity rabbit,” in an attempt to change the vibes in the locker room.
I’ve always said, “Whenever you need a giant inflatable animal to inspire optimism and positivity inside a professional sports team’s locker room, you’re already too far gone.” Looks like I was right.
Defensively, there were lots of reasons to believe a unit that gave up 300+ yards on the ground to the Bears on Black Friday would bounce back. Vic Fangio’s unit often doesn’t play two bad games in a row, and last night, they wrecked an injured but gutty Justin Herbert all night. It should have been good enough to allow them to sneak out of California with yet another ugly victory.
Unfortunately, the offense once again let their defensive counterparts down.
Folks, this is what a Super Bowl hangover looks like and, given the headache you likely have after watching this offense all season, it appears the hangover is contagious.
We all knew whatever the Eagles were going to do against the Chargers would be a bellwether for how the rest of the season would go, at least offensively. Could the Eagles, off another mini-bye, figure out an offensive gameplan that featured new wrinkles, was cohesive, with a centralized philosophy where one thing builds off another, creates confusion for the defense and puts the still-talented offensive skill players in a position to succeed? Could the quarterback, who has not seen the field at all well since the Minnesota game and has thus far refused to run the football in 2025, throw caution to the wind, become a part of the running game and make adjustments in the passing game?
This is largely the same unit that won a Super Bowl just one season ago. Going into last night, there was reason to believe they could find that level of play again, even if that hope was a flicker of a flame in a driving wind.
Well, now, we know.
The offense isn’t getting fixed.
There are no answers.
The players are flat.
The quarterback is slumping.
The offensive line is a shell of itself.
And despite some different-looking plays, there was no rhyme or reason to anything offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo or Sirianni did last night.
The offense had a number of successful Saquon chunk runs with Hurts under center in the first three quarters. Near the goal line, they abandoned it. They had back-to-back plays with two running backs in the backfield in the first half, then never went with that formation again. They largely abandoned using multiple tight ends until the fourth quarter, when they started asking Grant Calcaterra to run-block again. Screen passes to DeVonta Smith with A.J. Brown tasked to block two defenders. Hitch route after hitch route after hitch route.
It appeared Sirianni and Patullo blindly pulled plays out of a bag like Scrabble pieces, with no coordination or plan.
It didn’t help that the quarterback turned the ball over five times or that Brown, who has talked a lot this season about his lack of usage in the offense, dropped three catchable passes that could have swung the game in the Eagles’ favor. One could argue Brown was every bit as bad as Hurts against Los Angeles.
I will give Patullo and Sirianni some credit. They tried doing some different things. Some of those different things worked.
The fake Tush Push for a 51-yard Barkley touchdown was inspired. There were more crossing routes in this game, and we saw Brown line up in the slot a few times, too. But it was all disjointed. The only touchdown came on that gimmick play. There did not appear to be any kind of master plan, only some new ideas thrown into a game-calling pot of stew that resulted in the team once again failing to score at least 20 points for the 6th time in their last 9 games, and the 4th time in their last 5.
They are a bottom-five offense in the NFL. If they were even just mediocre, they’d probably be 11-2 instead of 8-5.
Jalen Hurts will take his lumps this week, and they’re all well deserved. He’s in a brutal slump, almost nothing was on time and, last night in particular, his decision making was brutal. But this isn’t a one-week thing.
Not only did he throw four interceptions (one of which wasn’t his fault), he once again missed open receivers and, perhaps most alarmingly, refused to run the football. There were numerous times when nothing was open and Hurts could have taken off up the middle, only to dance around in the pocket and get flushed out, forcing an incompletion. There were few designed runs. In overtime, in sheer desperation, Hurts finally took off over the middle, stiff-armed a defender and got a huge first down, only to have his electric run brought back due to a holding penalty. We need to see more of that.
All that being said, Hurts has a track record of being a very good quarterback, one who can take his skills to an elite level on the biggest stage. But, like a strikeout-prone big league power hitter, he’s in a slump that is absolutely killing the offense.
One of the reasons for the collapse in 2023 on the defensive side of the ball was the lack of trust that developed with the players for their coaching staff. Yes, it was an undermanned unit, but they didn’t believe that Sean Desai or Matt Patricia had any answers to fix their multitude of issues (they didn’t).
It’s likely the 2025 Eagles offense is dealing with the same lack of trust with the offense designed by Sirianni and implemented by Patullo. And, it seems clear Sirianni and Patullo don’t trust Hurts and other aspects of the offense to run a more modern passing game. It’s clear no one trusts the plays that are being called or the timing of those calls.
The coaches had 10 days to prepare for this game, and this is what they came up with?
Simply because of the talent that exists on offense, there was some reason for optimism that two straight losses would cause the Eagles to truly evaluate what they were doing and fix things and that, if those changes were implemented, they could once again be effective.
Last night showed the Super Bowl-winning head coach doesn’t know how to fix it. The offensive coordinator, who has been a major part of this coaching staff since 2021, is overmatched. The quarterback is playing the worst football of his career. The offensive line has lost a step. The entire unit is dead in the eyes.
The 2023 collapse is repeating itself, only on the offensive side of the ball.
The Eagles will still likely win the NFC East, given their ridiculously easy schedule over the season’s final month, but it is by no means a guarantee. Sirianni’s group has shown they can lose to anybody. But yeah, they’ll probably win the division, grab the No. 3 seed, and get a home playoff game. They may even with that on a double-doink or something.
Visions of a repeat or, what seems like a laughable idea now, a dynasty forming, are pipe dreams. They can’t even get a positive play on first down most of the time.
It’s too late to change the offensive coordinator this year. Sirianni doesn’t have any better of an idea on how to call plays than Patullo does. While I’m open to any change at this point, it’s doubtful there’s another coach in the building who could do better.
Unless Hurts flips a switch and becomes the QB we have seen in the postseason when he is at his best, what we have seen through their first 13 games is what we will see over their last four.
There are no fixes coming. The offense will not get better. It is what it is.
Go Birds!
