I had some criticism last week for being overly pessimistic about the Philadelphia Eagles offense, but I can only say what I see. I want this to change. If you want to celebrate a huge win and ignore this, that is totally fine! Please do, and feel free to ignore this.
Sunday night against the Detroit Lions was another game that somehow made winning feel painful to watch. I’m sorry for being negative, but I don’t know what else to say anymore. I do not enjoy watching this offense. The Eagles keep winning, and that’s fantastic, but the way they’re doing it offensively feels like a weekly slog. The same issues keep showing up. It’s repetitive, stale, and joyless football from a unit that should be one of the league’s most dynamic.
The Eagles scored 16 points, produced under 300 total yards, and posted their worst offensive EPA performance of the season. This is a team with Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Saquon Barkley, and Dallas Goedert, and yet they look like they’re playing to avoid mistakes rather than to attack defenses. They play scared. Let’s get into this.
Offense
The matchup made it even more infuriating. Everyone knew Detroit would play heavy press-man coverage. That’s their identity. So what did the Eagles do? Call the same static routes and expect receivers to win one-on-one all night. There were barely any stacks, bunches, or motion. No rub routes, no attempts to manipulate leverage and make things easier for the receivers. No motion to give receivers a running start to avoid the press. No switch releases at the line of scrimmage to force the defensive backs to communicate. This is what I called for in the preview. We didn’t see anything like this!
Hurts was forced to throw into tight coverage on every dropback, and even when he made good reads, the windows were small. DeVonta Smith struggled to get open on these curls, but the staff didn’t make it easy for him at all.
Hurts actually started pretty well. There were some terrible drops that let him down. He delivered one of the best throws of the game on the move, where he rolled left and dropped an absolute dime that Barkley nearly hauled in. Hurts’ out-of-structure growth has been one of the few bright spots this season. He just has nothing around him schematically to make his life easier. I really struggle to watch this film and come away blaming the QB for the offensive struggles. I don’t see it.
The run game looked better when it leaned into misdirection and movement. They were much better outside the tackles than they were running inside. Here, the Eagles pulled Dickerson across the formation, froze the linebackers, and Barkley had a ton of space. I would not have minded seeing some more misdirection with motion to take advantage of the Lions’ aggressiveness upfront.
The run game as a whole was uninspired again. The Lions’ defensive line shot gaps relentlessly, and the Eagles’ interior couldn’t handle it. It is the same lack of variety and predictability that has plagued this team for months. I honestly think everyone knows some of the Eagles’ run tells at this point, because the defensive linemen are consistently slanting and making these blocks incredibly difficult for the linemen. Look at the block Cam Jurgens ends up making here. This is a tough ask.
I told myself I wouldn’t get annoyed at the passing game anymore. This one annoyed me. If you’re facing a team that plays this much man coverage, you can’t live off isolated curl routes and short hitches. But that’s exactly what they did. The result? Tight coverage and contested throws. The Eagles don’t scheme anyone open. They just hope their elite talent will go out there and win.
Do we think this is because DeVonta Smith can’t get open or run routes? Of course it isn’t! I can’t believe I saw so many curl routes vs press-man coverage. My goodness. Do something to help the players out there! Please!
I mean… what is going on? The spacing issues continued too. Two receivers running into the same zone. This isn’t a one-off miscommunication. We have seen two receivers try to catch the same pass already this season! These errors keep happening because the route concepts themselves are too condensed and poorly timed. It’s impossible to watch this and think it’s an execution issue. This is bad design.
The one thing that still works (and always has) is empty formations. Hurts looks calm, confident, and decisive when everything is spread out. The QB draw from empty continues to be unstoppable. It’s simple, effective, and perfectly suited to Hurts’ strengths. I can only assume that Hurts is not running more because the staff is saving him for the playoffs. That’s all I can think of. There’s no way you can tell me he can’t run anymore. He clearly can! We need more empty formations and more QB run game.
I felt for AJ Brown early in this game. Every single catch felt hard. There’s no creativity in how they get him the ball. It’s just quick hitches and short slants. The attempts to feed him feel predetermined, not schemed. However, it’s fair to point out that he is supposed to excel vs. man coverage. And he didn’t in this game. That’s a real issue moving forward. We will get into that later!
It’s not just the design of the offense I dislike; it’s also their use of personnel. I can’t believe I’m seeing so much Kylen Granson and Grant Calcaterra when Jahan Dotson is barely used. Let’s be clear before I’m criticised for excusing the QB. Hurts wasn’t perfect. He held the ball too long at times, missed a few reads, and missed a few downfield shots. But even with that, he didn’t turn the ball over, once again. He’s not making the killer mistakes, but he’s not being helped by anything around him. He makes another great throw here, but Granson can’t haul it in. Just look at the design again?
Why do I want to see more Jahan Dotson? Because he can do this! Once again, it’s another lovely throw from out of structure.
What are we doing here? Someone, please, explain this one to me. Who drew this one up and said that blocking Aidan Hutchinson with Granson and then Calcaterra would work? I’m losing my mind over here! We’ve seen this before!
This is a really worrying play. Hurts put the ball in a spot where his receiver could make a play, and Brown stopped running. He didn’t finish the route, didn’t even fight through the contact, and seemed just to give up when he realised it wasn’t an easy win. I’ve defended Brown all year because of how much defensive attention he draws, but this is a concern. I think he’s struggling with the fact that he’s not just dominating on these plays anymore. The whole offense is built around individual matchups, and if AJ Brown doesn’t win his, the entire thing collapses. The staff HAS to help the players out more.
Hurts wasn’t blameless either. This miss downfield is one he’ll want back because Barkley had separation, and with the wind or not, you’ve got to hit that. Even so, he continues to protect the football and avoid the catastrophic mistake, which at this point might be the only thing keeping the offense afloat.
I guess we have to end here. Then there’s the tight end usage. Grant Calcaterra played 34 snaps. 30 of them as a blocker. 30 of them! I wonder if the other team can predict it’s going to be a run? That’s a 90% tell, and teams know it. He’s one of the worst run-blocking tight ends in the league by any metric, yet they keep trotting him out there in heavy personnel like it’s going to start working suddenly. You can’t build an offense around predictability and hope execution alone carries it. Especially when the players aren’t good enough to overcome coaching malpractice.
Final thoughts
The Lions’ defense is good. I gave them a lot of credit in the preview. But this was rough. It was just exhausting. Sixteen points, fewer than 300 yards, and nothing that suggested any improvement on last week. Hurts finished 14-of-28 for 135 yards, Barkley averaged barely three yards a carry, and A.J. Brown (despite 11 targets) couldn’t break 50 yards. Everything felt clunky and forced. The design was so poor. This offense is loaded with talent, but talent can only take you so far when the structure is this uninspired. I don’t know what else to say. I just don’t know if the Eagles’ defense can carry this version of the offense all the way to another Super Bowl. I hope they can, because I’m losing optimism every week that this staff can turn this around.
Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and ask any questions. If you enjoyed this piece, you can find more of my work and podcast here. If you would like to support me further, please check out my Patreon here!
See More:
