The Philadelphia Eagles have done it again. Another game filled with late game heroics to get across the finish line as the defending champs moved to 4-0 on the season.
While getting wins is the most important aspect of playing the games, it’s hard not to notice that the Eagles have really struggled to put together complete games, particularly on offense. Their latest win over the Buccaneers featured another hot-and-cold performance where they had to hold on over the final few drives to ensure victory, and now it seems there are murmurs of discontent from star wide receiver A.J. Brown on social media.
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This past week, Philadelphia tore through the first half, leading 24-6 at the break. The Eagles averaged 7.2 yards per play and according to TruMedia, and they racked up a whopping 68% success rate in the first half. They could not be stopped, and it looked like they had found their groove again and were en route to a truly dominant victory over a Tampa Bay team that was 3-0 and had been a bit of a thorn in their side recently.
Then the second half happened, and the Eagles spent another stretch this season just not having any sustained offensive success.
Now, the second half numbers for the Eagles are a bit misleading. They technically gained -1 yards in the second half. Yes, one less than zero. However, they ran a punt for a safety on the last play of the game to drain the clock, which resulted in a 34-yard loss. So they really had 33 yards of offense in the second half, which is still an abysmal output considering the amount of talent and money that have been invested into this offense.
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ passing game in particular had a brutal second half. Hurts had zero completions on 11 dropbacks and was sacked twice, giving him -18 net passing yards for the entire half. This is after going 15 of 16 for 130 yards and two touchdowns in the first half. The Eagles ultimately got the win so they’re OK, but stalling out to this degree should be ringing some alarm bells.
They had a similar problem in their win over the Los Angeles Rams last week, but in that game their fortunes were flipped. They started off the game gaining just 33 yards on 22 plays (1.5 yards per play) in the first half before gaining 255 yards and averaging four points per drive in the second half. Again, the passing game produced negative net passing yards for an entire half of football, generating -1 in the first half vs. the Rams.
The connection between Hurts and Brown has been a complete dud this year, with Brown totaling just 14 catches for 151 yards and one touchdown, numbers that currently have him on pace for what would comfortably be the worst year of his career. It’s hard to believe that Brown, who just turned 28 in June, is somehow an appreciably worse player than he has been over the past few years, so they just need to figure out a way to get this facet of their offense going in a consistent manner again.
All of Brown’s numbers are down across the board, which definitely is playing a role in the Eagles’ offensive dropoff this year from a numbers perspective. Brown’s yards per target (11.1 to 5.4), yards per route run (3.04 to 1.23), first downs per target (52.3% to 21.4%) and target success rate (69.1% to 50%) have all fallen off a cliff compared to last year. The Eagles currently rank dead last in the NFL in percentage of drives that fail to gain a first down at 46.3% — almost half! Those numbers will improve if they can get their passing game going again in a manner that lines up with the amount of talent they have.
They do still rank 10th in terms of points per drive, which goes to show how wildly inconsistent they’ve been this year. Tenth in points per drive, while almost half of their drives are over in three plays. On drives where the Eagles do gain at least one first down, they average 4.2 points per drive, good for second in the league.
This all-or-nothing way of living will make the rest of the season fascinating to follow for the Eagles because the offense is undoubtedly playing below its talent level. But 4-0 is 4-0 and they’re still in the driver’s seat for the NFC through the early portion of the season. Any given Sunday, as they say.
