How the Eagles Can Run it Back Despite the Colossal Drop-off With Their Running Back

There’s been so much talk about the Philadelphia Eagles trying to find their identity ths season.  Well I hate to break the news to you Eagles fans but their identity through 14 games is that they don’t have an identity and nothing changed just because they beat up on a much weaker Raiders team on Sunday.

The truth is the Eagles haven’t been looking for an identity, they’ve been trying to get their identity back.  Since head coach Nick Sirianni took over the reins in Philly back in 2021 they Eagles have been one of the top rushing teams in the league.

Eagles Rushing Under Nick Sirianni

2024 #2

2023 #8

2022 #5

2021 #1

This year they are currently ranked #19 in the league in running the football and 14 games is enough of a sample size to establish pretty much how well or not well you do something.  

Was Sunday’s performance an embarrassing one for the Raiders to put out there? Yes, it was nothing short of atrocious.  They finished with 75 total yards.  The Eagles out gained them by 313 yards.  Raiders quarterback and former Eagles Kenny Pickett threw for 64 yards.  The Birds won 31-0 and it wasn’t that close.

Same Old Ground Game

But if you look at the anatomy of the Eagles offense Sunday, the thing that jumped off the screen was the fact that the Eagles couldn’t run the ball very effectively once again.  Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby combined for 135 yards on 39 carries.  That’s only a 3.4 yards per carry average.  Now in fairness the Raiders do have a top-10 rushing defense, #8 in the league if you’re keeping score at home.  

But when did that ever matter?  Last year through 14 games Barkley was closing in on 2k with 1688 yards, an average of 5.9 yards per carry.  That’s a huge difference from his paltry 3.9 yards per carry this season. If you ever wonder why the Birds lead the league in three and outs look no further than statistic. It’s the main reason they seem to always be behind schedule.  Through 14 games this year the league’s reigning rushing king is 20 yards shy of 1k.  He has only pierced the goal line on the ground six times versus 11 after 14 games last year.  Have I mentioned what a huge drop off that is for a team whose horse was attached to his wagon last year?

Let me be clear it’s not Saquon Barkley’s fault.  Could #26 be better? Yes, but tt all starts with the offensive line.  They’re just not bullying people like they did last year.  Right tackle Lane Johnson has been in and out of the lineup all year and historically the Eagles are 6-12 when Johnson doesn’t play.  Mecki Becton is long gone and Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson have been playing hurt for a large part of the season.

No Where to Run

Some folks point to Barkey’s work load of 482 touches last season but it’s not that. When there are holes he hits them and looks like the same running back he was last year.

The Eagles magic number is now one to win the division with Dallas losing at home to the Minnesota Vikings last night.  So it remains to be seen how many real reps the starters will get before Sirianni sits them to rest up for their first playoff game.  But even if the Cowboys win out and force the Birds to play their starters all 17 games I don’t see them getting their rushing mojo back before the playoffs commence. 

While it’s not time to abandon the run all together alternative schemes need to be implemented to compensate for such an anemic ground game.  I thought Sirianni and offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo did a very nice job with yesterday’s game plan, finally implementing more designed running plays for Jalen Hurts while also incorporating tight end Dallas Goedert in the red zone, catching two shovel passes for touchdowns along with other tweaks like play action sprint roll outs that allowed the big fella to get a step on the defense on several short out-routes. Hurts also took 30 snaps under center yesterday which lent itself to play action.  In the previous three games he took just 24 snaps under center.  

Be Predictably Unpredictable

The Eagles identity going forward should be to space the field and continue to add motion to their pre-snap look so as to spread out the defense and not let them load the box with eight or nine defenders.  When you incorporate motion, movement and misdirection pre-snap you make the defense have to think about their assignments and when a defender has to think instead of just reacting and pursuing the ball, he becomes less physical and less instinctive and perhaps a half a step slow on recognition.  This should rid a good deal of the predictability the Eagles offense has shown themselves  to be this season.  

Football  comes down to tendencies and probabilities.  If your game plan can flummox the opposing game plan to skew those probability and tendency analytics even slightly, your offense then stays a step ahead of its pursuers all the while loosening them up both mnetally and physicallly which will bleed into a looser box and possibly transfer to more push from the offensive line and more running lanes for the running backs which will at times look a lot more like last year’s identity than this year’s and the scoreboard and record at the end of 60 minutes will usually reflect that like last year’s did. 

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