In Week 3, the Philadelphia Eagles trailed the Los Angeles Rams 19-7 at the half and 26-7 early in the third quarter. From there, Philly rattled off 26 unanswered points en route to a dramatic 33-26 win, sealed by a blocked field goal by Jordan Davis that the big man returned for a touchdown on the game’s final play.
It was an emphatic end to a stunning comeback, and one that many believed was the start of something special for the Eagles.
But was it, rather, a mirage?
Since then, the Eagles have gone 1-2, losing to both the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants in the two weeks since their Week 4 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In those three games, the Eagles have managed just 14 second-half points, including being shutout by the Giants last night over the final 30 minutes.
And as you might expect, fans in the Philadelphia area are reaching for the panic button.
Is it truly time for Eagles fans to panic?
The Philadelphia fan in your life is likely pointing to any one of several issues that have plagued the Eagles this season, and showed up in prime time against New York.
On the defensive side of the ball, while Philadelphia certainly missed Jalen Carter and lost cornerback Quinyon Mitchell against the Giants due to an injury, that unit was pushed around by New York on Thursday night. The Giants ran for 172 yards, with Cam Skattebo accounting for 98 of those yards and a trio of rushing touchdowns. They sacked rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart just twice, and for the second consecutive game, the Eagles failed to generate a takeaway.
Most glaring was perhaps New York’s drive late in the second quarter. After Philadelphia scored to take a 17-13 lead, the Giants put together a 15-play, 67-yard drive that worked more than five minutes off the clock, culminating in a touchdown run from Skattebo. The only negative play the Giants had on the possession was an incompletion; every other snap picked up positive yards for the New York offense.
After taking the momentum away from the Giants, the Philadelphia defense allowed New York to take it right back.
Then, after the teams traded three-and-outs to open the second half, the Eagles saw the Giants rip off a nine-play, 56-yard touchdown drive ending in another Skattebo touchdown to give New York a ten-point lead.
By the end of the night, the Giants’ offense had posted an Expected Points Added per Play of 0.30 (in contrast to Philadelphia’s -0.07) and secured a Success Rate of 50:
Through six games, the Eagles have allowed 23.8 points per game, placing them right in the middle of the pack.
But they are just part of the story.
Much of the attention likely falls on the offense, which has looked inconsistent for most of the season. While Philadelphia tried to get Saquon Barkley going early in the game — the running back ripped off an 18-yard gain to open their first possession and a 13-yard gain on the next snap — the running game slowly took a back seat as the game script changed, and Philadelphia had to throw more to get back into the contest.
The Eagles’ passing game again looked out of synch for much of the contest, with several examples to point to. Jalen Hurts missed a wide-open DeVonta Smith here on this play from early in the third quarter:
Hurts then picked a bad moment to throw his first interception of the season. With the Giants leading by ten early in the fourth quarter, Philadelphia was inside the red zone with a chance to cut into that lead.
But in a moment, their defense was coming back onto the field:
When the night came to a close, some of the numbers were brutal for Philadelphia. The Eagles converted just one of nine third-down opportunities, as noted above, their EPA/Play was -0.07, and the loss sealed the fact that in every game this season, the Eagles have been outgained by their opposition. Over the season, the Eagles have gained 1,647 yards, compared to 2,057 for their opponents.
That is a yardage differential of -407.
Last year, that metric was +1,501 in the regular season and +115 in the playoffs alone.
Speaking of differentials, as the Eagles head into their mini-bye, their point differential stands at -1. Only the Pittsburgh Steelers, at -2, have a worse point differential among division leaders.
After the game, Nick Sirianni did his best to put the loss into perspective and rally the troops.
“Get up,” said Sirianni. “We’re going to take some time off and just get up and keep fighting. We’ve got a lot of things to fix. We’ve been here before. Let’s go.”
Some of his players on the offensive side of the ball addressed the “predictibility” of the Philadelphia offense.
“It seems a lot harder than it needs to be,” right tackle Lane Johnson said. “Maybe moving forward, just have a little bit more variety, hitting the perimeter some.”
The veteran stopped short of calling for a change at offensive coordinator, where Kevin Patullo — who took over after Kellen Moore left to take over as head coach of the New Orleans Saints — has come under heavy criticism.
“I’m with Kevin until the end. A lot of it comes down to execution,” he said. “We’ll go back and look at this tape and see what we’ve got to fix, but moving forward, maybe more efficient, less predictable, and capitalize on big plays and explosives.”
Barkley had a somewhat different view.
“I think we also have to get back into that attitude, that mindset, not really giving a f— what people are trying to do,” Barkley said of Philadelphia’s ability to run last year when teams knew the run game was the focus. “That’s something that I’m looking for.”
The head coach found some bright spots in the rushing attack.
“I think there was some good moments in the run game today,” Sirianni said. “Got ourselves behind the sticks a little bit in the second half on some of the runs there. We’ll look at everything right there. We know we want to play. We know we have the guys up front to be able to do that. Obviously, we’ve got to do a good enough job putting them in positions to succeed. And then we have to execute.
”We’ll look at everything running different types of schemes. But we’ll look at everything to see what we’re doing well. Treat this like a bye week here this weekend.”
Still, Eagles fans are on edge, and they have seen scenes like this before. Last year, Philadelphia limped into their bye week at 2-2 and looked, in the words of one columnist, like a “mess.” But they came out of their bye week on fire, going 12-1 the rest of the way to lock up the NFC East. Philadelphia fans are hoping that recent history and their current mini-bye are an opportunity to reset just as they did a season ago.
That year, the Eagles went into their bye week at 8-1, came out of it to win games against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills to move to 10-1, and looked like the best team in football. From there, the wheels completely fell off. Philadelphia went 1-5 the rest of the way to cough up the division lead, ultimately losing on the road to Tampa Bay in the Wild Card round.
Are the 2025 Eagles the team that sorts it out, as they did a season ago?
Or the team that sees the wheels fall off, as they did two seasons ago?
There is time to get things right, as Philadelphia did last season with their early bye week. They can start by getting more out of their offense, particularly the passing game, which has not been as efficient as the Eagles need it to be to complement their rushing attack. Connecting on some of these open opportunities, as the first example above, would be a good start. As too would be more diversity in both the run game and the passing game, and figuring out more answers against zone coverages.
If not, Eagles fans might be treated to a repeat of 2023.
Which is why some are reaching for that panic button this morning.
