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With the Passing Game and Tush Push Off the Board, What’s this Week’s Eagles Complaint?
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We were probably thinking the same thing when the Eagles were getting pummeled at half time on Sunday afternoon. Philly sports talk was going to be insufferable this week. Social media, sports talk radio, your idiot buddy at the water cooler, whatever. We were going to hear calls for Kevin Patullo to be fired, maybe the Eagles should trade A.J. Brown, and Jalen Hurts can’t read zone coverage. It would be a playing of 2023’s best-selling album, NOW That’s What I Call Negadelphia, Volume 37.
Instead, we received a Christmas miracle, three months early. Not only did the Eagles pull off an improbable, come-from-behind victory to improve to 3-0, but the passing game emerged from the quasar in which it was stuck, plus we saw designed QB runs and even a zone read that left Jared Verse holding his jock strap. It was good for us and bad for the talking heads, because now they’re going to have to manufacture some other such horseshit to talk about this week.
Some general thoughts on those options:
Tush Push
Did the Eagles false start on the play again? Yes, they did. Did the refs call it? No. So this is not an Eagles problem, and people directing their ire at the Birds are barking up the wrong tree. The onus is on the refs to actually blow the whistle, throw the flag, and penalize the infraction, and they’re not doing it. What’s the point of having refs if they aren’t doing their jobs?
Passing game
Everybody with half a brain knew that A.J. Brown was completely fine. He was targeted eight times in week two and Jalen Hurts just needed to throw him some vertical balls. We finally got a sideline go route, a couple of 10-yard digs, and a smattering of the high-percentage stuff he’s caught over the years.
The end result was 10 A.J. targets and six receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown. DeVonta Smith caught eight of his nine targets for 60 yards and a score. Dallas Goedert was only targeted twice, his one reception 33-yard TD bomb, shifting away from the underneath stuff that he was loaded up with in Week 1.
So what’s the complaint here? They waited too long to unleash the passing game? Perhaps, but here it is! It never really left, considering that 10 of the 11 starters from the Super Bowl team returned. What’s more is that the pattern played out exactly how it typically does. When passing game complaints reach critical mass, Hurts has a banger, in this case 21 of 32 for 226 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions.
Turnovers
They have one giveaway and three takeaways on the season. That’s a +2 differential. The only turnover came from a backup tackle getting beat off the edge by a Pro Bowl DROY, so nothing much to worry about here.
Run game
Ironically, I think there is a slight bit of concern. Saquon Barkley has yet to break off a big one, and the Eagles only have one rush of 20+ yards through three games. They do have 11 runs of 10+ yards, but they’re outside the top 10 in rushing yards and the offensive line doesn’t seem to be opening the holes they were opening last season. For what it’s worth, the Eagles have run 31% of the time against stacked boxes (8 or more defenders at the line), so as the passing game opens things up, that number likely drops, and puts them more in line with the league average. At that point, perhaps Saquon rips one off and gets going, because right now he’s averaging a career-low 3.3 YPC.
Explosive plays
The Birds only have 14 plays of 12+ yards. That’s tied for 26th with the Lions, if you can believe it. Last year, they finished 7th, with 130 explosive plays. Anybody whose memory goes back at least one year knows how important this was to the Super Bowl run.
Special teams
Certainly, we can complain about the fact that nobody seems to be able to field a line-drive squibber. Get Freddie Mitchell and his hands out there. Figure it out, Michael Clay!
Otherwise, Jake Elliott and Braden Mann look great, as usual.
Offensive line
We’ll have to ask the all-22 guys what they’re seeing with the line. Maybe Baldy knows. Lane Johnson going down is one thing, but Fred Johnson stabilized things after Matt Pryor was abused. There was one play on Sunday when Jordan Mailata bumped into Saquon while pulling and the run blocking just looks janky based on the eye test. Again, opening some things up in the passing game gives you a balance that maybe allows for play action and gets you out of this conservative and one-dimensional rut.
Defense
Adoree Jackson and Jakorian Bennett don’t exactly look inspiring at CB2. The pressure rate remains down, as is typically the case with a Vic Fangio defense. They’re allowing an abnormally-high amount of big plays through three games, 19 right now, which is 10th-most. The third down rate of 42.4% is relatively high and nine penalties through three games is too much.
That being said, the D didn’t really show its true potential until the New Orleans game in 2024, then there was the hiccup in Tampa Bay preceding the 10-game win streak. So my level of concern with the defense is maybe a 1.6 out of 10 at this point.
What say you? What’s bothering you about the Eagles? The media is going to have to come up with something this week.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com