What to Take Away from the Eagles’ Offense After 4 Games
The Eagles finished the first quarter of the season with a disappointing 2-2 record. While Eagles fans are riding the high from the recent win against the Packers, the Eagles still don’t look like the Super Bowl-caliber team many predicted in the off-season. Having the mini-bye to take a step back and analyze the team, this is a good time to dive into the state of the Eagles offense to see how things have gone so far and what might change moving forward.
Looking at the Numbers
The Eagles offense averages 27.5 points per game per NFL.com, which is the 6th highest in the NFL. Looking at the advanced numbers, though, paints the picture of a borderline top 12 offense, not one that is among the best.
Football Outsiders has them as the 10th best offense in the NFL (11th passing and 20th rushing). They average 33.74 yards per drive (13th in the league), 2.45 points per drive (7th in the league), and have a 29% TD per drive rate (10th in the league.) The advanced numbers match the eye test more so than just looking at PPG. There are times when the Eagles offense looks unstoppable (2nd half against Washington, 2nd-3rd quarters against GB) and there are also times when it looks like they have trouble doing anything (1st half against Atlanta).
The issue has been slow starts and consistently playing from behind.
Individually, Carson Wentz, Dallas Goedert, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, Jason Peters, and Lane Johnson are all ranked in the top 10 at their respective positions. DeSean Jackson would be 7th but he has not played enough snaps to qualify. Major props to Brooks and Kelce specifically, as they both graded out #1 in their position. Brooks is even more impressive when you remember he is still less than 9 months removed from tearing his Achilles.
With all this talent, it begs the question of why don’t the Eagles have a top 5 offense? Most want to blame the QB, with some blame being put on the coaching as well, but the main problem the Eagles are facing is injuries.
Injuries
Not to sound like captain obvious, but the main culprit of the Eagles disappointing start is that they just cannot stay healthy. This was an issue in 2018 and has reared its ugly head again to start in 2019. The reason why the Eagles were such a popular Super Bowl pick before the season started was because of how deep and talented their roster was. If the Eagles want to make any noise this season, they must be able to control whatever issue they are having with the medical staff and field a healthy roster.
A healthy Eagles offense is deep and talented across the board. They showed how potent they can be when everything is clicking in week 1. The line was keeping the pocket clean for Wentz, Djax put on a show with two deep touchdowns, Zach Ertz and Alshon Jeffery were working the middle of the field to keep the chains moving, and even Goedert, who played 55% of the offensive snaps, contributed in the run game as a blocker. Fast forward one week at Atlanta, and the Eagles lost 3 of the 4 receivers mentioned above.
In a string of horrific luck (and maybe some voodoo magic from Atlanta), Wentz had to play the majority of the game without Djax, Jeffery, and Goedert. To put this in perspective, Wentz was missing a combined 15 catches, 219 yards, and 4 touchdowns from the previous week. Take away Jeffery and Djax and the Eagles no longer have a diverse trio of receivers with complementing skill-sets, and when you take away Goedert they no longer have the capability of running two TE sets effectively.
Jeffery and Djax also missed week 3, while Goedert played minimal snaps and was a non-factor (aside from a terrible drop in the end-zone). Shorthanded, the Eagles lost both of these games to teams they should have beaten. This caused a panic within the fanbase, but when looked at in the prism of who actually played it becomes easier to understand. Looking at the only 3 healthy receivers for these two games helps paint the picture of what little help Wentz had.
Simply put: what many analysts were calling the best roster in football can no longer be the best roster in football when the best players are not playing. It is no surprise the Eagles offense played much better in week 4 against a good Green Bay defense when they had a healthy Jeffery and Goedert. It hurts to say, but with even a moderately healthy roster the Eagles are most likely sitting at 4-0, leading the NFC.
Carson Wentz
As the starting QB, Wentz gets his own section here. It is only natural that he is going to receive criticism when the Eagles lose, but the majority of that criticism is unwarranted. Aside from a dreadful first half against the Falcons, Wentz has played well only to be let down by his teammates. With the injuries to Jeffery, Djax, and Goedert, that meant Mack Hollins and JJ Arcega-Whiteside have been thrust into important roles in the offense. Instead of stepping up, they have been disappointing- especially JJAW. The rookie played the majority snaps in two full games but has 2 catches for 14 yards to show for it.
Wentz had the ball at the end of the 4th quarter with a chance to win it in both of their losses, but could not get the win either time. This has led to criticism from those saying that Wentz needs to do more and will his team to victory. The issue with this, though, is that Wentz is unable to throw AND catch the ball for his team. Drops killed any chance Wentz had to lead a comeback in both of these games. Agholor and JJAW had drops that likely would have scored and given the Eagles the lead, shown below.
Both of these passes are on the money, and, through no fault of Wentz, did not lead to touchdowns that likely would have won the game. Instead, Wentz gets credited with a loss and a lot of unwarranted criticism. He made the necessary throws to win, but his teammates came up short.
Slow-Starts
While injuries are the Eagles’ biggest problem overall, the biggest in-game issue is that they have been unable to start games with any sort of momentum. The Eagles have only scored 10 first-quarter points the entire season, all of which came week 3 against the Lions. So, 3 out of the 4 games to start the season the Eagles have failed to score in the first quarter. Aside from a 21 point barrage in the second quarter against the Packers, the Eagles only have a total of 27 points in 7 first half quarters. This amounts to 15.43 points per game, which would be the 4th worst in the NFL.
They have been generally good about taking care of the ball, as the offense has only turned the ball over 4 times. But, all 4 turnovers occurred in the first half. Wentz’s only two interceptions on the year came against the Falcons and led to 10 Falcons points. Against the Lions, Miles Sanders and Nelson Agholor both had fumbles, which occurred on back-to-back drives to end the 1st half. These two fumbles gave the Lions the ball in great field position, but the Eagles defense held them to field goals both times. In games lost by 4 and 3 points, respectively, those points obviously came up huge.
To further illustrate this point using Football Outsiders again, on average the Eagles start a drive down by 6.26 points, which is the 8th worst in the NFL. While the defense and special teams share some blame on this, at some point in every game this season they have been down by double digits.
In 2017 the Eagles winning recipe was to start games fast (they led the league in 1st quarter points that year), and play with the lead to let their pass rush take games over. The Eagles struggled in 2018 with slow starts, and have yet to find a solution at the quarter mark in 2019.
Moving Forward
Luckily, playing the Packers on Thursday gave the Eagles a mini bye in hopes to get healthy. In their next game against the Jets, they have a chance to field the same offense they did in Week 1 when they blew the doors off of Washington. Jeffery and Goedert returned against Green Bay, so unless they have a setback they should be healthy and active.
The player with the biggest hurdle to clear is Djax. He hasn’t played since the first drive of Week 2, but reports remain that there is hope he could be back this week. If not this week, then it should be week 6 in a tougher matchup at Minnesota.
Having to rely less on Agholor, Hollins, and JJAW should limit the soul-crushing drops that occurred in weeks 2 and 3. This will help alleviate some of the criticism of Wentz, and hopefully, cause the Eagles to start faster as well. The slow starts are especially disappointing as Pederson identified starting faster as one of his goals in 2019 after 2018 was a struggle. He has been excellent at calling plays in the 2nd half, so hopefully, this is something he can look at over the break and fix.
If the Eagles can get/stay healthy, and Pederson gets the offense to start faster, this offense could easily vault in the top 5 in both PPG and the more advanced stats as well.
Featured Photo: Chris Szagola/Associated Press
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