Eagles offense seeks to improve with adjustments, execution and educated guesses
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Brooks Kubena
In more of a plunge than a downtick, Philadelphia's second-and-long results most often alternate between detrimental and disastrous.
PHILADELPHIA — Will the new year feature the same scourge for the Philadelphia Eagles offense? Will it rear its ghastly head for old times’ sake and plague this erratic system one final time in the playoffs? At least its name is known and can be plastered on wanted posters all along the walls of the NovaCare Complex, where first-time offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo has sketched its many faces.
“It was the first-down thing again,” Patullo said Tuesday.
He was speaking of Sunday’s survival against the Buffalo Bills. He was speaking of a stagnant second half in which the Eagles perpetually put themselves in second-and-long situations. The Eagles went three-and-out four consecutive times and totaled 16 second-half yards on 18 plays, which would have been their lowest since 2000 had they not totaled negative-1 yards on 30 second-half plays in another survival in Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Eagles are the only franchise since 2000 that has won two games when totaling fewer than 20 second-half yards, per TruMedia. And both have happened in the same season. Philadelphia’s 2-point stand in Buffalo was yet another example of how the Eagles have tested the strain of a fifth-ranked defense in terms of total EPA. The Eagles have secured nine halftime leads this season but have been outscored by 30 total points in those games. Coach Nick Sirianni and Patullo deny their second-half approach is conservative, which highlights the inefficiencies of an offensive system that is purportedly on the attack.
The “first-down thing” is a problem for the Eagles. They own a subpar EPA per first-down play (-0.02) when compared to the average NFL team (0.01), and their 4.9 yards per first-down play are also below average (5.5). It certainly did not benefit the Eagles against the Bills when they averaged 1.2 yards on their seven first-down plays. But the more pronounced issue is their lack of second-and-long production in this season’s system relative to their own history.
The Eagles experienced almost the same number of second-and-long situations (8 yards or more) per drive in 2025 (0.99) as they did in their previous four seasons under four play callers. Given the 2025 offense’s overall regression, a downtick in second-and-long production would be expected. In more of a plunge than a downtick, this season’s second-and-long results most often alternate between detrimental and disastrous.
What’s the problem? As with similarpreviousqueries, Sirianni said Wednesday that it’s “a wide variety of things” and declined to detail the most pressing factors the Eagles are narrowing in on. In a general sense, Sirianni said the Eagles “have different philosophies” for second-and-long. They are contained within the concepts they employ in other situations. Standard dropbacks. Play-action passes. Run-pass options. Screens and draws. Sirianni acknowledged their second-and-long production hasn’t been enough, saying, “We’ve got to do a better job of that as coaches and as players.”
“You’re just trying to adjust different things that will fit you,” Sirianni said.
That might best underline the fundamental conundrum of this season. What does fit the Eagles? And it runs deeper than just the buzzword quality of an identity. The Eagles know under-center presentations help impose their will instead of the other way around, and they best blended that approach with their years-long shotgun concepts against the Washington Commanders in Week 16. Anticipation, adjustment and execution are the frequent offenders when the Eagles face more formidable teams like the playoff-bound Bills.
Philadelphia’s second-half plan in Buffalo seemed to fall victim to a blend of issues that included (1) tough position, unfavorable concept, (2) right personnel, wrong look and (3) good play, bad execution. The amalgamation of those mini catastrophes makes it easy to question whether any of the choices were the best fit for the Eagles at all. But the alternate outcomes associated with isolated factors — a missed block, a missed throw, a misjudgment of the situation or a defense’s strategy — also make it easy to see how such questions would not have existed.
“When you look at those drives, it gets frustrating,” Patullo said. “We need one play. All we need is one spark, one thing to get those things going, and we’re out of it.”
Sans that spark, the Eagles have uniquely depended upon their defense this season. Securing a halftime lead is critical for any team. But the Eagles are 7-2 when leading at halftime despite losing the second-half point differential in those games by the widest margin (-30) since Sirianni was hired in 2021, per TruMedia. The 2024 Eagles were 9-2 with first-half leads during the regular season, which they widened with a plus-70 second-half point differential in those games.
In Week 4, the Buccaneers trailed 24-6 at halftime before the Eagles’ defense had to protect a one-score lead with a fourth-and-9 stop with 1:05 left in the game. In Buffalo, the Eagles led 13-0 at halftime before their offense foundered, feeding the Bills six possessions and a time of possession advantage of 21:14 to 8:44. The futile Eagles offense could only watch from the sidelines as the defense stopped Buffalo’s 2-point try.
“All we want to do is contribute to games, you know, and it hurts us when we don’t contribute,” left tackle Jordan Mailata said. “When we suck, that hurts, you know, and we know it, too.”
The Eagles gained their only first down of the second half during their first offensive possession. They opened the drive with a 5-yard run by Saquon Barkley out of a shotgun look that drew Buffalo’s nickel package and a numbers advantage between the tackles. The Eagles then deployed their run-oriented 13 personnel, but the Bills still backed up two safeties in apparent reaction to the Eagles’ earlier success with play-action passes. Barkley gained 10 yards on an inside run, with blocking again aided by favorable numbers.
To begin their fresh downs, the Eagles stuck with the 13-personnel package and tried to attack the Bills with their play-action game. The Bills loaded the box, and the Eagles, in apparent anticipation of a heavy rush, held back two tight ends in max protection. This afforded the Eagles only three receivers, which was a numbers disadvantage when the Bills wound up using four defenders in coverage. DeVonta Smith was doubled deep downfield, and Jalen Hurts threw away the ball.
Then came the first of two curious runs. On second-and-10, the Eagles stuck with their 13-personnel set. The Bills crowded the box again. Still, the Eagles chose to run Barkley up the middle. Bills defensive tackle Deone Walker swam past Eagles center Cam Jurgens to help force a 2-yard loss. Hurts threw away the subsequent third-and-12. Two possessions later, the Eagles were backed up on their own 1. They ran a tush push to secure some space and gained 2 yards. On second-and-8, they once again ran Barkley up the middle in a 13-personnel look that invited a crowded box and more backfield pressure than their blockers could handle.
Neither call seemed favorable to the situation. Nor did they seem to involve a pre-snap check.
“There were a couple of plays where we were just running to run it,” Patullo said. “And so we’ve got to do a good job of making sure we put everybody in the best position to do what they need to do, and then we have to execute that play once we get those called. Some runs are, ‘Hey, we’re running it no matter what.’ Some other things have some options off it. It just depends on how the play goes in.”
The Eagles later tried to create a more favorable defensive shape for their run game, with an added wrinkle. When they break the huddle with Dallas Goedert as the only tight end in their pass-oriented 11-personnel packages, they generally draw a defense’s nickel unit. That’s what they drew on second-and-7 on their fourth second-half possession. But they lined up Goedert as the fullback in an I-formation look. They did this again to open their fifth offensive possession against the same defensive look. Both suggested they’d attack Buffalo’s nickel defender, Taron Johnson. But the Eagles ran away from Johnson on both plays. Barkley lost a total of 2 yards on those runs.
When asked about the strategy of those plays, Sirianni said, “Had we had them in (another) coverage, it would’ve maybe been a little bit bigger of a play.” On the first, the Bills initially showed a single-high look before backing off a second safety upon A.J. Brown’s motion. On the second, the Bills stayed in a single-high look that swallowed a Barkley toss for a 3-yard loss. It’s possible the Eagles had pre-snap checks built into those plays. It’s also possible that the shaping of the secondary simply changed the blocking assignments. At the very least, the Eagles got the right personnel but the wrong look.
“You’re making educated guesses out there as coaches,” Sirianni said.
Two second-half plays I was interested in.
The Eagles used Dallas Goedert in I-formation looks to get Bills nickel Taron Johnson on the field — but ran away from him both times.
I asked Nick Sirianni what advantage they were pursuing, or at the very least, were they getting… pic.twitter.com/ZrlQlxI6hu
Patullo called learning how to make educated guesses “the biggest thing” as a play caller.
“You’re always playing a little bit of percentages when you research it and you study it, ‘OK, this is what they do, this is what they have a high number of doing, this is kind of the lower stuff that they do.’ And you’re playing the, ‘OK, they like to do this. Now we have this type of personnel — are they going to do this or not?’” Patullo said. “That’s the game you’re constantly playing is, ‘Are they going to do what they want to do, or are they going to change because of our personnel and who their personnel is?’
“You are playing that game, and when you have those moments when you kind of guess right, necessarily, or you’re like, ‘OK, this is what I think’s going to happen.’ You’ve got that play on; you’ve got to make sure you take advantage of it. Hopefully, we continue to do what we need to, and when we have those moments of, ‘Hey, this is what we think we’re going to get,’ we’ve got to execute in those spots. I think it is a back-and-forth game a little bit, and there’s certain things that you want to say — ‘We’re going to take advantage of what they do,’ or, ‘We’re going to do what we do in these moments to just stay on track.’”
The Eagles had two other offensive plays that could have secured the Bills game sooner. On their second possession of the second half, Hurts underthrew Smith on a second-and-10 crosser in which Smith had plenty of room before reaching the sideline. Instead, Smith had to stop and leap for the ball, and their attempt was ruled incomplete. On second-and-13 during their final drive, Patullo said the Eagles “were really close” to breaking a draw play that gained only a yard. Jurgens released to the second level on the play but could not lock up linebacker Shaq Thompson, who clogged Barkley’s path.
Beyond Patullo, who has received the lion’s share of heat for the offense’s inefficiencies, Hurts’ in-season limitations and the regression of a historically potent run game have created their fair share of questions. The Eagles believe they can use the extra preparation that comes along with resting some of their starters in their Week 18 game against the Commanders as a launching point into the playoffs. In all, they will be reflecting on the lessons they have learned to this point.
“I think our approach has always been the same. I think the execution hasn’t,” Mailata said. “Everyone gets tired of hearing that, but I think as offensive linemen, it’s the best way I can just put it. Our approach has been the same each week, but when you get to the game, when the lights turn on, what does the execution look like? So, for us, that’s what the issue is.
“The only reason why we’re bringing it up now is because we’re not as successful as we have been. And that’s why people are wondering — we keep asking these questions, like, ‘Well, why isn’t this offensive running game getting going?’ Is it schemes? Is it the O-line? Sure, it’s both. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what scheme you call; the O-line has to go out there and execute the whole entire offense. All 11 guys need to be on the same page, go out there and execute.”