Lane Johnson Knows What Eagles Offense Needs To Change
The Eagles offense has underperformed. There is no way around that. They are 18th in points per game. with this roster, that is not even close to good enough. An offense with Lane Johnson, AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, Saquon Barkley, Dallas Goedert, Jalen Hurts, etc, should not be 18th. Even taking injuries into account, it is just not good enough.
Lane Johnson Has An Idea
Well, Tim McManus joined The Best Show Ever this week and was asked about the offense. He told us that he learned something from Lane Johnson, that might just be the key to getting this offense going.
“One thing that he said was that we need to snap the ball sooner. Basically saying that it is something that they’ve struggled with in practice and something that they’re emphasizing. One, because if you’re if you’re snapping the ball when the clock had zero, then the defensive line obviously knows when to get off. Right. We go now. And so that puts the offensive line at a disadvantage, but it also allows the defense to get set. So one big emphasis, it appears, is that they’re trying to fix that.”
All of that makes a lot of sense. If you watch them, it does feel like that play clock is winding down near 0 on a lot of plays. So as McManus mentioned, that is letting the defense not just get comfortable, but it is giving them a chance to jump the snap because they know when it is coming.
How do they go about fixing that? McManus expanded on this issue and talked about 3 factors he thinks play into getting the ball snapped quicker.
“One of them is that the play calls got to get in quicker. Two the players have to be more urgent to the line of scrimmage. And three, it falls on the quarterback.
Don’t wait to see what’s happening like fully with the defense. Like make an initial check and let’s go… I heard some of this feedback internally last year with Hurts. Where people are like he is waiting too long to get to this ball snapped. And if you’re doing that, then you’re allowing defenses to dictate to you a little bit.”
With the Eagles’ offense, it can sometimes be tough to tell whether something is a Sirianni problem, a Head Coach problem or a Jalen Hurts problem. But the way McManus describes it, makes me think it is a Hurts problem. It will be on him to make these adjustments and get that ball snapped sooner.
Lane Johnson was very forthright that he thinks that is part of the problem. We know they are working on it. Let’s see how it plays out on Sunday. Take note of when the ball is being snapped each play. That sounds like something worth keeping an eye on.
You can watch the full interview with Tim McManus below:
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Saquon Barkley
Saquon had his first bad game in an Eagles jersey last week. Not only was he not productive, but he made two key mistakes that nearly changed the game. First, he ran out of bounds before getting a first down, forcing a 3rd and 1. The next play, he missed the blitz pickup, Hurts got sacked, and they had to settle for a long Fg. That FG got blocked and returned for a TD. He has been great this season so far, but he was flat-out bad vs the Browns.
But you imagine he will have extra motivation this week. Going back to Met Life to take on the team that didn’t want him, should be the kick he needs to bounce back from that bad game.
