5 Eagles Problems, And A Look At How Dire They Are

The Eagles took their first loss of the season. All the issues that had people worried from the 1st 4 wins once again reared their ugly heads. Only this time, they did not make the few plays they needed to at the end of the game to overcome.

They are still 4-1, which after the Bills' loss, is still the best record in the league. But how concerned should we be with the various issues? Here are some of the bigger problems they face, and how dire they are going forward.

The first 4 games were a struggle for Patullo as a 1st time OC. Some bumps were to be expected. But they would go from looking great in one half to horrible in the next.

But I actually thought he did okay vs the Broncos. They threw it too much, but I think that goes past Patullo. That is an overall game plan thing, which goes on Nick Sirianni. But there were plays to be made in he pass game. If Jalen hurts and AJ Brown connects, the Eagles go up 21 points, and that game is likely over.

For me, the Broncos game was about player execution, not play calling. Patullo was a big part of the problem in other games. But the play design and calling were fine on Sunday. The issue was mistakes by the players.

Patullo should be good enough with the talent they have. I still think he eventually settles in and is fine. It is a concern, but for me, not the biggest one. If everyone else does their part, they will still win with Patullo.

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This is the bigger issue on offense. The O-Line has been bad through 5 games. Not just bad by their standards, but bad period. Barkley has no room to run, and there is way too much quick pressures on Hurts.

Last year, the Eagles' O-Line was the best unit in the NFL. If a unit could be MVP, they might have won it. Barkley averaged a staggering 3.8 yards before contact. This year, it is under 2.0. Hurts has been pressured more than most QBs. As a unit, their Pass Block Win Rate and Run Block Win Rate are both bottom 10.

The problem is injuries. Landon Dickeron is clearly playing through it. Cam Jurgens looks beat up too. And Dickerson and Johnson have both missed large portions of games.

Last year they had the depth to deal with injuries. Fred Johnson filled in for the tackles, Tyler Steen for the guards. Well now Steen is the starter, and there is no good option behind him or Dickerson.

How big of an issue this is depends on if you think Dickerson will get better. He got rolled up on and left the Broncos game. That is another injury on top of the back and the knee that were already bothering him. The guy is a soldier for playing through it, but he is not playing well.

If they don't get better, this team will not win. We know they are capable of great things. But 5 games in we have not seen a glimmer of the unit they were last season.

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The Eagles had the 10th fewest penalties per game last year. Very rarely did we see them beat themselves. That has not been the case so far this season. Sunday especially, we have seen them shoot themselves in the foot too much.

This one is not just the offense. The defense has had costly penalties too. You can argue with whether the penalty were deserved, but that Zack Baun Personal Foul was a major game-changer. They could have gotten off the field with either 2 minutes to go and a timeout, or 2:27 and no timeouts.

Maybe the Broncos go for it. If they do and convert, things still go poorly. But if they go for it and you stop them, you have 2 minutes to go and you only need a field goal to win.

Instead, the Broncos get an extra set of downs, and the Eagles don't get the ball back until there is just over a minute left on the clock.

They need to be better. They can't have these self-inflicted injuries. The defense is too good to give up as many 1st downs as they do with penalties.

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The Eagles have not started with good field position all season. Part of that is their Kick Return game not being very good.

With Will Shipley back it has been better. He had one really good return. When the ball goes to him, it has mostly been at least fine. The issue is Tank Bigsby still struggled when the ball went his way. He averaged just 22 yards per return.

With the offensive struggles, they don't need the extra obstacle of a long field. The Bigsby trade is so far looking like a bust. They can survive with this problem. They can hope Shipley gets the ball most of the time. But it is a problem that makes things a bit harder for them.

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The Eagles are a bit dramatic right now. Mostly AJ Brown. He is not happy about his own production, and that has spilled into the public via his Tweets.

This week likely won't help that. Devonta Smith got his, Brown did not. Now that is Brown's own fault. Again, if he catches that deep ball, Eagles win, and he has a 100-yard day. Instead, he slowed up, the ball went over his head, and he had another game with poor production.

He is clearly frustrated. The question is will those frustrations boil over into a bigger problem? They did not last year. At one point last year we had a similar issue with the Eagles. Brown was upset after the Panthers game, and made it public. It caused a ton of drama all week. The difference was they fixed that the very next week. This time AJ made his frustrations public, and they lost the next game.

How they respond is important. I am not going to call it a crisis. But it is not nothing. The locker room fell apart in 2023. they can't let it happen again.

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