Eagles' issues start with Saquon Barkley, but they certainly don't end there

The formerly potent rushing attack has gone lame. The tush push isn’t as automatic – it took four tries to go three yards and score a touchdown against the Giants. Injuries are mounting on defense.

At the risk of oversimplifying the issues, it was once again a "tale of two halves" situation for the Eagles’ offense. They scored on three of their first four drives, the back half of that stretch being their two touchdown drives of the game. But the final possession of the first half, when the Eagles took over with 79 seconds remaining, was poorly managed and resulted in Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (24-for-33, one passing touchdown, one rushing touchdown, one interception) sliding into the turf on third down and time expiring before he could get off the fourth-down snap.

The chart drive from the second half went: punt, punt, punt, interception, fumble. The Eagles had seven first downs across those five possessions.

During those first-half drives, the Eagles went up-tempo in a few instances and saw some success with it. That’s the one thing the offense can hang its hat on at present, left tackle Jordan Mailata said.

"That’s something we’re really good at," he said. "The film says that."

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Defensively, the Eagles were without defensive lineman Jalen Carter, who was ruled out with a heel injury somewhat surprisingly before kickoff. Cornerback Quinyon Mitchell departed in the first half with a hamstring injury. The pass rush couldn’t bring down Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, making his third career start, behind the line of scrimmage (the Eagles recorded two sacks for a loss of one total yard). Another rookie, running back Cam Skattebo, gained 79 of his 98 rushing yards after contact according to Next Gen Stats, and refused to hit the turf himself. 

The biggest warning signs, originating in the second half of their collapse against the Denver Broncos this past Sunday, point to the other side of the ball. Wide receiver A.J. Brown pleaded the fifth, as he did his best under-oath testimony impression after the game by repeating "I do not recall" regarding the much-publicized offensive meeting that took place this week (much to the chagrin of the players because it was publicized). But he didn’t spend "TNF" in witness protection, at least, and he certainly can’t complain about the lack of targets. Hurts looked for him nine times, and the receiver caught six of those passes for 80 yards.

Barkley feasted on the Giants last season, going for 176 rushing yards and a touchdown on 17 carries in his lone game against his former team in 2024. Barkley has 178 yards over his past four games.  

The reason he didn’t have a second game against New York last year was because Barkley had already surpassed 2,000 rushing yards by the time their Week 18 matchup rolled around. He’s on pace – should he play all 18 games this year – for 975.

"Last year, do you think we were predictable?" Barkley said. "Everybody knew we were going to run the ball. We still got it off. I also think we got to get back to the attitude, the mindset of, not really giving a (expletive) what people are trying to do."

One thing Hurts mentioned when discussing the run game was "making sure we’re in the right play."

From the Eagles’ locker room, players such as right tackle Lane Johnson said they had clearly become predictable to the opposition. The Eagles’ lack of efficiency in both the run and pass game have made that difficult over the first third of the season.

"You can game plan all you want," Johnson said, via The Athletic. "But when you get in the game, a lot of it is making adjustments.

"Last two weeks, you kind of know what it is: You know when the pass is coming, you know when the run is coming. … Moving forward, we've got to do a better job of that."