Establishing the run is great, establishing the pass leads to Super Bowls

After a dismal 33-22 loss to the Raiders in Las Vegas, the 2021 Eagles fell to 2-5. Rookie head coach Nick Sirianni looked for all the world like he’d be one-and-done in Philadelphia, his pass-happy offense sputtering and wheezing week after week.

Those Eagles looked unready to play, overmatched, and out of their depth, and as the city howled for his eventual ouster at the end of the season, Sirianni put his head in the lion’s mouth and uttered his now famous “flowers blooming” speech.

“I said, ‘The results aren’t there right now, but what’s going on here is that there’s growth under the soil,’” said Sirianni of his speech to the team. “I put a picture of a flower up, and it’s coming through the ground, and the roots are growing out. The roots are continuing to grow out. Everybody wants to see results. Shoot, nobody wants to see results more than us, right?”

We all scoffed. We giggled. We chortled. The Eagles hit the gas, going 7-3 over their final 10 games to finish 9-8 and snag an unexpected wild card berth, ultimately falling to the Bucs in Tampa 31-15.

After initially trying to survive with a still-green Jalen Hurts throwing to DeVonta Smith and a bunch of other guys (Quez Watkins, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Greg Ward!!!) through the first seven weeks, Sirianni handed the playcalling over to offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, who began using one of the best running quarterbacks in the league and a quartet of running backs (Miles Sanders, Jordan Howard, Boston Scott and Kenny Gainwell) to pound the rock on the ground the rest of the way.

As a result, the Eagles led the NFL in rushing yards per game (159.7), with Hurts piling up a team-high 784 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing, all of them before the invention of the Tush Push, by the way.

But it’s hard to beat good teams when you’re one dimensional, which the 2021 Eagles were. Their 200.2 passing yards per game were 8th-lowest in the NFL and, against playoff contenders that year, they went 0-7. Good defenses keyed in on the run without worrying about the Eagles’ lackluster collection at wide receiver, leaving them few answers when they needed to throw the football, outside the occasional splash play from their star rookie, DeVonta.

Fast forward to 2024. The best player on the roster through their 4-2 start has been free agent running back Saquon Barkley, who nearly set a career high in rushing last week against his old team.

Through seven weeks, the Eagles are averaging 166.7 yards per game on the ground, second only to the insanity we’re seeing with the Ravens and Derrick Henry in Baltimore (210.9 yards per game). Speaking on SportsRadio 94WIP Tuesday morning, it appears Sirianni believes the Eagles have found their identity.

Right now, the Eagles are a running football team. In order to right the ship and calm the chaotic waters, it made sense for Kellen Moore and Sirianni to do what was obviously best for them — run the damn ball.

They can take advantage of an easy schedule over the next couple weeks, in Cincinnati against a struggling Bengals team and vs. the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars at the Linc the week after. Establishing the run against these teams should be easy, and the Birds need to pile up some wins.

Sirianni said the Eagles “have the ability to do both,” but through six games, the passing game has been out of sync, averaging just 195.5 yards per game thus far, 11th-lowest in the NFL. Only the 5-2 Steelers and 4-3 Broncos quality as playoff contenders below them on this list, with the 4-2 Bears the only NFC contender in the mix.

Of course, some of this is due to the absence of A.J. Brown, who missed three games with a hamstring injury, and the loss of Smith for parts of two games with a concussion. Brown is one of the three best receivers in the game, and his presence changes the entire dynamic of the offense, but even in the games in which he and Smith played have been herky-jerky.

• Week 1 vs. Green Bay: 266 net passing yards, 2 INTs, 2 sacks allowed
• Week 6 vs. Cleveland: 264 net passing yards, 0 INTs, 1 sack allowed
• Week 7 vs. New York: 114 net passing yards, 0 INTs, 5 sacks allowed

Again, there was no need to throw it against New York, and without their top targets it’s not really fair to expect the Eagles to light the world on fire in Weeks 2-4. But in order for this offense to handle the middle part of their schedule, the Eagles cannot do what they did in 2021.

In Weeks 10-13 the Eagles play the Cowboys in Dallas, host the suddenly solid Commanders, travel to Los Angeles to play the Rams and then take on the aforementioned Ravens in Baltimore. They will likely need to have a more efficient passing attack against Dallas, Washington and Baltimore in order to win, and there’s no better time than during these next two weeks to get everyone on the same page.

It’s all well and good for the Eagles to be a “running” team, but when opposing defenses begin to commit more resources to stopping it, Moore needs to have an answer. Happily, the 2024 Eagles are far better positioned to offer an alternative than the ‘21 Birds.