The Philadelphia Eagles are 3-0, but you wouldn’t know it by the way their offense has played. The Eagles ranked eighth with 77 points scored before the Seattle Seahawks and Arizona Cardinals kicked off Week 4, but their 4.4 yards per play is tied for 27th.
While things are fine now, Eagles fans and players know that it’s not good enough to defend their Super Bowl title, which is why offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo has come under fire during his first year on the job.
Although everyone from quarterback Jalen Hurts to wideout A.J. Brown has sounded off over the Eagles’ struggles on offense, running back Saquon Barkley stepped up to defend Patullo when speaking to reporters on Friday, saying the veteran DC is the force behind the attacking mindset the Eagles have going into their Week 4 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“You saw that more in the second half against the Rams,” Barkley said, via ESPN’s Tim McManus. “The beauty of the game last week, obviously, the first half was so bad, and the second half was so good. That’s something we can build off of... Sometimes you get caught up in what teams are going to do to stop us, and not so much that we have a hard time stopping us. That’s kind of the mindset we have to continue to have.”
Saquon Barkley Endorses OC Kevin Patullo Amid Eagles' Offensive Struggles
Barkley’s credit to Patullo comes at a strange time. The Eagles' offense has sputtered through the first three weeks, averaging 145.7 passing yards per game and just 3.7 yards per carry. The numbers are a steep drop off from how the Eagles operated under ex-OC Kellen Moore, who managed just 187.5 passing yards per game but helped the Eagles rank second in rushing yards (3,048) and yards per carry (4.9) on the way to winning the Super Bowl last season.
The decline has been even worse for Barkley, who was an MVP candidate with 2,005 rushing yards, 13 touchdowns, and 5.8 yards per carry last season. Through three games, Barkley has seen his yards per carry drop to 3.3 and his yards per game nearly cut in half from 125.3 last season to 64.7 this season.
There are a few reasons for this decline. The Eagles lost offensive guard Mekhi Becton and have been trying to replace him throughout training camp and the opening weeks of the season. Barkley is also coming off a 378-touch season, which traditionally leads to a decline in running backs the following year.
But there are also plenty of reasons to blame Patullo. With play calling that has been labeled “conservative” by fans, the Eagles have made it a habit of going three-and-out in the first half of games. But Patullo disagreed with that assessment, defending his playcalling this week.
“I wouldn’t say conservative is the word,” Patullo said via Geoffrey A. Knox of Eagles Wire. “I think when those things happen, like we went three-and-out, obviously, a few times. You look at, ‘Okay, where was the drive starting? What was the breakdown on the play? What happened? How do we stop this? How do we get out of this? So, I think when we look back on it, there’s obviously things we can always learn from that, but you don’t go into it saying like, ‘Hey, I got to be really conservative here.’ That’s definitely not something you want to do. I think it’s just a matter of just going forward, learning from those moments, and how to get ourselves out of those situations.”
Eagles fans would argue that being more aggressive would be the way to fix things, and Barkley’s comments suggest Patullo has been at least saying the right thing behind closed doors. However, until Patullo’s aggressiveness reflects in his play-calling, Eagles fans and players are going to be upset and wonder how long their fast start will last.