Adrian Fedkiw
The Philadelphia Eagles haven’t topped the 24-point mark since Week 3 after surpassing it in each of the first three games.
So what’s going on?
“Obviously, as an offense, our job is to put points on the board, and that just comes from executing one play at a time. We have to score more points. I mean, there’s no question. As coaches, it’s our job to put our players in the best position to make plays and to be able to sustain drives; to be good in the red zone; be good on third down. Obviously [it’s also the] players’ job, but really we’re all in it together as an offense. We just have to find ways to be better. Overall, every week you’ve got to find ways to score four touchdowns,” Eagles offensive coordinator Frank Reich said during his Thursday press conference. “It’s like every game: You go back and there’s always five or six plays that you say, ‘We just missed one here, we could have done a little bit better here,’ and it’s sometimes … You’ve got to find that way to extend that drive. Sometimes it’s a bad break – we don’t get a call that we get. Sometimes if you get a call, sometimes on a third down to extend a drive, maybe they interfere – it doesn’t get called. You see it happen all the time the other way. But we have to find ways. We have to control what we can control to find ways to get that one key first down that just kind of propels you on.
Reich explained why the Eagles were able to score more points during their 3-0 start.
“A few big plays. Obviously, we had good field position – exceptional field position – in those games. We’ve had games where the special teams has scored and the defense has scored that obviously, when they score points at the end of the day, it goes on points scored, which somewhat reflects on offense. So, that helped. Field position is always a big thing, and big plays. Big plays and field position, and then proficiency in situational football – third down, red zone – are the keys,” he said.
Third down is definitely a problem. The Eagles are converting 34.5 percent (50-of-145) of them, which is 29th in the NFL. Play-calling is a big issue for me, Pederson hasn’t been aggressive enough in my opinion. I can’t tell you how many conservative screen passes I’ve seen on 3rd-and-10 because he doesn’t trust his offense enough to convert them. And it’s not only the screens, it’s all of the other patterns where the receiver is running short of the sticks. Sure, the talent is obviously lacking, but put the ball in Carson Wentz’s hands and see if he can make a play.
Pederson has been too scared to.