Sportsnaut
It’s been an offensive struggle for the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles heading into their Week 4 road matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The passing game has been incredibly conservative before exploding in the second half of Philadelphia’s 33-26 comeback win over the Los Angeles Rams, and Saquon Barkley — coming off a historic 2,000-yard season — has yet to rush for 100 yards in a game.
The Birds have one of the toughest schedules in the league after winning the Super Bowl last season. In an interview with Sportsnaut’s Evan Groat, The Athletic’s NFL senior writer Mike Sando believes it wouldn’t be a surprise if Philadelphia regresses in 2025.
“They could be in store for regression, but I think they’re a good team. We would all agree that if you’re gonna name your six teams that you think could win the Super Bowl and you had to bet money on it, they’d be one of them. So we know there’s a lot of good there,” said Sando.
He continued: “And so there’s two ways to look at it: you could say ‘Hey, this isn’t sustainable and it’s gonna fall off,’ but you can also say, ‘You know what? They started two and two last year and they got better. So now if they’re three and one or four and zero to start the season, that’s a big advantage because you figure they might improve again over the course of the year.”
One person who has drawn the ire of Eagles fans these first three weeks has been new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo. He’s been criticized for his conservative play-calling, and quarterback Jalen Hurts even had some pointed words in a postgame interview following the Rams win.
“Now, we completely did that to ourselves in the first half and that’s something we got to fix. It’s as simple as that. It’s unacceptable,” Hurts told Fox’s Pam Oliver.
“We play so many styles of football where in that first half we got to get out of this playing not to lose. We got to come out aggressive and play our game. You saw our game in the second half.”
"If that doesn't show you what type of team we are, I don't know what does."
A stunned @JalenHurts joined Pam Oliver after the @Eagles' emotional win at home over the Rams! pic.twitter.com/CebVCD2i1G
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) September 21, 2025
Theories emerged after the victory that Hurts was calling the offensive plays in the second half instead of Patullo, but head coach Nick Sirianni shot that down.
Through the first three contests, Philadelphia’s offense has averaged just 268.7 total yards per game.
Despite the struggles, Sando believes Patullo is still trying to find his rhythm.
“They have a new offensive coordinator who’s probably finding his way. Each team is different and so with that very young defense, maybe they need some time to be at their absolute best over...
