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This game against the Chicago Bears was one of the most frustrating Philadelphia Eagles offensive performances of the season, which is really saying something after the past month! This was a tough one, and a long one. Why do I keep doing this to myself? Anyway, let’s do this… sigh.
Offense
Going back to more RPOs wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world. Right now, the Eagles desperately need something to avoid running into stacked boxes on early downs. And as basic as RPOs are, they at least help keep the offense on schedule with quick access throws. This season has lacked those cheap yards that once defined this system. Against the Broncos, RPOs helped stabilize drives and gave Hurts clean, straightforward answers. Since then? We haven’t seen them. The Eagles have instead become a team that calls zone runs into bad looks, gets nothing, and immediately falls behind the chains. At this point, if the staff isn’t going to fix the run game structurally, then adding more RPOs might help this offense.
The lack of attention to detail has become absurd. Every single week, we see awful reps like this. Dallas Goedert motions into Jordan Mailata and wipes out the entire play. It’s the kind of mistake you might see in the first padded practice of training camp, not Week 13! It’s not just Sirianni or Patullo. It’s the entire offensive staff. Players are confused. Spacing is off. The timing is off. Every week, there are three to five plays where someone is doing something so obviously wrong that it derails the entire concept.
This is beautiful. Throwback to 2022!
We know the Eagles love the RPO slide route to Dallas Goedert. So, what do good offenses do? They establish something, then fake it, then counter off it. The current Eagles offense barely counters anything. They call plays in isolation rather than in connected sequences. It makes the absence of this kind of layered design week-to-week even more painful. More of this!
Then we get to the run game, which is now an outright disaster. Not only is it lacking diversity, it’s essentially just inside zone or outside zone with no creativity, but the execution is abysmal.
This is amateur-hour stuff. The Eagles have a serious issue at tight end, which I’ve said all year. Goedert has been awful as a blocker this year. This play is exactly why the offense is unwatchable at times. They cannot move the ball on the ground against one of the worst run defenses in football. And because their run game is so predictable, so static, and so poorly designed, teams are teeing off on it. This run game isn’t fixable without a big structural change. And until the run game functions again, everything else on offense will remain harder than it needs to be.
Two receivers ending up two yards apart is a sign of a bad design. And it’s happening weekly. AJ Brown stops because Jahan Dotson is in the way. Every single week, the receivers run into each other, drift into the same window, or round routes that should be hard angles. This is basic stuff. No NFL offense should have this many plays in which two routes literally occupy the same area of the field. We see this every week!
Grant Calcaterra cannot block. Everyone knows he cannot block. Yet the Eagles keep using him as if he is George Kittle. They ask him to handle edge defenders lined up inside of him. They telegraph runs when he is on the field.
And this is where coaching becomes unforgivable. Calcaterra isn’t doing anything wrong. He simply cannot do what they’re asking him to do. The staff continues putting him in unwinnable situations, ruining the run game for no reason. That’s not on the players. That’s on the coaches.
This is uncharacteristic and frankly worrying. Tyler Steen blows the protection, but Hurts’ reaction points to a quarterback who is frustrated with the chaos around him. He hasn’t played well recently, but he’s also operating behind a line with communication issues, a run game that provides no threat, and a pass game where spacing is often broken. That doesn’t excuse this throw, but it contextualizes it. This is what happens when frustration builds. The offense is dysfunctional, but Hurts has to rise above it and be better than this.
When Hurts finally kept the ball on a QB draw, of course, it worked. It always works. It’s one of the only reliably successful plays in the entire offense. The Bears immediately shifted into single-high because of the threat of Hurts’ legs. This instantly sets up the next play, which we will get to shortly. This is why the QB run game needs to be part of the offense. Not the reckless shot-taking version where he charges into defensive tackles, but smart, controlled, strategic usage. Hurts doesn’t need to get hit. He just needs to be a threat. Right now, the Eagles are taking away one of their only pressure points because they’re afraid of injuries, and it’s costing them. I have consistently said this all season long, and I will not change my mind.
One play later, predictably, the Bears get into single-high, and AJ Brown gets the deep shot. This is so obvious it’s painful. When defenses rotate down, AJ gets the matchups, and he wins 90% of the time. He is still elite. The Eagles don’t need Kyle Shanahan’s playbook. They just need to force defenses into the coverages that give their stars the chance to win. But because the run game is so toothless, teams are sitting in two-high all night and daring the Eagles to play slow, inefficient football. Ugh.
Hurts missing this deep shot is rough. Wind or no wind, it’s a throw he absolutely has to hit. The design was good, a rare instance of the staff actually dialing up something layered and vertical with a lovely switch release, and it should have been a huge gain. Hurts doesn’t fully step into it, leaving it short. This is the kind of moment that shows the combined issues. This offense cannot afford to miss on its few successful designs.
I had a moment this week, thinking about this offense. I watched intermediate throws such as this and thought, we don’t do it enough. So, I got on Pro Football Focus and started researching intermediate throws (10-19 yards) from Hurts in the past 4 years. The numbers are depressing. I’m not always a stats guy, but let’s get into some numbers.
Across the past several seasons, Jalen Hurts’ production shows a quarterback fully capable of attacking the intermediate areas of the field. Yet, the Eagles’ offensive philosophy has steadily shifted away from letting him do so. In 2025 so far, Hurts has completed 64.8% of his passes for 576 yards with no turnovers, while in 2024, he delivered 805 yards, five touchdowns, and a 106.6 rating on 65.3% accuracy. Go back to 2022, his peak efficiency stretch, and the numbers are even stronger: 1,062 yards, eight touchdowns, one interception, and a 119.7 rating on 65.6% accuracy. When asked to operate in the intermediate range, Hurts has repeatedly shown he can generate explosive gains without sacrificing control of the football.
Yet the Eagles’ usage trends tell a very different story. Hurts’ intermediate attempt rate has declined from 25.7% in 2020 to 15.8% by 2025, even though his efficiency in those very stretches remains high. The Eagles lean into intermediate concepts only when trailing, treating this part of the field as a last resort rather than a core offensive philosophy.
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This isn’t just Hurts being conservative as a thrower; it reflects an organizational philosophy steeped in turnover aversion. Nick Sirianni bangs on about it every week. This must impact Hurts and the play caller. The staff avoids the middle of the field to protect possessions, even though the data shows Hurts thrives there when given the opportunity. Just wait until you see some of the throws later in this article.
Hurts can do this, the numbers prove it, and the Eagles should stop waiting until they’re behind to trust him.
Oh no, I have lots to say on this play, too! I have watched and read a lot of what other analysts have said about this one, which backed up my immediate reaction. I immediately thought this was a miscommunication. I have proof!
Anyway, after watching it again and reading other opinions from those who have played the game (Kurt Warner’s analysis is exceptional here), these are my thoughts.
In a hot situation with unblocked pressure coming from both sides, Hurts must beat the blitz with the throw. His footwork is set for the receiver to break outside. But the receiver sees leverage and breaks inside. Without being inside the room, I have no clue who is correct here. It’s a straight-up, old-school miscommunication.
The issue is that the staff should define the rule (whatever it is, always break out, always break in, run a hitch, etc), just something to eliminate guessing. As I’ve said all year, the finer details matter. Instead, Hurts is forced to anticipate. This is what a poorly structured offense looks like. Quarterback confusion, route indecision and the scheme not helping. I know a lot of you will want me to talk about Dallas Goedert being open, but I don’t think it’s relevant on this play. Hurts is reading the side he should.
Dotson has given the Eagles basically nothing this year. He runs lazy routes, has zero YAC threat, blocks badly, and has no usefulness as a gadget player. His route on this play is just awful. The Eagles need something different here next year.
Intermediate dart alert. When this offense is forced into aggression, it looks like an actual NFL unit. Hurts pushes the ball with confidence. This shouldn’t require being down in the fourth quarter. It should be the foundation of who they are. Look at this throw! This is a beauty.
Once again, Hurts throws an intermediate throw beautifully. Sigh.
And of course, the two-point play sums up the entire operation. AJ Brown is wide open, but Goedert is standing directly in the throwing window for no reason. The spacing is broken again. Mailata doesn’t block anyone. Half the offense looks like they think it’s a draw. You can visually see the confusion after the play. This is not a well-prepared offense. It hasn’t been for months. And this final play was the perfect snapshot of a unit that cannot get out of its own way.
Final Thoughts
The overall picture is grim. Since the bye, this offense is averaging fewer than 17 points per game, and none of it feels fluky. The passing game lacks rhythm and identity. The run game is completely non-functional, producing nothing even against bad defenses. Hurts isn’t playing well. Structurally, the offense is bad, the design is basic, and the only time they look remotely coherent is when they’re trailing and forced into desperation mode. This group is far too talented to look this lost. Still, unless the coaching improves drastically, we’re going to be stuck watching the same broken operation and having the same conversations every single week.
I try not to call for jobs, but I genuinely don’t understand how Kevin Patullo is still running this offense. Nothing is improving. Nothing is building toward anything. It’s not one person’s fault, but at some point, change is necessary. I’m disappointed we have not made a change.
Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and ask any questions. If you enjoyed this piece, you can find more of my work and podcast here. If you would like to support me further, please check out my Patreon here!
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