Eagles coach Nick Sirianni denies Philadelphia is eliminating the forward pass from its offense.
Facing questions about the Eagles’ lackluster passing attack through two games, Sirianni shifted the focus to Philadelphia’s 2-0 record and the 15 opportunities to follow.
“You get better as the season goes along. So does the defense. It’s all relative there,” Sirianni said on Monday. “By no means are we a finished product. We want to play our best football at the end of the year.”
Quarterback Jalen Hurts was blitzed by the Chiefs on 16 of his 25 dropbacks on Sunday. His rapid release time of 2.11 seconds per NFL Next Gen Stats made over-the-top, downfield passing a risky proposition.
The Eagles are No. 29 in total offense (259 yards per game), 30th in yards per play (4.32), 31st in passing offense (119 yards per game). They’re also 27th in the league in passing yards per play (5.29-yard average).
No. 1 wide receiver A.J. Brown has six receptions for 35 yards with a long of eight yards. Devonta Smith has seven receptions for 69 yards and the Eagles are averaging 7.4 yards per catch. Last season Philadelphia averaged 11.6 yards per catch, led by Brown’s average of 16.1 yards per reception.
Of the 10 passes thrown to Brown, only one traveled more than 10 yards in the air.
“I think we’ve been very efficient moving the ball forward as an offense,” Sirianni said. “It’s hard to consistently inch your way down the field as an offense. You want to hit explosives. You’ve got to hit explosives. … There’s different reasons why we had this many or why we had that many. We understand that to be what you want to be on offense you have to be more explosive.
“You are always looking to win the explosive play battle. The last two weeks we haven’t done it,” Sirianni said. “What I love about our team is we’re constantly in self-critical mode. Open to everything. Only (focused on) getting better.”
The running game was far more explosive over the course of 17 games in 2024, averaging 4.9 yards per carry. The team is down to 3.9 yards per rush in the first two games this season.
Philadelphia has called 75 run plays and 48 passes this season.
All five of the team’s touchdowns are on rushing scores by quarterback Jalen Hurts (three) and running back Saquon Barkley (two).
Sirianni said he watched a few of the clips highlighting the continued complaints about the “Tush Push” after another Hurts touchdown run secured a win at Kansas City. He said the video he saw was slowed down to the extent that officials wouldn’t be able to discern a false start with the naked eye.
“There’s a beauty to it. Man, they know exactly what’s coming and either they stop or can’t stop it,” Sirianni said. “It’s about the physicality of the play, the toughness of the play. They made it really hard on us yesterday. I think it brings good attention to the game. Obviously, I’m biased.”
