Excellence is boring. It’s a credo that Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni lives by and coaches his team by. Saquon Barkley openly admits that his preparation is boring. It’s the grind of a champion. If that’s true then the Eagles are the most excellent team in NFL history. They are the reigning Super Bowl Champions and they still have one of the greatest casts ever assembled. Unfortunately they can be virtually unwatchable on any given Sunday.
Sunday’s 20-17 win over the Chiefs took excellence to new heights (see what I did there?). The Eagles passed for a net total of 94 yards against Kansas City. It’s the fourth time since the beginning of last season that the Birds passed for under a hundred yards. They’re 4-0 in those games.
That’s both impressive and troubling. Impressive because no one else survives that formula. Troubling because with this much talent, they shouldn’t need to survive that formula.
Seven tush pushes, five conversions. That’s fine when you’re short on weapons. It’s maddening when you have Brown and Smith split wide. A.J. Brown has caught six passes in two games this year – for 35 yards. Devonta Smith has caught seven balls – for 69 yards.
Meanwhile in other games across the league on Sunday the Bengals‘ Ja’Marr Chase had 14 catches for 165 yards and a touchdown in a game that Joe Burrow didn’t even finish the first half. Russell Wilson threw for almost 500 yards against the same Cowboys team that Jalen Hurts could only manage 152 yards against.
When Dynasty Becomes Daytime TV
What should feel like must-see TV often plays more like a mid-afternoon rerun. The Eagles have the cast and the trophies to be a prime-time drama, but lately it feels more soap opera than spectacle. They’re not Dynasty anymore – Blake, Alexis, and Krystle have left the building. It’s starting to feel more Dallas – less power and intrigue, more J.R. Ewing melodrama. Winning keeps the plot alive, but the script has gone stale.
Efficiency or Asphyxiation?
The Eagles had 216 net yards on Sunday and still won. Through two games, they are averaging five yards per passing play, according to Next Gen Stats. Only four teams that have played two games rank lower. One of them is the New Orleans Saints, widely expected to be among the worst teams in the league. Another is a Tennessee Titans team with a rookie quarterback in Cam Ward. The other two are the Bryce Young-led Carolina Panthers, and then a Washington team that ran into a Micah Parsons-like buzz saw in Green Bay in Week two. Championship football doesn’t need to be pretty. Nick Sirianni would probably laugh at the idea that the Eagles owe anyone style points. But when your offense looks this ordinary, week after week, it raises bigger questions – and “ordinary” is being kind.
- Is Kevin Patullo’s scheme too conservative for this roster?
- Is Hurts quietly limiting the passing game?
- Is Sirianni leaning so hard on efficiency that he’s strangling explosiveness?
In two games, the Eagles have completed just two passes that have traveled over 10 yards. Hurts’ 101 gross passing yards against the Chiefs were his lowest under Sirianni. The offense’s 216 net yards were by far its lowest total in a victory over the last five seasons.
“When you come off a season like we came off last year, I think the expectation is that you’re going to pick up right where you left off,” Sirianni said after the game. “There’s steps to this, right? … Our goal is to play our best football by the end of the year…But as you’re getting better, find ways to win.”
Vince Lombardi once said “Winning isn’t everything it’s the only thing.”
But here’s the bottom line – winning ugly is fine. Needing to win ugly is not. Not with this much talent and not with these expectations. The Eagles are an excellent football team. But if excellence keeps looking this difficult, boredom may be the least of their problems.
Good Win, Bad TV: Eagles Have a West Wing Cast but the Watchability of C-Span