The Philadelphia Eagles offense arguably reached a new low Sunday versus the Los Angeles Rams.
Against a unit that was missing both Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett, the Eagles struggled to block the Rams front. Los Angeles sacked quarterback Jalen Hurts four times, but that was only the beginning of the embarrassing statistics the Eagles offense submitted in Week 4.
The Eagles had just 68 team passing yards on 31 drop-backs. Hurts averaged 3.4 yards per attempt while the Eagles posted three yards per play.
Philadelphia also failed to convert a third down and went 1-for-16 on third and fourth-down conversions combined.
On social media, Hurts, head coach Nick Sirianni, and offensive coordinator Sean Mannion shared a bulk of the blame for those putrid statistics, not necessarily in that order. But following the 24-20 loss, Sirianni made clear to reporters that everyone can share in the bad performance.
After stating that, Sirianni went on to defend his offensive coordinator without being prompted with a question on him.
“I have a ton of confidence in Sean [Mannion]. He’s going to wear a lot of this. There’s no doubt,” said Sirianni to the media. “I’m going to wear a lot of this. Our offense is going to wear a lot of this.
“You win together, you lose together. I have no complaints on what happened there today. There’s opportunity for us to grow following this game.”
The Eagles will have to grow quickly after two straight defeats. Philadelphia’s offense has gone 2-for-21 (9.5%) on third-down attempts over the past two losses.
Eagles’ Nick Sirianni Emphasizes Growth Opportunity After Embarrassing Third-Down Performance
Overall, Sirianni chose to be positive in reaction to the team’s offense Sunday. While the head coach called it not good enough, he fell short of putting his coaches or players on blast as social media did.
Sirianni even argued that he saw some improvement in his players during the 4-point loss to the Rams.
“There are things, obviously, that I’ve definitely seen us improved,” added Sirianni. “But then there are still little mistakes that we are making — coaching and playing — that we’ve got to continue to clean up.
“I don’t think improvement always looks exactly how we want it to look.”
In Sirianni’s defense, he didn’t get specific about whether the offense or some other part of the team showed improvement. He also made clear that improvement isn’t linear.
In the offense’s defense, the unit was playing without some key players such as DeVonta Smith, Saquon Barkley and Lane Johnson for much of Sunday’s game. Dallas Goedert and Landon Dickerson also didn’t play.
Missing those types of stars is going to hurt any offense. Sirianni didn’t use those absences as an excuse.
“You could ask me that question if we have 30 guys down, I’m never going to use anything as an excuse,” said Sirianni. “We have to look at ourselves in the mirror.
“Life hands you a lot of different scenarios. Football hands you a lot of different scenarios. You have to be accountable to who you are and what you do, each and every one of us. You will never hear me say a word about an injury.”
The Eagles will look to avoid a 3-game losing streak next Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.
Eagles’ Nick Sirianni Speaks out on OC Sean Mannion After Rams Loss