Philadelphia Eagles Offense Will Remain Stagnant Without a Running Game

There’s plenty of blame to go around as far as the Philadelphia Eagles’ 0-2 start is concerned. Sam Bradford looks like a deer in headlights for large stretches of action. For all of its improvements, the defense is still prone to long drives and big plays. Overall, head coach Chip Kelly does not appear to have his team ready to play right now.

Yet for all the finger-pointing, there is one simple, immutable fact about the Eagles right now, and that is all of their struggles can be traced to a complete and utter inability to run the football.

Have an inability to keep drives alive? Blame the running game for not giving the offense manageable down-and-distance situations. Have a defense that’s wearing down because time of possession mounts in opponents’ favor? Blame the running game because the offense can’t keep the chains moving.

Have a head coach whose squad looks totally inept? Well…that one might be on Kelly—but it all comes back to the running game.

PLAYER	ATT	YDS	AVG	TD
S. Bradford	2	9	4.5	0
D. Murray	13	2	0.2	0
R. Mathews	1	0	0.0	0
D. Sproles	1	-4	-4.0	0

Remarkably, the Eagles ground attack was worse against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 2 than it was in the regular-season opener. Philadelphia ran 17 times for seven yards on Sunday. Seven. And even that doesn’t quite paint the picture of how god-awful this offense is running the football. Bradford—the quarterback—led the team with nine rushing yards.

That means somehow DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles—three Pro Bowl players, one of them the NFL’s reigning rushing champion—carried 16 times for minus-two yards against the Cowboys.

Dig no deeper. That’s the reason the Eagles lost right there and why they will continue to lose every week until it gets corrected.

One week prior against the Atlanta Falcons, Murray and Mathews combined to carry 11 times for 13 yards. Only Sproles experienced a modicum of success in that game, gaining 50 yards on five attempts. However, the Eagles’ spark plug only ran once against the Cowboys, losing four on a sweep.

Michael Perez/Associated Press

The thing is, the Eagles’ impressive fleet of backs is not to blame. The backs are constantly being met in the backfield by defenders, strongly suggesting this issue is on the offensive line and coaching staff.

The fact that the O-line is struggling should not come as a huge surprise. Kelly took it upon himself to replace both starting guards this offseason and did so with players off his unimpressive bench. Allen Barbre and Andrew Gardner are journeymen and have looked the part, despite being named the starters at left and right guard, respectively.

Gardner replaces Todd Herremans at right guard, now of the Indianapolis Colts, and the drop-off probably isn’t that significant if it exists at all. On the other hand, Barbre stepped into Evan Mathis’ shoes on the left after a contract dispute—a needless release because the two-time Pro Bowler would’ve caved.

Then again, let’s not place all the blame on the new guys. Jason Peters, now 33, is starting to show his age, while center Jason Kelce has not played up to his own Pro Bowl status—granted, surrounded by new players on both sides.

All of this falls on Kelly anyway, whose scheme is beginning to come into question as well. Virtually every run in the Eagles offense is out of the shotgun formation, and very often they slowly develop, so issues up front are exposed rather easily.

When the Eagles had to have one yard in the fourth quarter against the Falcons in Week 1, Kelly called an inside zone read out of the shotgun. There was defensive penetration, and Mathews got stuffed in the backfield.

There’s a case to be made for putting the quarterback under center, sending a fullback or H-back on to the field and trying to power ahead for that one yard. Kelly, however, doesn’t seem to believe in that style of football. There’s also a question of whether the head coach’s zone reads are becoming predictable.

PLAYER	ATT	YDS	AVG	TD
D. Sproles	6	46	7.7	0
D. Murray	21	11	0.5	1
S. Bradford	2	9	4.5	0
R. Mathews	4	4	1.0	1

To be honest, we don’t have the answers. It was widely assumed when Murray and Mathews were signed during free agency, joining Sproles in the backfield, that this would be one of, if not, the NFL's best ground attacks. Even with the offensive line defections, it was hard to imagine the Eagles would be average at worst in this department.

Instead, Philadelphia has run the ball 33 times for 70 yards—a pathetic 2.1 average. The offensive line is constantly drawing flags for holding. The quarterback is constantly under pressure, because it’s always 3rd-and-long and the pass rush can tee off. The defense is getting winded by the end of the first half from being on the field nonstop.

And the head coach is at the center of it all, his methods quickly coming under increasing scrutiny because the Eagles are more likely to lose yards on a run call than gain them. This season isn’t turning around anytime soon unless that gets fixed.