PHILADELPHIA — Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo’s job appears to be in jeopardy following Sunday’s playoff loss, despite players rallying to his defense

On Sunday, the Eagles’ offensive issues finally caught up to them in their 23-19 wild-card round loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Lincoln Financial Field.

Sunday’s playoff loss exemplified the Eagles’ season-long offensive struggles: The offense played well in the first half and sputtered in the second. In the final two quarters on Sunday, they scored no touchdowns, punted three times, settled for two field goals and only gained 119 total yards.

With 43 seconds left, the Eagles had one last shot, but quarterback Jalen Hurts‘ fourth-and-11 pass to tight end Dallas Goedert was broken up.

In the locker room after the game, the players blamed themselves for the loss and season-long offensive struggles, shielding Patullo from criticism.

But no matter what they say in his defense, it likely won’t stop his firing. In the coming days or weeks, the Eagles will likely move on from Patullo and search for their fifth new offensive coordinator in the last six years.

“A lot of the stuff is on us as players,” Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith said. “It works hand in hand. We have to all pick each other up. We have to pick him up. He has to pick us up. I feel like he called a great offense the whole year. We just didn’t execute well.”

“Kevin’s been great,” Eagles left guard Landon Dickerson also said in Patullo’s defense. “I mean, he’s been with us for five years now. I think he’s done a tremendous job. Obviously, it’s kind of the first time he’s been put in this position, but I think he handled it extremely well, and it’s all about growing and getting better.”

Dating back to their time together on the Colts’ staff in 2018, Patullo has served as Eagles coach Nick Sirianni’s right-hand man. But at the end of the day, it’s a result-driven business — and Patullo didn’t produce good enough results to stick around.

“There will be time to evaluate everybody’s performance,” Sirianni said during his post-game press conference. “Right now, I feel for all our guys in the locker room, all the players, all the coaches, the front office, everybody that works so hard, the fans that come out and support us, Mr. [Chairman/CEO Jeffrey] Lurie. I feel for all of us, all of them, and there’ll be time to evaluate everything coming up.”

On paper, the Eagles had one of the most talented offenses in the NFL entering this season, but it never came to fruition. The offensive line regressed, wide receiver A.J. Brown had a down year and Hurts was inconsistent at times.

While this made Patullo’s job more difficult, he never found solutions. The Eagles finished the year ranked 24th in total offense, 23rd in passing, 18th in rushing, 19th in scoring and near the bottom of many other offensive categories. That is a disappointing result considering most of the team’s money is tied up in the offense.

Throughout the season, the Eagles struggled to adjust in the second half of games and have been too conservative in key moments — issues that have stood out to players.

“Yeah, obviously you feel it,” right tackle Fred Johnson said about the offense’s conservative nature. “You are out there in the game. That’s what happened. Like I said, they had a good answer (to what we were doing).”

Johnson said Patullo has “improved over the year, but that’s about it” when asked why the team should have confidence in Patullo if he returns next season.

“That’s too deep of a question. I can’t answer that,” Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata said when asked the same question.

Patullo called plays for the first time at any level this season, so it was unfair to expect great things out of him.

The Eagles hoped his experience as the pass game coordinator and his knowledge of the scheme would help him have immediate success, but it became clear early on that he wasn’t ready for the role.

Patullo, 44, could be a good coordinator at some point during his career, but he needs to gain more experience, and the Eagles probably won’t be the team that gives it to him.

The Eagles will try to replace Patullo with an experienced coordinator.

If Sirianni’s scheme remains in place, the offense could continue to struggle, as its concepts and designs have become too easy to defend.

“Can’t point nobody out,” Smith said about the offense’s problems this season. “We didn’t execute offensively as a whole, whether it was one misassignment or things like that.”