The Eagles on Sunday managed just 35 rushing yards on 13 carries. Which is terrible. It\u2019s also an improvement over last weekend.<\/p>\n
There are a lot of things the Eagles aren\u2019t very good at right now, and running the football is at the top of the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the last two weeks, in losses to the Jaguars and the Panthers, they\u2019ve run the ball 31 times for 57 yards for 1.84 yards per carry. Only one other time since 1955 have they struggled through a two-game stretch with fewer than 2.0 yards per carry and fewer than 60 total rushing yards. That was against Dallas and San Diego in 2005.<\/p>\n
The Eagles are down three running backs including Saquon Barkley \u2013 four including Carson Steele, who had to leave the game Sunday with a shoulder injury \u2013 and a bunch of offensive linemen.<\/p>\n
With practice squad backs and replacement offensive linemen, the Eagles don\u2019t even have a running play of 10 yards since the Rams game. This is the first time in 21 years the Eagles have had back-to-back games without a 10-yard run by a running back. Last time it happened was those same games in 2005 vs. the Cowboys and Chargers.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the Eagles became almost completely one-dimensional in the second half. Unable to run at all, they ran just four times for eight yards after halftime compared to 28 pass plays. A week earlier in London, they were 8-for-6 rushing in the second half.<\/p>\n
Barkley is the only back on the team who\u2019s averaged 4.0 yards per carry in a game. Tank Bigsby averaged 3.0, 2.5 and 3.9 before he got hurt, Will Shipley has been at 2.0, 3.4, 3.8 and 1.2 and Dameon Pierce the last two weeks has averaged 1.3 and 2.9. He\u2019s the first Eagles running back to average 2.1 yards per carry in a two-game span since Josh Adams in 2018.<\/p>\n
Nick Sirianni pointed to the Panthers\u2019 double-digit lead as a reason for not running the ball very much Sunday. But this was a one-possession game until 1 \u00bd minutes into the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You\u2019d think with a backup quarterback making his third career start and an opponent allowing 157 rushing yards per game and an NFL-worst 5.4 yards per carry there might be value in sticking with the running attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re down 19-7, it skews it where you are,\u201d Sirianni said. \u201cSo we had to go fast with, I don\u2019t know, 12 minutes left or something like that? Two possessions, you\u2019ve only scored seven points at that point. You\u2019ve got to go fast to give yourself a chance to score, which we went down and scored and then got it back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the mode that we\u2019ve had success on, so we did it again. Obviously, right now we\u2019re not running the ball the way we want to. You do whatever you\u2019ve got to do to try to win the game. That\u2019s what that game called for. Obviously, we didn\u2019t win, but that\u2019s what that game called for and there\u2019s circumstances that go (with) that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, the Eagles are averaging just 3.7 yards per carry and 82 yards per game this year.<\/p>\n
That 3.7 figure is their worst through five games since last year but their 2nd-worst since 2008. The 82 yards per game is their fewest after Week 6 since 2005 and 2nd-lowest since 1991. After halftime, they\u2019re now averaging 3.3 yards per carry.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bigsby and Shipley are out for multiple weeks. Barkley still hasn\u2019t practiced as he tries to get back from a hamstring injury he suffered in the Rams game. So the Eagles could very well be going into the Cowboys Monday night with just Pierce and former Cowboy Jaydon Blue.<\/p>\n
Help should be on the way on the o-line with Landon Dickerson and Drew Kendall both likely to play against Dallas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one hurts, we gotta do better up front,\u201d Jordan Mailata said. \u201cAnd gotta want it more than the guy opposite us, and today we fell short of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a couple good drives in the second half, shot ourselves in the foot a whole bunch in the first half, putting us behind the sticks.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd kind of the same old story, we can’t move the ball if you’re in 3rd-and-long situations, in 3rd-and-very-long. And so we just need to do a better job up front, again, just communication-wise and execution-wise on both protections and runs. And we didn’t do that today.\u201d<\/p>\n