The Eagles left Week 4 with more questions than answers, and ESPN’s Ben Solak doesn’t sound eager to hand out much optimism.
Philadelphia’s 24-20 loss to LA turned ugly in the fourth quarter, when the Rams scored 14 unanswered points to close it out. The offense, despite all the effort to clean things up, still looked stuck in neutral.
In his latest piece laying out seven things he thinks he knows, Solak singled out the Eagles’ offense and the situation around Sean Mannion as a major concern. He acknowledged that the Week 4 struggles came with some obvious injury-related explanations.
“It's easy to explain away the Eagles' offensive output in Week 4 via absences. Right tackle Lane Johnson was a late scratch for personal reasons.
Star wide receiver DeVonta Smith sat out because of a hamstring injury, and star running back Saquon Barkley left in the first quarter because of his own hamstring concern,” Solak wrote. “But I don't think it's the temporary absences that mattered here - I think it was the predictable ones.”
That’s where the real problem comes in for Philadelphia. Solak pointed to the loss of A.J.
Brown, saying his departure removed the Eagles’ biggest threat for explosive plays. Without someone who can consistently fill that role, the offense has had trouble creating the kind of chunk gains that keep defenses honest.
The Rams also exposed another issue: the Eagles had no real answer for the blitz. If that remains true, Solak suggested, opposing teams will keep attacking the same way until Philadelphia proves it can handle it.
He also revisited a point he made earlier in the season, when he was already cautious about how far this offense could go.
“The Eagles have yet to log a convincing win against two inferior opponents, and their overall team health has me pretty dubious … my overall expectations for the Eagles' offense will remain tempered until I see the line and the running game return to form,” Solak wrote back in September.
Since then, the ground game has continued to sputter, and the injury situation has only gotten worse.
Now the Eagles head overseas with plenty to sort out, and the timing is not exactly friendly. Philadelphia travels to face one of the NFL’s best teams, with Eagles at Jaguars set for 9:30 a.m. ET on Oct. 11 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.
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Stephen A. Smith only added to the controversy when he criticized the timing of Johnsons move, drawing a swift backlash from around the Eagles orbit. Former teammate C.J. Gardner-Johnson was among those who pushed back publicly, and the response was strong enough that Smith later apologized. Even in a league that rarely slows down for anything, this became one of those moments that reminded everyone how quickly a football story can turn into a bigger conversation about respect, judgment and where the line is when it comes to mental health. [Read more 🡒]