Jordan Mailata didn’t need much convincing that the Eagles’ offense is putting the defense in an impossible spot. He got the number from the locker room after Sunday’s 25-14 loss to the Panthers at Lincoln Financial Field and immediately shook his head.
Carolina ran 74 plays.
That kind of workload keeps showing up for Philadelphia’s defense, and it keeps adding up. Against the Rams in Week 4, the Eagles’ defense was on the field for 77 snaps.
Against the Jaguars in Week 5, it was 68. Against the Panthers in Week 6, the wear-and-tear helped bury Philadelphia in its fourth straight loss.
“For f***’s sake, that’s terrible,” Mailata said. “We’ve got to get our defense off the field. It’s not good enough.”
The left tackle and captain wasn’t talking around it, and there wasn’t much reason to. Week after week, the offense fails to stay on the field long enough to give Vic Fangio’s defense a breather.
That unit, packed with Pro Bowl-level talent, is doing enough to keep the Eagles alive for stretches. But eventually, the load gets too heavy.
Sunday played out like so many of the other bad offensive days. Tanner McKee was making his first meaningful start after Jalen Hurts’ blood clot revelation, and there was at least some reason to give the unit a little grace. But the deeper truth is that the same problems have been there all along.
The Eagles entered the game averaging 91.6 rushing yards per game, which ranked ninth-worst in the NFL, and they managed just 35 yards on 13 carries against Carolina. Their inability to run the ball continues to wreck any chance at balance.
They also came into Sunday with the league’s worst three-and-out percentage at over 45%, and they added five more against the Panthers. That’s the kind of offensive drought that leaves a defense staring at the sideline, watching the clock bleed away.
Then there’s the sloppiness. Philadelphia had 47 penalties coming in, second-most among NFC teams, with 21 of those on offense. On Sunday, the Eagles piled up 11 penalties for 84 yards.
Mailata said it felt like “the same old story.”
“We’ve got to face the music. We’ve got to be accountable,” Mailata said.
“There’s no pointing fingers. ... Just have discipline, have accountability and own your mistakes.”
That was the blunt reality of it. The Eagles’ offense has no real identity, no rhythm, nothing sturdy enough to lean on. Meanwhile, the defense keeps trying to drag the team through games on its own.
Quinyon Mitchell, Jalen Carter, Zack Baun, Moro Ojomo - the list of players carrying that side of the ball goes on. Fangio’s group is doing its job.
But the other side isn’t.
And if this keeps going, there’s only so much even a talented defense can absorb before the whole thing starts to break down, not just in one game, but across the season.
“I love our defense because they’re over there saying, ‘We’ve got to do better as a defense,’” Mailata said. “You guys gave us every chance. And we just didn’t execute.”
In Other News...
Jordan Mailata Just Put Eagles Offense On Notice
The Eagles are trying to steady themselves after a 25-14 loss to the Panthers, a game that exposed how thin the margin becomes when Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley are unavailable. With both stars sidelined and their return timelines still unclear, Philadelphia has had to lean harder on the rest of the roster, and left tackle Jordan Mailata said the offense has to be sharper about the details if it wants to weather that stretch.
Mailata pointed to the need for better focus and effort, the kind of edge that keeps a team from piling up avoidable mistakes and letting a winnable game slip away. The Eagles now have until their Oct. 26 meeting with the Cowboys to clean things up, but the bigger question hanging over the offense is how much change it can absorb before those injured playmakers are back. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Enter Panthers Game With A Backfield Problem Fans Feared
The Eagles Week 6 inactive list against Carolina brought the kind of backfield news they were hoping to avoid. Saquon Barkley is on it, and with him out, Philadelphia is suddenly navigating the Panthers game without its top three running backs because of injuries, a thin spot in the roster that has been building for a while and now lands right in the middle of a conference stretch that demands answers.
There is at least a little stability elsewhere up front, with Drew Kendall active after being questionable and Jake Majors expected to start at center again. Even so, the lineup shuffle is forcing the Eagles to lean on players in unfamiliar roles, and with several names set for their NFL regular-season debuts, the attention now turns to how the offense pieces itself together around an undermanned backfield. [Read more 🡒]
Eagles Suddenly Have A Saquon Barkley Problem They Can't Escape
The Eagles are dealing with a growing pile of injuries at exactly the wrong time, and the ripple effects have been impossible to ignore in a season that has already gone sideways. Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby and Will Shipley all missed a recent game, Jalen Hurts is on injured reserve with a blood clot in his calf, and the team has also had to move on after Lane Johnsons retirement. Even with Dallas Goedert and DeVonta Smith back in the lineup, Philadelphia still dropped a game to the Panthers and sits at 2-4.
What makes the situation even more unsettling is how quickly the absences keep stacking up across the roster, leaving the Eagles short on answers in both the backfield and up front. The offense can only absorb so much attrition before it starts to look like a weekly emergency, and Philadelphia is already there, still searching for stability while the injuries keep forcing new lineup shuffles. [Read more 🡒]