Eagles Collapse To The Falcons, Red Zone Inefficiencies & Inconsistencies – Philadelphia Sports Nation

And just like that, there’s an eerie feeling about this 2024 Eagles team.

We’re only 2 weeks into the season, so there’s no reason to give up all hope and abandon ship just yet. But with a catastrophic 4th quarter loss to the Falcons. There’s some glimpses of last years Eagles still prevalent today.

Red Zone Inconsistencies

There’s a few things the Eagles struggle with inside the red zone on offense.

Not only did Saquon Barkley not see the ball inside the red zone until the 5:53 mark in the 3rd quarter.

While the Eagles scored 3 touchdowns from Barkley in the red zone. 3rd & shorts became unmanageable without him. including what would have been the game-ending reception, dropped from Barkley’s fingertips.

But that was the least of their concern.

4th Down Aggressiveness

We’re coming up to 3 years of the Tush Push being an unstoppable play for only one team in the league.

But there’s plenty of opportunities wasted where the Eagles could play for a 4th and 1 situation.

Not only are they able to play for these short situations, but the inconsistency of when it’s time to take points, or shoot for the endzone continues to be mind boggling.

Below are the following situations, and how the Eagles approached them.

Drive #2 (1st Q, 0-0)

The Eagles had gone for 49 yards before this drive ended. 39 of those, had gone to Saquon Barkley. Afterwards, the drive stalled, and an attempt on 4th down had the Eagles score 0 points after matching down the field.

Drive #4 (2nd Q, 3-0 ATL)

This is one of those drives where the $255M Hurts contract looks like a value deal.

The decision to run the ball on 4th & 3 paid off, and led to the Eagles scoring 7 to take the lead before halftime.

Drive #5 (3rd Q, 9-7 ATL)

Once again the Eagles found themselves in the redzone, and chose not to give the ball back to Saquon Barkley in short yardage situations.

Devonta Smith got them down the field, but this was the 3rd drive to feature a designed play for Britain Covey, that was lucky to go for the positive yards that they had.

The loss of AJ Brown for what could be several weeks is an issue, but there’s plenty of players who barely saw targets, including recently acquired Jahan Dotson, who went 1/1 for 6 yards.

Now when you get to the fact the Eagles were scared of a 4th & short situation. Electing to kick a Field Goal to go up 10-9. They had already left 3 points off the board, why not try it again? You could always hope for a stop or a turnover from your defense, right? Right?

Drive #7 (4th Q 15-10 ATL)

The Eagles first use of the Tush Push during the home opener came during a 17 play, 70 yard drive that took up 9:34 of the clock. If they had saved some more time, perhaps none of the final drives of the game would have been as chaotic as they were.

Drive #8 (4th Q, 18-15 PHI)

Once again, the Eagles were afraid of a 4th and short situation that could have not only ended the game, but they had played coy to kill the clock instead of going up 2 scores, something they’ve had no problem doing in previous games.

The Eagles have a refusal to close out games on offense the easy way. opting for big plays, like in Seattle last year. Or both matchups against Washington.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the Eagles first loss. But the team has made Roster and Staff changes to prevent what happened last year from happening again.

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher