Eagles' Offensive Identity Still Being Created
PHILADELPHIA - Many Eagles fans are wondering what the Eagles' offensive identity is after three games of the Nick Sirianni era, not exactly a positive sign for what is an offensive-minded head coach and play-caller.
On Wednesday, Sirianni himself was asked to explain the identity of his own creation.
"I want to be able to create explosive plays and protect the football," he said. "That's always going to be our identity because those are just - you win the turnover margin and you win that explosive play battle, then you're going to win a lot of games."
There is little substance to the obvious because every team wants to win the plus/minus column and rack up all the X-plays in the world. How the sausage gets made is the trick.
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"That's always where it's going to start on that, and it is multiple, it's based off what teams are giving you and what's going to happen," said Sirianni.
The early stamp seems college-like for a lack of a better term, heavy on RPOs and quick reads to help a young and inexperienced quarterback. Sirianni also mentioned play action and pushing the football down the field.
"We're going to be able to be in our play actions and be able to push it down the field," he said. "We want to be able to dink and dunk when the defense gives you that. We want to be able to run RPOs.
"Obviously, you've seen us run Jalen; we want to be able to do that. Our screen game, our movements, those are just some different things. And we want to be able to run the football and take some off of a young quarterback and help out because when you run the football, too, it creates explosive plays with the play-action game."
All of that reads like the goal for an identity, however, not an actual identity.
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The Eagles are currently mediocre at best on offense (No. 16 overall in a 32-team league) with the context pointing to less than that in most categories (23rd in points-per-game, No. 17 in third-down offense, No. 26 in fourth-down offense, and dead last in penalties-per-game.)
There are some positives, however. The Eagles are still No. 5 in rushing despite only giving the running backs three carries against Dallas on Monday night due to Jalen Hurts' impact and being fifth as a team in red-zone offense.
Hurts was more honest about the identity still being a work in progress.
"We’re still creating one," the QB1 admitted. "It’s coming, though."
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
