Eagles' Foes 'Finding New Ways' to Halt Offensive 'Evolution'
The Philadelphia Eagles are considered the best team in the NFC this season by many who see the conference as a battle between them and the San Francisco 49ers.
Two games into the regular season, however, the light shining on the Eagles has dimmed a bit as the outside world has seen perhaps not as much explosiveness out of the team as expected.
This perception has mainly come off the backs of two performances where Philadelphia won, but not in an impressive fashion.
According to center Jason Kelce, this is partly due to opposing defenses throwing a lot of unique strategies at them, an opinion offensive coordinator Brian Johnson seems to agree with.
"I think those guys have done a great job presenting looks that haven't been on tape, that have been unscouted,' Johnson said. "Trying to find new ways to challenge us as an offense. That's one of the things that we talked about, is defenses were going to try to adjust to what we're doing, and you just kind of see the evolution from '21 and '22 to '23 of just how defenses, what their focal point is to try and take away from us offensively."
Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
One thing opponents have tried to take away from the Eagles' offense has been explosive run plays, especially from quarterback Jalen Hurts.
Despite the fact Philadelphia dominated the line of scrimmage and relied on a near-ridiculous amount of consecutive run calls in Week 2's 34-28 win over the Minnesota Vikings, the explosiveness hasn't been there as much.
Still, Johnson doesn't seem concerned about it becoming a lasting trend.
"If you go back and watch the tape, it's really, really close," Johnson said. "We just have to continue to strive to be better in all areas and continue to try to put our guys in the perfect situation."
A perfect situation coming out of Week 3 would be 3-0 following a potential win on Monday night over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.
To do that, the Eagles will have to overcome yet another defense that's likely to bring unique looks to Hurts and the offense and try to find a way to manufacture some explosive runs against a unit that's trying to stop that very thing.
The Eagles and Bucs kickoff from Tampa on Monday at 7:15 p.m. ET.
