Historic Third-Down Struggles Doom Eagles Vs. 49ers

The Philadelphia Eagles have a long offseason ahead.

Philadelphia, the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoff picture, was upset by the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday evening at Lincoln Financial Field. The story of the season for the Eagles was the team's sluggish offense. If you have been following along with the team this season, you likely know this at this point. It's been the national talking point hanging around the franchise all season long.

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It's going to be amplified after the Wild Card Round loss. The Eagles only were able to muster up 19 points against the 49ers. Philadelphia scored just six points in the second half. In comparison, the 49ers scored 13 points in the fourth quarter alone. Saquon Barkley was a bright spot for the offense with 106 rushing yards, but the passing offense struggled.

The Eagles have work to do

Aug 7, 2025; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo before a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Lincoln Financial Field. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images | Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Jalen Hurts went 20-of-35 passing for 168 yards and a touchdown. It wasn't all on him, though. The Eagles had four separate drops on third down on Sunday night. ESPN noted this was the most in a playoff game by a team since ESPN began tracking the metric in 2006.

"The Eagles had four drops on third down vs the 49ers in the Wild Card round," ESPN shared. "This was more third down drops than they had in the regular season, as well as the most in a playoff game since ESPN began tracking the stat in 2006."

The Eagles didn't have much going on offense on Sunday, and were unlucky with the drops. So much so that they did something no other playoff team has done in 20 years. All in all, not what you want to see and now the Eagles need to go into the offense willing to consider all options.

The drops happen. That really is unlucky. Especially when you consider the fact that AJ Brown was involved in them too. That's rare. But the offense in general needs something and now the team has months to sort it out.

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