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It’s not a matter of, “Who would call plays if Kevin Patullo isn’t doing it?”
Honestly, it doesn’t even matter.
All I know is the standards are high around here, and anything short of another Super Bowl championship would be a disappointment. And the Eagles aren’t going to win a Super Bowl with Kevin Patullo calling plays.
Simple as that.
We’re 11 games in now, so we’re right around two-thirds of the way through the regular season and has anything changed? Has anything improved? Has anything made you believe the offense is on the cusp of greatness? Has anything given you hope that better days are ahead?
Not a darn thing.
If anything, the Eagles’ offense has regressed under Kevin Patullo, and that’s alarming. Early in the season, we were all more concerned with the defense than anything. Four games in, the Eagles were middle of the pack at 23.5 offensive points per game.
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In seven games since? They’re down to 19.8 points per game, and that includes games with 10, 16, 17, 17, 21 and 21 points. The only time since Week 4 they’ve managed to score more than 21 points is at home against a Giants team that fired its head coach a few weeks later.
The frustrating thing about the Kevin Patullo offense is that there have been times it’s looked electrifying. A 26-point second half against the Rams. A 24-point first half in Tampa. Thirty-eight points in the Giants rematch. That 21-point explosion to open the game in Dallas Sunday.
We see it in bits and pieces, but they get figured out eventually. Defenses make adjustments, and once they do, the Eagles are unable to adjust back.
Good luck trying to find a game where the offense operated efficiently throughout. Good luck trying to find a game where the Eagles enjoyed sustained success in both halves. Good luck trying to find a game where they looked half as good as last year, when an almost identical lineup averaged 29 points and 366 yards per game.
This year they’re at 21 and 304.
They can’t run the ball. They can’t consistently get the ball to their elite receivers. They’re among the worst in the league on third down, first downs per game, yards per play, sacks per pass play.
You name the category, they’re near the bottom.
Patullo’s play calling lacks creativity and innovation. We’re 11 games in and we haven’t seen an ability to use plays to set up other plays, to sustain early success late in games, to keep defenses off balance, to mix the run game with the pass game to the point where they’re doing both effectively.
At times, it looks like plays are run randomly with no regard to the play before or the play after. If you told me Patullo was pulling plays out of a hat, I’d believe it.
Now, all that said, I don’t think Patullo is the entire problem. Injuries on the offensive line have been damaging. Saquon Barkley’s struggles go beyond play calling. Pre-snap penalties wiping out big gains aren’t on the play caller.
And let’s not lose sight of the fact that this is Nick Sirianni’s offense and a lot of the issues we’re seeing now have popped up here and there under Sirianni himself early in 2021, under Brian Johnson in 2023 and much of the season last year under Kellen Moore. He deserves a big chunk of the blame for an offense loaded with talent struggling the way it has.
But play calling is an art form, and some people are good at it and some aren’t. Patullo has had enough chances. It’s time to let somebody else give play calling a shot before it’s too late.
There is no obvious candidate like there was in 2021, when Sirianni replaced himself with Shane Steichen, who was brilliant at it. Play calling is an art form and some guys master it and some don’t. You have to truly understand the strengths and weaknesses of your own players while also getting in the head of opposing coaches so you know what they’re going to do before they do it.
Steichen did that innately and we’re seeing it this year with the job he’s doing with the Colts.
So there’s no Shane Steichen waiting in the bullpen, but there’s quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler. There’s passing game coordinator Parks Frazier. There’s tight ends coach Jason Michael. They’ve all called plays in the past on the college or NFL level and had success with it.
I don’t even care who does it.
I just know that after watching the Eagles blow a 21-point 2nd-quarter lead and go scoreless over their final eight drives against a bottom-5 defense, things can’t get a whole lot worse.
The defense has been very good lately, keeping the Eagles in games despite a consistently listless offense. But to be a champion, you have to be great on both sides of the ball.
The Eagles are still 8-3 with a chance to do some special things this year.
But for that to happen, something has to change. Very soon.
There's no longer any question what that is.
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