Eagles running behind

What’s wrong with the defending NFL champions? Lots.

The Philadelphia Eagles aren’t the first reigning Super Bowl champions to have that asked about them early the following season.

The Eagles are 2-3. They struggle to move the ball and struggle to stop others from doing so. So basically, everything’s to blame.

Don’t put it all at the doorstep of Carson Wentz, who in his third start since returning from reconstructive knee surgery couldn’t do a whole lot in a 23-21 homefield loss to Minnesota. His coaches chose not to run it much, and he was poorly protected again by an O-line that isn’t playing nearly as well as last year.

Head coach Doug Pederson is the chief offensive strategist, and he sounded a bit defensive at his Monday news conference when asked why the Eagles aren’t trying to run the football more. Lead running backs Jay Ajayi and Wendell Smallwood had 11 carries combined for 56 yards against the Vikings.

“I love to run the football,” Pederson said. “We can’t get behind in football games because then sometimes the running game won’t allow you to get back fast enough ... We just got in a situation where (it) was 20-3 (for Minnesota) and we were working ourselves back.

“We’ve got to figure out how to start games faster, stay on the field longer, and generate points early in football games. Because if you go back to our history, the times that we’ve had success as a football team, we’ve been able to do that.”