OK, offense, now comes your turn
Goal is to follow dominant showing by defense with more points, yards
PHILADELPHIA — Last Sunday against the New York Jets the Philadelphia Eagles defense turned in a complete game.
The unit dominated from beginning to end. If not for a trick play run right after a turnover by punt returner Corey Clement, the Eagles’ 31-6 victory would have been a shutout.
As it is, the win was punctuated by 10 sacks, three takeaways, two defensive scores and just 128 net yards for the opponent.
So when will it be the offense’s turn? After all, this unit hasn’t yet had one of those games in which it clicked from the beginning and just kept going.
Nobody is quite sure, but everyone agrees that the offense hasn’t been as potent as expected.
Injuries to wide receivers DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery and tight end Dallas Goedert certainly have played a big role. However, nobody is ready to use that as an excuse. Quarterback Carson Wentz hasn’t been as accurate as usual, either, with a completion percentage of just 60.3%, which ranks near the bottom of the NFL.
Victimized by a league-high 10 drops, Wentz, according to the Washington Post, would have a completion percentage of 66.1% had receivers held on to every one. Yet that still would rank just 15th in the league.
What’s more, they’re heading to Minnesota this Sunday to face the Vikings, who feature a defense that’s “about as good as you’re going to see in the NFL,” according to Eagles center Jason Kelce.
So perhaps a complete-game expectation for the offense is unrealistic at this time.
“I mean, you know, I don’t think [the offense has] been terrible,” Kelce said. “I think we can definitely do better. And obviously it wasn’t great last week against New York.
“But it’s not like we’re out there not putting up any points. I think this notion that we’re going to go out there and play a complete perfect game every single week is a little far-fetched. These guys are good that we’re playing against too, especially this week.
“But that’s the goal every week, so we’ve been working on starting off faster, working on trying to iron things out. The run game has been there one week; the next week it kind of stalls out. So we’re just working on trying to get better at all facets.”
Wide receiver Nelson Agholor pointed out how work doesn’t always produce immediate results.
“What you put in doesn’t always show itself right away, but it’s going to show up at the right time,” he said. “And I’ve got a lot of faith that we’re going to keep working and we’re going to cash in soon.”
Putting together a complete game, as always, starts with the little things.
For the Eagles offense this week, that means not allowing the crowd noise at U.S. Bank Stadium to create false starts, picking up the confusing blitz packages the Vikings throw at opponents, limiting penalties and not forcing the deep ball if it’s not there.
Then there’s the No. 1 priority: ball security.
Wentz talked about that when asked whether the offense has the potential to produce multiple long scoring drives if the vertical component is taken away, which has been mostly the case since Jackson was injured in Week 2.
“Take care of the ball,” Wentz said. “I know last year that’s something we didn’t do as well against these guys. We were able to move the ball … but we’ve just got to take care of the ball and stay ahead of the chains.”
Coach Doug Pederson acknowledged this game is just the first of six straight against exceptional defenses. But he too had no answer on when the elusive complete game will come.
“This is a really good opponent,” he said. “It’s a good test. They have a good defense, good offense, they’re well-coached and they’re a disciplined group.
“But this is the start of kind of that run you’re talking about for us. If you want to get to where you want to get to at the end the year, these are games that are sort of benchmark games for us. We need a great game plan on both sides of the ball, really all three phases. Players have to execute that game plan.
“We [also] have to handle crowd noise this week. It’s a loud, loud stadium obviously, so it needs to be a great week of preparation. Guys need to be dialed in.”
And they need to go for the full 60 minutes. Or longer, if necessary.
No more long stretches of offensive inefficiency. That won’t work anymore, regardless of how good a punter Cameron Johnston may be.