A quick glance around the NFL this week showed just how inept the Eagles’ offense has been through five games this season.
In Week 5 alone, 14 teams scored more points than the Eagles have in any game this season.
Averaging just 20.6 points per game this season, the Eagles are 25th in the NFL in scoring. They look nothing like the offense that was tied for second in the NFL in scoring in 2017, averaging 28.6 points per game.
Carson Wentz thinks the Eagles can get back to that:
We want to be that team. We definitely believe we have the guys to be in that explosive offense, really similar to how were were last year in that sense. Right now, we’re just not clicking on all cylinders yet. It’s been frustrating. Like you said, we’ve had those little mistakes, those unfortunate penalties and lots of things like that. But we definitely believe we can be that offense and we’re looking forward to that on Thursday.
Wentz said that the offense feels “great” in practice and is confident going into each game. But then when they get there, things don’t seem to click. That’s a problem and it’s one that becomes a little harder to correct.
So if you’re skeptical the Eagles’ offense will be able to turn it around and become dynamic once again, you’re not the only one.
NFL
At the beginning of the season, everyone was sort of waiting for Wentz to return. The Eagles scored just 18 points and 21 points in the two games Nick Foles started, but most people thought it was unfair to judge the offense without Wentz at quarterback.
But in the three games Wentz has started this season, the Eagles are still averaging just 21.3 points per game. Their season-high came against the Colts, when they scored 23 points.
To put that into perspective, the 2017 Eagles scored over 23 points in 12 of their 16 regular season games last season, which also includes that meaningless regular season finale. So really, they scored over 23 points in 12 of 15 games last season when they tried.
It’s shocking to think about how far off the Eagles are from that this year.
The offense is out of whack for several reasons. It starts with the offensive line struggles, but they’re missing a deep threat without Mike Wallace and it seems like all their skill guys have been banged up. You can even try to look into the losses of Frank Reich and John DeFilippo. And it is a little concerning that Wentz hasn’t been able to help the Eagles overcome all those shortcomings. I think most of us kind of assumed he would.
And maybe he will. He’s still feeling his way into this season after a really serious knee injury and recovery. Wentz has actually played pretty well and the Eagles’ offense is struggling partly with him and partly in spite of him.
Maybe the Eagles really are close to being that explosive offense we remember. But we’re over a quarter of the way into the season and that dynamic offense hasn’t shown itself yet.