Staggering stats on Eagles' lack of big plays, which will be addressed in offseason

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How lackluster has the Eagles’ offense has been this year?

You may want to sit down before you read this.

Because when Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has more touchdown catches of at least 15 yards than all your wide receivers combined over the past 13 weeks ... yeah, that's a problem.

Here's how bad it's gotten:

• The Eagles have one offensive touchdown longer than 13 yards since Week 2.

• They have one touchdown longer than eight yards in their last 10 games ... and that came in Cincinnati when they trailed by 29 points.

• Their wide receivers have just three TD catches longer than five yards all year.

• Their wide receivers have zero TD catches longer than five yards in the last 11 games.

• They don’t have a player who’s scored more than one offensive TD longer than 12 yards all season.

• They don’t have a single player that’s scored more than two offensive touchdowns longer than five yards.

• They’re last in the NFL in plays of 30 yards or more, and they’ve failed to record a play of at least 30 yards in eight of their 14 games, including seven of the last nine.

• Their longest play all year on second down has gone for 27 yards.

• They have one play of at least 30 yards in the second half of their last nine games ... and it came when they trailed by four touchdowns.

• Their longest run has gone for 30 yards, back in Week 2, and they don’t have a run longer than 22 yards in 12 games since.

“You want some explosive-play touchdowns,” offensive coordinator Frank Reich said. “We need a few more of those.”

The Eagles’ lack of offensive firepower is staggering, and it goes a long way toward explaining the 2-9 record since the 3-0 start and an eighth consecutive season without a playoff victory.

The Eagles simply cannot hit big plays. 

Is it coaching? Is it play-calling? Is it lack of talent?

“It's a little bit of everything,” Doug Pederson said. “But something that we'll address in the offseason when we get a chance to evaluate our system and see how we can better improve that area. ”

The Eagles have just 11 offensive plays all year of 30 yards or more, second-fewest in the league (one more than the Texans) after recording 90 the last three years, third-most in the league.

They've also hit on just five plays of 40 yards or more, also second-fewest in the league (again, one more than the Texans).

The Eagles will almost certainly finish the season with their fewest offensive plays of 30 yards or more since 1999, when Pederson was their opening-day quarterback.
 
They’re averaging just 5.0 yards per play, and only the Jaguars, Vikings, Texans and Rams are worse. It’s their lowest in 16 years.

Pederson addressed the absence of big plays this week, but he didn’t have any substantive answers or solutions. He did point out that big pass plays "are hard to complete" and he mentioned a pass interference call that Nelson Agholor drew that picked up 44 yards against the Redskins but didn't lead to any points. 

“Well, against Washington, we took a shot to Nelson, and we got the pass interference,” Pederson said. “We've had some shots that for whatever reason, whether it be protection or Carson going somewhere else with the football, all those things kind of factor in.

“The one thing that by design sometimes and not necessarily down the field, but just designing shots for Carson, play-action pass has been and will always probably be one of Carson's strengths. For us as a staff to be able to design those 15- to 20-yard completions, you know, catch-and-run and make a guy miss and go 30-plus, is very beneficial.

“It's hard to complete a lot of those throws down the field because it takes a little more time a lot of times, protection. You either have to go six- or seven-man (protection) to throw the ball down the field.

“I don't mind throwing a slant and letting the guy run for 25 yards. That's all part of it, too.”

Reich came to Philly with a reputation as a coach who liked to go vertical, but so far it just hasn’t happened.

On Thursday night, the 5-9 Eagles face the 10-4 Giants at the Linc, and in the first meeting the Eagles struck for four of their 10 longest plays of the year. So maybe they can hit a few tonight.

“You've just got to keep working at it,” Reich said. “There's no magical answer.

“We believe in our players. We believe we've got a quarterback who is a big-play quarterback. He likes to throw the ball down the field.

“We try more and more to build stuff in, to find ways to give guys an advantage down the field, take some shots. We just have to keep believing it and keep giving him opportunities down the field.”

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