Despite a 5-2 start to open the NFL season, Philadelphia Eagles fans are weary of buying into the early success of the football squad on South Broad. You can’t fault fans who had a 10-0 rug pulled out from under them last season amidst a disastrous ending to the 2023 campaign. It felt like the explosion scene from “Dark Knight” where the field is crumbling under players’ cleats as Philly fizzled out in the playoff loss to Tampa Bay into another offseason filled with Super Bowl-filled dreams.
Almost inexplicably, Philadelphia has earned wins in five contests without scoring a point in the first quarter this season. Only five teams since the NFL-AFL merger have not posted first-quarter points this late in the season and all but one finished well below .500. Going back even further, only the 1933 Chicago Bears made the NFL postseason after opening the season with points in the first quarter. Those Bears finished 10-2 and beat the New York Giants in the NFL Championship, 23-21. So, maybe there is hope for these Philadelphia Eagles after all!
Super Bowl legend Chris Long provides inspiration
Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Chris Long only spent two seasons wearing Midnight Green in an 11-season NFL career. Of course, winning a Super Bowl championship will make you fall in love with a city that will love you with all its heart if you raise that shiny silver trophy at the end of a difficult gridiron gauntlet. Since retiring from football, Chris Long has voiced strong opinions on the Eagles on the Green Light Podcast among other places.
Long dove into the first-quarter stats for the Eagles this season, as if he had seen a loose football on the grass at Lincoln Financial Field. Among the surprising revelations is the reverse psychology employed in the opening script. “First drives,” Long started on his show. “Eagles (are) dead last in the league in efficiency on their first drive of the game. On those drives, it’s a 33-67 run-pass split. They rank fifth in efficiency on all subsequent drives. And the split there is 48-52 (run-pass).”
Since the professional levels of sports keep immaculate records in today’s digital society, we can take the Super Bowl XLII legend’s cue and look deep into the details to figure out how the Eagles have reached this disparity between run calls and pass calls on their first possessions in 2024.
History of negative plays haunting the Eagles on opening drives in 2024
A combination of bad penalties and negative yardage plays have caused the coaching staff to call for passes when they’ve wanted to get the run game going. Before the Week 5 bye week, games against Green Bay, Atlanta, and New Orleans were derailed by such plays resulting in a change of possession. Post-bye week, it has been a little sunnier for Philly with positive plays against Cleveland and New York, but incompletions or sacks were the culprits leading to punts.
Last week in Cincinnati was a bit of an outlier due to the Bengals chewing up the clock with a 19-play, 10:04 drive resulting in the touchdown. The Eagles first drive started with 5 minutes remaining on the first-quarter play clock. It took 46 seconds longer for Jake Elliott to notch a field goal… at the start of the second quarter. Therefore, allowing Philadelphia’s laidback football community to continue nitpicking inefficient first-quarter offense.
The play-calling was encouraging in the first possession scoring drive on the road last week. Saquon Barkley rushed for 7 yards followed by a Jalen Hurts scramble for an equal amount of little white sideline stripes and a first down. A Barkley run opened the new downs followed by an A.J. Brown first down catch and the Eagles moving. However, another first-possession penalty stopped the Eagles in their tracks before settling for Jake Elliott’s 39-yard boot through the upright yellow fork.
Verdict – Stop minus plays to score early points
After reviewing the evidence, Philadelphia is shooting themselves in the cleat on the opening drive with negative plays at an alarming rate. In six of their seven battles in 2024, the Eagles have had a negative run or an offensive penalty leading to longer-yard situations requiring a passing play call. In the Week 4 blowout loss in Tampa, the Eagles didn’t take a penalty but they also didn’t gain a single yard and handed the football to Braden Mann to punt away.
The Eagles rank in the middle of the pack at 14th averaging 6.1/penalties per game, a slight increase from last season’s 5.6 average over a larger sample size. Nearly 20% of the penalties they have taken this season have come on the first offensive possession resulting in serious disruption to the offensive gameplan.
If the Eagles can avoid negative yardage in the opening drive at home against Jacksonville, the Philly crowd might just get to celebrate some opening-quarter points. The Philadelphia Eagles (5-2) host the Jacksonville Jaguars (2-6) for a 4:05 pm afternoon battle. The Eagles add beloved running back LeSean Mccoy to the Eagles Hall of Fame before the game.
Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
