Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

The Lines

Posted October 12th, 2025 | 5 Comments »

The Eagles are built up to win the line of scrimmage. They invested a lot of resources in the OL and the DL. They normally have the best OL in football and one of the best DLs. That formula has helped them win a lot of games over the past 25 years and it has gotten them to three Super Bowls in the past eight seasons.

For a variety of reasons, the line play has taken a step back this year. There isn’t one perfect statistic to show this, but a simple one can give you an idea of how bad both sides are struggling.

Rush offense – 26th

Rush defense – 26th

Last season the Eagles were second in running the ball and 10th in stopping the run. There has been a huge drop off this year. There have been some personnel changes, but there are enough returning guys that the line play should be much better than it is. Injuries are a key factor. Landon Dickerson hasn’t been healthy at all this season and his play reflects that. He’s struggled. Cam Jurgens is still working his way back from his injury. Jalen Carter has a bad shoulder and missed Thursday night’s loss due to a heel injury. Nolan Smith has missed the past few games. He’ll be back after the bye.

The Eagles must get healthier and they must play better up front. People can complain about Kevin Patullo all they want, but improved line play is more important than the plays being called.

That’s a blocking stat, not a Patullo stat.

Lane Johnson said he thinks the offense has been too predictable. I don’t think any of us would disagree with that.

Better play-calling can certainly help. Better blocking is critical. They also need to eliminate penalties. This isn’t a one-person problem and it sure as heck isn’t a one-person solution. Everybody needs to do their job better. The good news is that playing on a Thursday means the players have some extra time to get rest and the coaches have some extra time to come up with solutions.

Getting Carter and Smith healthy on defense should make a big difference. Carter will hopefully be back next week. Smith will return after the bye.

Last year the Eagles lost to Tampa 33-16. That was rock bottom. The team had a bye week after that. Then they went 12-1 the rest of the regular season and then 4-0 in the playoffs. As bad as things seemed after losing to the Giants, the Eagles are still 4-2. If they can fix mistakes, play smarter and play better, this season can still turn out just fine. Whether that happens is a mystery. The Eagles still have a lot of talent. We’ve seen them play well for parts of games, just not complete games. This should be fixable.

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One thing that stood out in each of the last two games is that the opponents felt like the hungrier, more aggressive teams. Nick Sirianni has to figure out the right messaging to get his team back to playing with an edge.

Maybe the 4-0 start on top of winning the Super Bowl softened the Eagles up. Losing two straight games should have everyone’s attention. The worry now isn’t about getting someone touches, but rather how do you get back to winning games. Sirianni didn’t have the right answers in 2023 and that season spiraled out of control.

He’s won a SB since then and should be smarter after having gone through the lows of that season and the highs of last year. It will be interesting to see if Sirianni can get this team back on track. The first place to start is getting the Eagles to play to their core values: tough, detailed, together. That’s been lacking this season and the results show that.

Get back to those values and winning should follow.

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Eye Opener

Posted October 10th, 2025 | 3 Comments »

The Eagles lost to the Giants, 34-17. They got out-played by the Giants, a team that was missing key offensive weapons. It wasn’t competitive for the last 10 minutes of game time. This was an embarrassing performance. This was an eye opener.

Some fans will bitch about the erratic start in September or the loss to Denver. Teams can get off to slow starts. There is no shame in losing to Denver, a team that should be in the postseason this year. Getting beaten soundly and completely out-played by the Giants and their rookie QB is a completely different story. This game is a massive wake-up call for Nick Sirianni and his players.

There will be people who think this game should push Howie Roseman to go make trades. I disagree. This team has enough talent to win. Something isn’t working right now. You see way too many dumb, controllable mistakes. Those must be eliminated. They are killers. Beyond that, the team just feels off. I wish I could explain it.

I’m more confused than anything. The 2024 team had this great vibe. They played together. They were aggressive. They made big plays and limited mistakes. The current team just feels like the opposite. Jalen Hurts should have hit DeVonta for an 85-yard TD tonight. Instead that is an overthrow. The Eagles punt and NY gets the ball near midfield. They score a TD on a short field and go up 10. They never look back. That’s the 2025 Eagles.

The Giants attacked. They took chances. They made plays. The Eagles didn’t destroy blocks, they got stuck on them. The Eagles didn’t block well in the run game. Pass pro was sloppy at times. The Eagles didn’t tackle well. Jaxson Dart was the mobile QB that gave the defense fits. Hurts made some plays, but the defense had answers for him a lot of the time.

Sirianni normally does a great job of pushing the right buttons with his team. Whatever he’s tried this year just isn’t working. This is a young team. I wonder if some of the guys thought things would be easier. Clearly that hasn’t been the case. Sirianni and his coaches need to figure out what this team needs in order to play good, consistent football. The team has yet to play a complete game and we’re already in October.

A lot of people will focus on Kevin Patullo as their source of anger. Tonight it was Vic Fangio’s defense that was the bigger problem. They let the Giants convert 11 of 16 third downs. They gave up 34 points to a team that had virtually nothing at WR. All Sirianni and Roseman have to do is look at the Giants to see that getting more talent isn’t necessarily the answer.

The Eagles must find a way to get the most out of the players they have.

Players…coaches…everyone has a hand in this. Sirianni has to focus on solving problems. He’s got to have solutions for these issues that continue to pop up, game after game. It is a good thing the Eagles have a mini-bye because the players and coaches desperately need it to get this team back on track.

There is still a lot of season left. The Eagles can get their act together and start playing good football or they can continue to be erratic and potentially waste a season that had high expectations.

Things took a very weird turn on Thursday night. Let’s see how the Eagles respond to this.

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