Before we get started here, I would like to thank you, Philadelphia Eagles fans, for being you. You care immensely, which creates a need for local media outlets to cover the team closely. I have benefited from that need for the past 10-plus years while working as an Eagles beat writer here at PhillyVoice and other places. Truly, I am grateful, and everything I say henceforth is out of love.
With that disclaimer out of the way, for the love of all things holy, can we stop with the "run the ball" crap after almost every loss?
The usually excellent quarterback misses a bunch of open throws that he usually hits? SHOULD'VE RUN THE BALL!
Defense can't tackle anyone? RUN THE BALL!
Other team scores touchdowns on six straight possessions? RUN THE BALL!
It almost reminds me of the Chris Rock bit where every solution to a medical ailment is to pour Robitussin on it.
Of course, this PSA article is in response to a couple of dudes who posted up at the NovaCare Complex on Wednesday morning with a sign that said, of course, "RUN THE BALL," after the Eagles ran the ball 18 times vs. 48 passes against the 49ers on Sunday.
"We gave them coffee," Nick Sirianni said. "Hey, I love our fans. I love their passion and their energy. That's not the first time I've heard ‘run the ball.’ You know what, we do need to continue to try to run the ball... I appreciate their energy because I know that same energy of those guys sitting out there this morning when I drove in, they're going to have that same energy when they're cheering us on in the stadium and I'm thankful and grateful for that."
Sirianni is right. Running the ball is good! In my opinion, there's no more enjoyable experience as a fan than watching as your team just endlessly runs it down the throats of an opponent that can't stop it. Hell, one of my favorite players growing up was Christian Okoye. I love the run. In today's NFL, which is of course a passing league, being able to run the ball allows you to get into a rhythm and helps maintain balance, which keeps opposing defenses guessing. If you can't run it, you're probably not going to be a very good offense.
Oh, and HEY (!), guess what!? The Eagles usually run the ball a lot! Only four other teams in the NFL — the Ravens, 49ers, Falcons, and Bears — run the ball on a higher percentage of their plays than the Eagles.
They have also run the ball with a high frequency in recent games. Since they began the "gauntlet" portion of their schedule, the Eagles have had more run plays than pass plays in every game:
| Opponent | Runs | Passes |
| Cowboys | 33 | 23 |
| Chiefs | 27 | 22 |
| Bills | 32 | 31 |
| TOTAL | 92 | 76 |
54.8 percent of their plays in the three games prior to the 49ers loss were runs. As a point of comparison, the Ravens — the NFL's run play percentage leaders — run it on 51.2 percent of their plays.
It's almost as if those guys painted the sign in training camp and were waiting for the first opportunity to use it. "A loss? Check! And they didn't run it a lot? Check! Go get the sign out of the shed. Siri, give me directions to the NovaCare Complex!"
So why didn't the Eagles run the ball more against the 49ers on Sunday? Well, the 49ers are currently the No. 1 run defense in the NFL. So there's that. But also, initially, they tried. None of their runs worked. And I don't mean "none of their runs worked" as some sort of exaggeration. Not counting Brotherly Shoves, literally none of the designed runs the Eagles ran on Sunday against the 49ers would be considered efficient gains given the downs/distance on each play. In chronological order:
- 2nd and 10: Swift for 1
- 1st and 10: Gainwell for 2
- 2nd and 10: Swift for 4
- 2nd and 10: Swift for 3
- 1st and 10: Scott for 2
- 1st and 10: Swift for 0
- 2nd and 10: Gainwell for 3
- 1st and 10: Swift for 3
- 1st and 10: Hurts for -2
- 1st and 10: Swift for 2
Add it all up and you get 10 rushes for 18 yards, which of course is 1.8 YPC. They had 0 first downs on designed runs, a long run of 4 yards, and not a single run got them to within 5 yards of a first down. But... it takes time to establish the run, no? And the more you run it, the more you wear down the opposing defense. Right?
Sure, if the run game is working, and you're pumping out first downs consistently throughout the game, some defenses will eventually wear down. In the Eagles' physical win over the Buccaneers Week 3, for example, they successfully wore down the Bucs' defense so badly that the Bucs didn't even bother calling timeouts and just let the Eagles run out the clock to end the game.
In case you didn't notice, the 49ers game didn't follow anything close to that script. To begin, the Niners scored touchdowns on six consecutive drives:
- TD Drive 1: 11 plays, 85 yards
- TD Drive 2: 10 plays, 90 yards
- TD Drive 3: 7 plays, 75 yards
- TD Drive 4: 5 plays, 77 yards
- TD Drive 5: 12 plays, 75 yards
- TD Drive 6: 2 plays, 48 yards
Their defense was well-rested and was very clearly not going to wear down.
The Eagles' last designed run of the game — the 1st and 10 gain of 2 by Swift noted a few paragraphs above — occurred with 3:54 left in the third quarter. On 2nd and 8, Hurts threw an incomplete pass, and on 3rd and 8, he scrambled for 5. On 4th and 3, down 15, Sirianni decided to punt, and the Niners scored a TD on the ensuing possession. Want to be mad about something from that game? Be mad about that punt.
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When the Eagles got the ball back they were down 22. One Marcus Mariota Brotherly Shove aside, the Eagles called 25 straight pass plays to end the game, because, well, of course they did. They were down three scores! Remember in 2010 when the Eagles made a miraculous comeback against the Giants when they scored 28 points in the final 8 minutes? You know how many called runs there were during that entire comeback? One... a goal line TD run by Michael Vick.
If we're looking at the Eagles objectively, they're just not running it well right now. Jalen Hurts injured his knee against the Dolphins and then again later against the Cowboys. The run game hasn't been the same, because opposing defenses aren't forced to pay as much attention to Hurts, negating the Eagles' numbers advantage on gives to the running backs. Since that Dolphins game, the Eagles are averaging just 3.7 yards per rush attempt. If they ran it with that efficiency over the course of the entire season, they'd rank 29th in the NFL in yards per carry right now.
So does that mean they just shouldn't run it anymore? God no. It's part of their identity, and if they can't run it, they won't have much of a chance to win the Super Bowl. They have five more regular season games to figure things out before the playoffs, and they damn sure shouldn't become a team that aspires to throw it 40 times per game, even with two star receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
So, you know... run the ball. But also, let's save criticism for not running the ball for games where it's deserved.
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