Eagles Offensive Struggles In Week 1: What Went Wrong Vs. Commanders?

This past Sunday was the Philadelphia Eagles’ first regular-season game under Sean Mannion’s playcalling. There was hope he could get the offense back into being a Super Bowl-caliber unit.

While the Eagles went on to beat Washington 24-22, the offense was a mixed bag, having some positives and pause for concerns. The reason Philadelphia’s offense looked like what it did is a multifaceted topic, but is there any hope this first game was just a bump in the road?

Jalen Hurts Provided The Biggest Positive For Eagles Offense

First, let’s start off with the good parts; Jalen Hurts legs were one of the biggest positives from the offense. He showed his ability to avoid a Commanders pass rush that was consistently getting home. He made plays out of structure, scrambled for first downs, avoided the rush and threw the ball away. He turned plays that seemed dead to just palatable bad results, keeping Philly’s offensive production from being even worse than it looked on Sunday.

Another positive was Hurts deep ball; he completed multiple passes deep down the field, generating explosive chunk plays. Such as his 64-yard bomb to Dontayvion Wicks on an under center play-action pass.

On downfield passes of 10-plus air yards, Hurts completed six of his nine attempts for 176 yards and three touchdowns per Next Gen Stats. Outside of Saquon Barkley’s 42-yard run in the second quarter, the Eagles’ explosive plays came from Hurts arm or legs.

Dallas Goedert Stepped Up In A Major Way For Philadelphia’s Offense

Dallas Goedert was another positive facet of the offense; Philadelphia’s tight end on five targets delivered a team leading four catches, 77 yards, and two touchdowns. Both touchdowns came in huge moments; his first one came after the Eagles offense got off to a slow start and was their first touchdown of the game.

Then his second touchdown came after Washington scored a touchdown on the drive before. Putting themselves down only 17-16, after this drive it seemed they had all the momentum. This 43-yard score by Goedert on a 3rd-and-6 strike over the middle of the field from Hurts gave the Eagles just enough of a cushion to eventually win the game.

Sean Mannion’s Motion Usage Gives Eagles Offense A Boost

Mannion’s use of motion was a breath of fresh air for Philly fans who have been clamoring for it since 2023. Philadelphia used motion on 62.5% of their plays in week one, which is their highest rate in Nick Siranni’s tenure per Jeff Kerr. 

On plays when the Eagles used motion, Hurts averaged 10.2 yards per pass attempt. In addition, he threw two of his three touchdown passes to the player used in motion. Compared to plays where they didn’t use motion, he averaged 3.8 yards per pass attempt per Doug Clawson.

Eagles Interior Offensive Line Struggles Plagued The Offense

Moving on to the bad of this game, it starts with the poor play of their interior offensive line. While the poor play of Landon Dickerson got the spotlight, Cam Jurgens and Tyler Steen are not safe from criticism either.

Steen was not good in pass protection; he got beat four times, equaling a beat rate of 11.8% per Jeff Kerr. Jurgens was underwhelming in run blocking; when trying to run behind or to the left gap of him, Philadelphia had a -0.51 and -0.48 EPA per rush by run gap.

Jurgens also had two holding penalties, with one coming on the next play after Hurts ‘ 64-yard pass to Wicks. Forcing the Eagles to have 1st and goal on the 16-yard line instead of Washington’s six-yard line.

Landon Dickerson Struggles Against Commanders In Week 1

Dickerson against the Commanders stood out, and not in a positive way. He allowed three pressures, for a pressure rate of 8.8% on Sunday.

It was clear when watching the game live that he was playing poorly, but when you go back and watch this game again, it was even worse than it looked on the first watch. Dickerson was moving like he was playing in quicksand, which affected the Eagles’ run game.

In particular, on wide zone run concepts is where his poor run blocking stood out the most. Dickerson’s inability to quickly get to the second level or move well laterally on wide zone runs went on to make this concept predictable.

Mannion when calling wide zone would run it to the right side of their offensive line to avoid running it on Dickerson’s side. As a result, it was easy for Washington to predict the Eagles’ wide zone runs and blow it up quickly.

Dickerson didn’t just hurt the Eagles on the ground but also through the air. He consistently was getting beat like a drum in pass protection.

He was losing fast in pass blocking the majority of the time. As soon as Hurts hit the top of his drop, he had a defensive lineman Dickerson was responsible for already bearing down on him. Forcing the seven-year signal caller to either run for his life, throw off his back foot, or get sacked.

Landon Dickerson Heads To Injured Reserve After Week 1

Dickerson’s play in week one was so bad some Eagles fans thought he was playing through an injury. Those people who thought so would later be proven correct, as on Monday it was announced the six-year left guard was being placed on injured reserve.

A few minutes after the announcement, Dickerson spoke on WIP Radio and mentioned a few weeks ago someone rolled up on him during practice. He played through it, thinking he was good enough to do so.

Then earlier in the day, he got imaging on where he got rolled up; after this, he and the team agreed it was best to place him on injured reserve. Allowing him to get fully healthy and have a good stretch in the back end of this season.

The Negatives Of Sean Mannion’s Playcalling In Week 1

Mannion didn’t attempt misdirection in Philadelphia’s run game to take advantage of the Commanders aggressively playing their wide zone runs going to the right. Which in combination with the subpar run blocking, led to Barkley outside of his 42-yard run in the second quarter, having 41 yards on 14 carries for an average of 2.9 yards per carry. Mannion’s designed passes to Makai Lemon behind the line of scrimmage led only to bad outcomes.

In theory, getting the ball in the hands of a dynamic after-the-catch weapon like Lemon makes sense. Unfortunately, the Commanders sniffed out those kinds of passes to Lemon very easily, leading to the rookie finishing the game with three catches for negative five receiving yards on four targets.

End Of My Philadelphia Eagles Week 1 Rant

There is still a lot of season left for Mannion to get the offense humming. Replacing a battered Dickerson with potentially even just average guard play of Drew Kendall or Willie Lampkin could be the start of this unit turning it around.

While personally I’m in the camp that this is early-season growing pains, before the offense is smooth sailing. Only time will tell if this is the case, or if Philadelphia’s offense may not become good enough to win the Super Bowl.