Grumblings about the state of the Eagles offense cropped up during the team’s 4-0 start and the volume is only going to rise in the wake of a 34-17 loss to a Giants team that they have dominated in recent seasons.
Running back Saquon Barkley’s performance has been the source of much of the angst. Barkley ran 12 times for 58 yards on Thursday night and he’s yet to have the kind of overwhelming performance that was commonplace on his way to running for more than 2,000 yards on the way to a Super Bowl title last season.
One school of thought about the inability to control games offensively is that the Eagles have become too predictable, but Barkley took issue with that framing after Thursday’s loss. He said he believes that they were predictable in 2024 as well, but that their execution took them where they needed to go on offense.
“Last year, do you think we were predictable? Everybody knew we were running the ball,” Barkley said. “We still got it off. I also think we got to get back to the attitude, the mindset of, not really giving a f—k what people are trying to do. That’s something that I’m definitely looking for.”
Barkley said that “football is a lot simpler” than many people think and that it is “all about” executing better than the other team. The Eagles aren’t doing that and they aren’t outthinking other teams either, which adds up to the opposite of the kind of approach that Barkley thinks the team needs to rediscover their groove.
