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Tim McManus
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Philadelphia Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson said that one of the keys to improving the offense following a 34-17 loss to the New York Giants was to be “less predictable.”
Johnson was focused primarily on the ground attack. Philadelphia entered the game ranked 26th in rushing with 95.3 yards per game after finishing second in that category in 2024 with 179.3. Reigning Offensive Player of the Year Saquon Barkley had 58 yards on 12 carries against his former team. It was the fifth time in six games that he has been held to 60 yards or less on the ground.
“It seems a lot harder than it needs to be,” Johnson said. “Maybe moving forward, just have a little bit more variety, hitting the perimeter some.”
They have to look for keys that could be giving away what they’re doing to the defense, Johnson said, and “need to be able to keep defenses guessing.”
He added that this is not a “finger-pointing show” and specifically that the finger is not being pointed at new offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
“I’m with Kevin until the end. A lot of it comes down to execution,” he said. “We’ll go back and look at this tape and see what we’ve got to fix, but moving forward, maybe more efficient, less predictable and capitalize on big plays and explosives.”
Barkley had a different viewpoint, noting that there was a level of predictability to last year’s offense as well in that opposing teams knew they were going to run the ball, and the Eagles still found a high level of success.
“I think we also have to get back into that attitude, that mindset, not really giving a f— what people are trying to do,” Barkley said. “That’s something that I’m looking for.”
The Eagles dropped to 4-2 on the season. They have been outgained in each of their first six games — the first defending Super Bowl champs to do so. They also tie the longest streak of being outgained by any defending champ at any point in a season.
This is their first time suffering back-to-back losses since the 2023 season. They have a short break before trying to get back on track at the Minnesota Vikings next week.
“You play the game to win,” said quarterback Jalen Hurtswho threw a critical interception in the fourth quarter Thursday, his first pick of the season. “Obviously, we’re competitive in that in trying to figure it out. We’ve got some work to do.”
