Eagles offense falls apart vs. Rams as Sirianni, Hurts face tough questions

The Philadelphia Eagles squandered a 20-10 fourth-quarter lead and lost 24-20 at home to the Los Angeles Rams in Week 4, a collapse that has turned up the heat on their offense and coaching staff. With under eight minutes remaining, the back-to-back NFC East champions had the ball at the Rams’ 2-yard line with a chance to effectively put the game away.

Instead, their trademark quarterback sneak with Jalen Hurts was stuffed, and a fourth-down pass fell incomplete, turning the ball over on downs. From there, Los Angeles strung together back-to-back 10-play touchdown drives finished by Kyren Williams runs, while the Eagles’ final two possessions netted minus-14 yards. What looked like a statement win turned into a damaging home defeat.

The loss marked unfamiliar territory for Philadelphia. According to CBS Sports Research, it was the first time the Eagles have lost a game with Hurts at quarterback after leading by double digits in the final five minutes; they had been 41-0 in such situations, including playoffs. The last time the franchise dropped a contest in regulation under similar circumstances came back in 2018.

Injuries pile up, game plan comes under fire

The meltdown came against the backdrop of a battered offensive lineup. Before kickoff, the Eagles already knew they would be without top wideout DeVonta Smith, tight end Dallas Goedert, left guard Landon Dickerson and right tackle Lane Johnson. During the game, running back Saquon Barkley, the focal point of their offensive build, exited with a hamstring injury.

Even accounting for those losses, head coach Nick Sirianni and first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion struggled to manufacture easy answers for Hurts, especially in high-leverage spots. Philadelphia failed to convert on any of its 12 third-down attempts, its most third-down tries in a game without a conversion in the last 35 seasons, and the highest such total by any team this decade, per NFL Media Research.

The overall production was just as alarming. The Ringer noted that the Eagles’ 172 total yards were their lowest in a game in 12 years, while their 68 net passing yards were their fewest in a regular-season contest in 23 years. Hurts pointed to execution rather than scheme afterward, saying the issues came down to players not finishing plays and acknowledging that he has to be better.

Second-half funk and scheme identity crisis

The second-half issues against the Rams fit a larger pattern. In Week 1 against the Washington Commanders and Week 2 versus the Tennessee Titans, Philadelphia mustered only 10 second-half points in each narrow win. Over the last two weeks, in a lopsided Monday night loss to the Chicago Bears and Sunday’s defeat to Los Angeles, the Eagles have been shut out after halftime, leaving them as the league’s least productive second-half offense.

Mannion’s background is in the Shanahan-McVay offensive tree, known for heavy motion, frequent under-center snaps and play-action designed to make runs and passes look alike. So far, the Eagles are only dabbling in those hallmarks: they sit around the middle of the league in motion rate, near the bottom in under-center usage and dead last in play-action percentage. Running a version of that system without its core components has left Hurts with fewer clear reads and easy throws.

Sirianni said he has “a ton of confidence” in Mannion and stressed that the entire offense would have to wear the blame while treating the struggles as a chance to grow. For the Eagles to avoid a step back in January, that belief may need to translate into giving Mannion more freedom to fully implement his playbook, while the roster gets healthier. If not, this Week 4 collapse could prove to be an early turning point in a season that began with high expectations.