Roob's Observations: Eagles' deficiencies pile up in brutal loss to Broncos

The Eagles lost their first game of the season, 21-17, to the Broncos.

By Reuben Frank • Published October 5, 2025

The Eagles did all the same stuff they have been doing.

They couldn’t sustain drives. They committed too many penalties. They couldn’t stop the run. They didn’t pressure consistently enough. They fell apart late in the game. They let a big lead evaporate. They couldn’t convert third downs. They had terrible field position.

Same team. This time, all their deficiencies caught up with them in a brutal 21-17 loss to the Broncos at the Linc.

The Eagles blew a 14-point 4th-quarter lead and saw their franchise-record-tying winning streak end at 10 as well as 12-game winning streak, their longest since 1947 through 1949.

Here's our 10 Observations on the Eagles’ first loss in 287 days.

1. We’ll get to the offense in a moment, but just a complete collapse by the defense in the fourth quarter, and you don’t see that very often from a Vic Fangio unit. The Broncos had netted just 168 yards, three points and 10 first downs on their first eight drives, and it looked like the Eagles had all the momentum. Then Denver TD drives of 64 and 72 yards and 10 first downs on those two drives alone, and that was it. The Eagles just couldn’t get off the field. They couldn’t stop Bo Nix, they couldn’t stop Courtland Sutton, they couldn’t stop J.K. Dobbins, they couldn’t get the clutch stops they’ve been getting for the last month. This was just Sean Payton out-coaching Fangio and you don’t expect to see that. Kind of reminiscent of their last loss, if you can remember that far back. The Eagles led the Commanders by 13 points early in the fourth quarter before losing 36-33. Why did it happen? Nix dealt with the pressure and found open guys for short gains, the Eagles continued struggling to stop the run, they didn’t get any takeaways, they committed way too many penalties, Quinyon Mitchell looked human and the defense as a whole was forced to play too much (34 minutes) thanks to an offense that couldn’t sustain any drives in the second half.

2. The offense was just as bad, once again falling apart after an encouraging start. I felt pretty good about the offense after the 47-yard Saquon Barkley touchdown made it 17-3 early in the third quarter. I liked the aggressiveness in Kevin Patullo’s play calling. I liked the big plays. I liked the way Jalen Hurts was spreading the ball around. I thought maybe – maybe – they had figured something out. After that? Punt, punt, punt, punt. Five-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out. A total of nine yards on those four drives. Then the last-minute desperation drive that fell one play short. The thing that’s so infuriating about this offense is just how they can look so good for stretches – a half here, a half there, a drive here, a drive there – and then they can just look so pathetic. At the worst possible time. They look really good at times and they just can’t sustain it. That’s what drives you nuts.

3. The Eagles have been penalty-prone all year, but the fourth quarter Sunday was a catastrophe. Defensive holding in the end zone on Quinyon Mitchell. Holding on Brent Toth to wipe out a big 1st-down run by Saquon Barkley. Illegal man downfield on Tyler Steen to erase a 1st-down completion to Smith. An illegal shift by Barkley to wipe out a 30-yard gain to DeVonta Smith. And then unnecessary roughness on Zack Baun. Five penalties in 13 minutes, all in the fourth quarter. Can’t win that way. In all, nine penalties for 55 yards, most of them wiping away big plays or giving the Broncos opportunities they shouldn’t have had. Inexcusable.

4. Run defense is really becoming a big concern. The Broncos piled up 130 rushing yards with a 4.5 average Sunday, with J.K. Dobbins moving the sticks with 20 carries for 79 yards and a touchdown. And even down 14 points, they kept running it because they knew the Eagles couldn’t stop it. With the personnel the Eagles have up front and at linebacker – and the way their d-backs tackle – they shouldn’t be this bad vs. the run. The Eagles really haven’t stopped anybody on the ground this year, allowing at least 100 yards in all five games and at least 4.5 yards per carry against everybody other than the Bucs. This is a tough, big, fast, physical defense and they shouldn’t be allowing 4.7 yards per carry and 127 yards per game five games into the season.

5. The Eagles were never going to go 17-0 this year and the schedule hasn’t been an easy one, so 4-1 is not a bad place to be, especially considering there isn’t one phase of football that the Eagles have executed consistently well. They still share the best record in the NFC What I need to see is a football team that doesn’t hang its head, doesn’t feel sorry for itself, doesn’t stay down for long because they play again Thursday night against the Giants and that’s a great opportunity to beat a team they should beat, get this thing turned around, get to 5-1, maybe play a game that doesn’t come down to the final few minutes for a change. I want to see the Eagles respond in a positive way because this was a bad, bad loss. Let's see how they bounce back.

6. I like the concept of chucking the ball a lot Sunday, and it was good to see the passing game show some life – at times. But I still think Saquon Barkley should never have one carry in the final 35 minutes of a football game. With five minutes left in the second quarter, Barkley spun off a 17-point run for a first down, his longest run this year. At that point Barkley was 5-for-30 rushing and after the way the first four games went, a 17-yard carry seemed like about a 90-yarder. The rest of the game? One carry. How is that even possible? This was a game the Eagles were up 14 points and they still didn’t get Saquon involved. He did catch that 47-yard touchdown and that was great. But based on his first handful of carries, there was room for Barkley to make some plays, something he really didn’t have the opportunity to do the first month of the season. I don’t get why he never got a chance. I get that his numbers haven’t been elite so far this year, but after a 6-for-30 start and a season-long 17-yard run, one carry on the Eagles’ final eight drives is just wrong.

7. For the first month of the season, the Eagles ran the ball and really didn’t try to throw it. On Sunday, they threw the ball and didn’t really try to run the ball. Here’s a thought. DO BOTH. You’re allowed to put together a game plan where you’re mixing in the run and pass, keeping defenses off balance, being unpredictable. With the skill players the Eagles have – quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers – this offense should be scoring over 30 points a game. They’re at 22 per game. I don’t want to put this all on Kevin Patullo, and there have been some stretches where the Eagles have looked like a real offense. But not enough. And we still haven’t seen Patullo really mix in the run game and the pass game the way he needs to to really get this offense firing on all cylinders. Balance is a powerful thing.

8. One of the more disappointing position groups on the team the first five games is the defensive line, which really got pushed around in the fourth quarter Sunday and has been for much of these first five games. This is a high-paid group, stocked with 1st-round picks and they should be better than 4 ½ sacks and 4.7 rushing yards allowed in five games. Za’Darius had the only sack by a defensive lineman Sunday and he remains the only edge rusher with a sack all year. This is a 33-year-old on his fifth team in five years who wasn’t in a training camp and he’s their best edge rusher, and that’s not good. Obviously, they miss Josh Sweat and Milton Williams and they miss Brandon Graham and they probably actually miss Bryce Huff, who has three sacks for the 49ers. And they miss Nolan Smith, who is out for at least two more games. But the nucleus of Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter, Moro Ojomo and Jalyx Hunt is still around and Davis has been really good, Ojomo has been OK at times and Carter and Hunt have been kind of disappointing. On Sunday, none of them did enough.

9. This was a mixed bag from Jalen Hurts. He made some big throws and his final numbers looked pretty flashy – a season-high 280 yards and two touchdowns, with no interceptions for an 11th consecutive regular-season start. In his last three starts, he’s thrown seven TD passes and no INTs. But he also had too many misses, including a couple deep balls that were there for him. I know he’s kicking himself for missing A.J. on that deep ball in the third quarter. And Hurts’ pocket awareness was not good. He took off a bunch of times and ran into traffic either for losses or sacks. Running has been such a big part of his effectiveness and he finished with a career-high six sacks for 23 yards and just three rushing yards on two actual carries. Hurts has played well this year, and he did hit a couple sweet deep balls Sunday. But especially in the second half the last two weeks he’s struggled. The coaches and Hurts have to figure out why Hurts in particular and the offense in general can’t put together a complete game.

10. Five games into the season, the Eagles have won games by 7, 6, 4 and 3 points and now lost by 4 points. This is a dangerous way to play football and the Eagles have to figure out ways to put teams away when they have them down, and so far they haven’t done that. The last two weeks in particular, they were up 31-13 in the third quarter on the Bucs and hung on to win by six, and Sunday they were up 14 in the fourth quarter and didn’t hang on. The Eagles have always had a killer instinct under Nick Sirianni, but it’s missing right now and everything we talked about in the first nine observations here has contributed to that. They just haven’t been good enough in any one phase and that combined with an inability to finish is alarming. Two weeks in a row they had at least a 14-point lead and found themselves in a game decided in the final seconds. When you’re up 31-13, you should win 48-13. When you’re up 17-3, you should win 27-3. Until the Eagles figure out a way to play 60 minutes and crush teams when they have them down, they’re not going to be a great team.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/roobs-observations-broncos-jalen-hurts-devonta-smith-saquon-barkley/688068/

A frickin travesty on the number of Saquon/Running plays. If this team has SB aspirations, ya don't want a new OC learning on the job. We all saw what happened last time they promoted from within on the Offensive side of the ball.

Still am surprised at how this team cannot get sacks. Shocked that they played so poorly on D in the 4th quarter too.

Keep playing with fire, you'll soon get burned.

Mmm. Not running can be attributed to a) a banged up o-line; and b) dumb-arsed penalties on first down.

The D line isn't very good. Carter has all pro games, Davis has done well since dropping weight. Nolan Smith is a contributor. That's about it.

When a 33 year old who missed all of training camp and the pre season is signed off the street and is your best pass rusher, your edge rushers are not good enough.

The other edges have zero sacks in 5 games. Howie needed to re supply this unit off season and didn't do enough.

One other fact the needs mentioning. The Eagles often extend important core players early. We chose not to with Sweat. He got 18-19 mil a year from the Cardinals.

I imagine we could have extended him for 14-15 a year or two prior but didn't. It's a cap league and you can't keep everyone, but we paid Huff 1 1/2 years salary or around 25 mil for nothing and signed the giants edge for 4 mil this year. That 29 mil could have paid for 2 years of a Sweat extension. Missed opportunity there and missed allocation of funds.

One thing Howie recently said in an interview a couple weeks ago, he tasked the personnel dept to draft players who could be starters in every round. That seems like a lottery ticket approach to rounds 3-7. We have had 19 picks in those rounds last 3 drafts. with only Steen and Ojomo producing out of those 19 picks although Kendall and Hinton and Trotter may contribute at some point and Mckee will net us a 3rd round pick next off season. Maybe the 5th round corner will help.

Time to re fortify both lines.

And that's why, IMHO, they are not repeating this season. Their O and D Lines are not as good, not as deep, older, and injured up already.

Long season, yes, but it's really difficult to get healthier as the season progresses, and they will get more banged up most likely. Losing both Sweat and Williams really hurts. This team can't even sniff a QB back. Which means the Secondary has to cover for longer. And that gives us 4th quarters like the Broncos game.

On 10/9/2025 at 1:17 PM, LacesOut said:

And that's why, IMHO, they are not repeating this season. Their O and D Lines are not as good, not as deep, older, and injured up already.

Long season, yes, but it's really difficult to get healthier as the season progresses, and they will get more banged up most likely. Losing both Sweat and Williams really hurts. This team can't even sniff a QB back. Which means the Secondary has to cover for longer. And that gives us 4th quarters like the Broncos game.

The secondary obviously isn't as strong as it was last year too. They're missing Slay and CJGJ. So the secondary being able to cover a hair longer to allow the pass rush to get to the QB just isn't there now. CB2 has to be one of the top priorities going into 2026 (along with EDGE) and hopefully Makuba develops into a solid starter in time.

And shoot I might even have interior OL and interior DL toward the top of that priority list.

4 minutes ago, time2rock said:

The secondary obviously isn't as strong as it was last year too. They're missing Slay and CJGJ. So the secondary being able to cover a hair longer to allow the pass rush to get to the QB just isn't there now. CB2 has to be one of the top priorities going into 2026 (along with EDGE) and hopefully Makuba develops into a solid starter in time.

And shoot I might even have interior OL and interior DL toward the top of that priority list.

Going to need to address RT soon and also WR and TE (though not suggesting TE needs to be a premium pick).