9 hours ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Agreed that the "Barkley lost a step" narrative seems to have taken on a life of its own as of late. Like you said, the OL hasn't just regressed a bit from their own lofty standards they set last year, they've regressed into being one of the worst run blocking units in the league.

He also just doesn't seem to have the same wiggle as last year.

17 hours ago, eagle45 said:

It's interesting that Steen has been much better than Becton this year. The Chargers would kill to trade Becton for Steen straight up right now. Yet Steen has been much worse than 2024 Becton when you account for how this offense is designed to run.

As @Utebird said, Steen has been the 2nd best OL on the team this year and, in many ways, the most reliable. He has been solid in pass pro and doesn't generate much movement on the ground. So even though he's been far more reliable than everyone else, he's still part of the problems in the running game. Also unlike everyone else, he's the only OL in the team that is playing as should have been anticipated. This is exactly what we should have expected from Steen (maybe even a hair better). But that begs the question...why did Howie and Stoutland commit to this fit when they knew it would set the running game back?

Bingo...because Howie drafted him in the 3rd round. Howie always pushes for his high picks to play to justify them

9 hours ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

I wanted to see how much less hurts has run this year compared to previous years. It felt like Jalen hurts wasn’t running as much. I think some of that is because he’s gotten banged up at the end of years and he’s trying to make it through all 17 games as fresh as possible for the postseason. I went and looked at the last four years previous to this.

2022: 165 rushing attempts (15 games)

2023: 157 (17 games)

2024: 150 (15 games)

2025: 80 so far. He’s on pace for 123 over 17 games

This would be the lowest rushing attempts he’s had in his entire career. Even in 2024 he was on pace for 170 if he played all 17. As much as you don’t want him taking the punishment and hits, i think we need to incorporate him running more particularly when we get to the playoffs

He's definitely playing it more safe this year. They've pounded the table for no turnovers and I think that's actually hindering the offense. There are throws that Hurts doesn't want to make. Likely for fear of throwing a pick

14 hours ago, kiwieagle said:

The running game struggles this year are the biggest difference between last year and this year to the overall performance of the offense because the passing game hasn't been able to elevate at all to make up that gap - its broadly performing at a similar level but from much less favourable situations. And that was never going to be good enough this year after the historic running success we had last season was always going to be hard to replicate.

This has been touched since the post, but if being a contrarian, you can suggest the lack of performance in the running game is exposing that Hurts has hit his passing game evolution ceiling. Purely as an observation, but the consistent passing performance with a great WR corp can lead you to look and wonder if Hurts is capable of going again? Or is this it?

Of course the playcalling is an issue, but with the consistent performance of the passing game, perhaps its not the big issue we perceive it to be as in reality, last years passing game coordinator is not making it worse? And perhaps, its a smokescreen for other issues. E.g. playing half fit OL and hoping they get better

48 minutes ago, Mike31mt said:

Totally agree with Whitworth, the blocking is not there but Saquon is exacerbating it by hesitating and looking for big runs.

Even catching the ball, he's trying to do too much. Keep it simple, take the yards, secure the ball, live for the next play.

Right now I think a 4 yard gain and 2 yard gain would be better than a 2 yard loss and 8 yard gain.

Just that positive yardage alone helps the flow of the drive and play calling. Take the positive yards, keep it moving. Too many times we gain 1 yard on a run, then drop back throw it away and bam you got a 3rd and 9 backed up on our own 38 yard line. Or a dumb penalty just cripples the drive, a promising drive.....a good drive where the defense was tired and we had them on their heels. These little things have a huge effect on our offense that has been below average with a not so good play caller and now an OL that is underperforming.

If this offense doesn't hit a big play we struggle to sustain drives, and other D Coordinators are starting to tee off on our struggles, which only make it 10x harder to get in a rhythm.

12 minutes ago, weko said:

Bingo...because Howie drafted him in the 3rd round. Howie always pushes for his high picks to play to justify them

This is kinda silly. Howie has cut his losses on a lot of high picks. Enough that you should be able to list at least 12-14 draft picks in rounds 1-3 since, say 2014 off the top of your head.

Less is more with Barkley this year, and that should be ok. He’s not THE problem with the run game, but he’s a $20 million RB making a bad situation worse. The "film guys” need to stop galaxy braining themselves.

Ultimately Dickerson told you it's the coaching. And when given another chance he said it again. I don't think it was an accident.

This will probably sound stupid but I also wonder if Barkley has some kind of tell on his runs or letting the other team know it's a run. Like the way he surveys the field on runs vs passes. An announcer brought something like that up a few weeks ago. Kind of like a pitcher in baseball. Or the infamous knuckle play from Invincible

Ran across this clip this morning and had to share...pretty funny. I thought you all would get a good laugh.

What do Broke Back Mountain and the NFL have in common? They both have Cowboys that suck.

17 minutes ago, pgcd3 said:

Ultimately Dickerson told you it's the coaching. And when given another chance he said it again. I don't think it was an accident.

But wouldn't that mean Dickerson was calling out Stoutland, he coaches the O Line and coordinates the run game no?

26 minutes ago, pgcd3 said:

Ultimately Dickerson told you it's the coaching. And when given another chance he said it again. I don't think it was an accident.

While I don’t disagree, are we supposed to believe Stoutland is just coasting this year? OC certainly plays his part but the O-line/run game coordinator should also be preparing them for these fronts, no?

3 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

But wouldn't that mean Dickerson was calling out Stoutland, he coaches the O Line and coordinates the run game no?

Oh my - Landon Dickerson hasn't seen a 50 front before? Hopefully part of the interview is when he acknowledges that the OL couldn't block 1v1 and got their butts kicked. The coaches can't do that for them. Blaming the coaches is weak, the players play.

10 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

But wouldn't that mean Dickerson was calling out Stoutland, he coaches the O Line and coordinates the run game no?

Beat me to it

Dianna russini write this prior to the 2024 season. It really does sound somewhat similar to right now. Feels like every win is a grind and what’s going on behind the scenes but also things like aj and now Dickerson saying what he did is the culture standpoint

15 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

But wouldn't that mean Dickerson was calling out Stoutland, he coaches the O Line and coordinates the run game no?

Exactly. If Stout is having coaching issues then you know something is off.