Is there any reason to believe Eagles' offense can find itself in postseason?

By Reuben Frank • Published January 1, 2026

Can the Eagles’ offense magically figure things out and become productive, efficient and competent in the postseason after sputtering all year?

I don’t see how.

I don’t see how this offense is going to magically figure things out against the kind of teams you face in the postseason.

I don’t see how you can expect to just flip a switch and suddenly start moving the ball and finishing drives and scoring points against top defenses.

I don’t see how Kevin Patullo can magically morph into the sort of elite play caller you need to win playoff games.

Every conversation about the Eagles right now includes some form of the phrase, "They’re only going to go as far as the defense can take them.”

And there's no other way to look at it. The Eagles’ only chance at a deep playoff run is if Vic Fangio’s unit continues playing otherworldly football and shutting teams down on a regular basis. And it's not impossible. For only the third time since 1939, the Eagles won three games this year when the offense managed 16 or fewer points.

And I see no reason the defense won’t keep playing at this level. They're on fire right now. But it’s asking an awful lot of the defense to just keep carrying this team on its back. Honestly, it’s asking too much. Because this offense has been so consistently terrible that even this defense can’t overcome their ineptitude.

The Eagles have faced six teams this year that currently have a winning record, averaging 16.7 points and 293 net yards and converting 32 percent on third down in those six games.

They scored 20 offensive points just once against those teams – 26 vs. the Rams in their comeback win back in Week 3. Since then, 15 vs. the Broncos, 10 vs. the Packers, 15 vs. the Bears, 19 vs. the Chargers, 13 vs. the Bills.

Sure, the offense looked functional against the Raiders, Commanders and Giants. You don’t get to play the Raiders, Commanders and Giants in the playoffs.

All year, we’ve kept saying, with this kind of talent, the offense has to get going. With Jalen and A.J. and DeVonta and Dallas and Saquon and that offensive line? How could it not? They're loaded with talent on that side of the ball.

But we're still waiting. And week after week we get the same tired explanations about struggling on first down, falling behind the sticks, and penalties and putting the players in better position to make plays.

And now we’re supposed to believe that after four months of inefficiency and inadequacy the Eagles’ offense is going to suddenly figure things out just because it’s the playoffs?

It doesn’t work that way.

On Wednesday, Nick Sirianni was asked if he believes the offense can kick into gear in the postseason after such a dismal regular season. He said he does believe it can happen and he used last year as an example, when the Eagles were at their best in the postseason.

But the offense last year averaged 24.6 points per game during the regular season against playoff-bound teams before going nuts in the playoffs, as opposed to 16.7 points this year vs. playoff teams. That’s a difference of a touchdown per game. Not quite the same. That was a good offense that took off in the postseason. This is a terrible offense.

I do have faith in this defense to keep the Eagles in every game. They’re playing out of their minds and getting better each week, and they’ll go into the playoffs having allowed an NFL-low 14.5 points per game since Week 9.

But there’s no margin for error right now. The defense is going into every game against good teams knowing that they have to be almost perfect to make up for an offense that we just saw gain 16 yards after halftime in Buffalo.

The offense hasn’t gotten better, hasn’t grown, hasn’t progressed. It’s actually worse now than the first few weeks of the season. They’ve tried week after week to fix it and they’ve failed. So how can we expect them to miraculously fix it now, 18 weeks into the season?

You can get away with elite defense and hapless offense against the Commanders or Raiders or Giants. Not against the teams they could face in the postseason.

Since 1961, the Eagles are 2-18 in the postseason when they score fewer than 20 points, with the wins coming in the conference semifinal round against the Falcons in 2017 – think Jalen Mills on Julio Jones on the final play – and the wild-card game Chicago in 2018 – think Double Doink.

So, yeah, maybe they can steal a 17-13 wild-card win and conceivably a 15-12 squeaker in the second round. But the only goal for this team all year has been to get back to the Super Bowl and win another one.

And with this offense, this hapless, plodding, bumbling offense, that’s just not going to happen.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/is-there-any-reason-to-believe-eagles-offense-can-find-itself-in-postseason/703935/

No.

/end thread and any attempt at a conversation about the putrid Offense.....

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They were unable to find themselves in 18 games ... 0.00001% chance (give or take 0.000000000001%) they'll all of the sudden are able to do so in the playoffs. Our best hope is that the defense plays lights out and our offense can do just enough. Hopefully we get good play from STs. Basically we need the other 2 units to make up for an offense on life support. F Sirianni for thinking it was a good idea to promote Patullo!

3 hours ago, time2rock said:

They were unable to find themselves in 18 games ... 0.00001% (give or take 0.000000000001%) chance they'll all of the sudden be able to do so in the playoffs. Our best hope is that the defense plays lights out and our offense can do just enough. Hopefully we get good play from STs. Basically we need the other 2 units to make up for an offense on life support. F Sirianni for thinking it was a good idea to promote Patullo!

The only hope… and it’s a small hope… is that Jalen is more willing to run and if he does that might open our offense up a bit more? But even then I don’t think we have the OC and play caller to actually capitalise on that. Patullo is a chump and Sirianni isn’t doing anything to help him out.

Any reason? there's nothing to suggest that, so no.

My take is that the offense won't improve significantly until the O-line is either healthy for these playoffs, or if they can't get healthy, gets upgraded in the off season. They can't run block or pass block with any consistency.

Based on what I've seen so far, I think Mailata is banged up and not 100%, Dickerson is about 60% and is hurt all the time because he's injury prone (since freshman year of college), Jurgens' back is nowhere near 100% post-surgery, and may never be again, Steen is average at best, and Lane is coming off injury too. The starting O-line is a mess and the backups are just backups. Not a good situation up front and everything depends on them being really good.

The offense will struggle against good defenses. To win it all, the offense will have to make the big leap to being at least average, and the other two phases, along with the coaches, will have to dominate game in and game out.

I know there's always hope, but in this case it looks like maybe only a fool's hope.

We'll see.

6 hours ago, PoconoDon said:

Any reason? there's nothing to suggest that, so no.

My take is that the offense won't improve significantly until the O-line is either healthy for these playoffs, or if they can't get healthy, gets upgraded in the off season. They can't run block or pass block with any consistency.

Based on what I've seen so far, I think Mailata is banged up and not 100%, Dickerson is about 60% and is hurt all the time because he's injury prone (since freshman year of college), Jurgens' back is nowhere near 100% post-surgery, and may never be again, Steen is average at best, and Lane is coming off injury too. The starting O-line is a mess and the backups are just backups. Not a good situation up front and everything depends on them being really good.

The offense will struggle against good defenses. To win it all, the offense will have to make the big leap to being at least average, and the other two phases, along with the coaches, will have to dominate game in and game out.

I know there's always hope, but in this case it looks like maybe only a fool's hope.

We'll see.

I agree to an extent. The OL being banged up and underperforming is definitely a big issue there’s no doubt about that. If they can get healthy then that could be huge and would allow us to move the ball more consistently especially in the pass game. But I do think the biggest issue is the OC and play calling. It’s atrocious and isn’t going to help us execute at a good level.

I've acknowledged the OL injury issues all season as being a significant contributing factor to the lack of success with the offense. I do wonder if those injuries are preventing us from implementing what could be a more successful scheme or is Patullo just incapable of adjusting the scheme to mitigate the impact of those injuries (or perhaps they both are just completely separate issues and both contribute in their own way). Regardless, a healthy OL and a playcaller with more creativity that can adjust the scheme based on what he is seeing to take advantage of the talent he has would go a long way to getting this offense back on track.

17 minutes ago, time2rock said:

I've acknowledged the OL injury issues all season as being a significant contributing factor to the lack of success with the offense. I do wonder if those injuries are preventing us from implementing what could be a more successful scheme or is Patullo just incapable of adjusting the scheme to mitigate the impact of those injuries (or perhaps they both are just completely separate issues and both contribute in their own way). Regardless, a healthy OL and a playcaller with more creativity that can adjust the scheme based on what he is seeing to take advantage of the talent he has would go a long way to getting this offense back on track.

It's most likely a bit of both. Patullo is a very bland, predictable, and quite inexperienced play caller. He hasn't "overcome" any obstacles through creativity or smart adjustments so far, and has shown himself to be a liability. The O-line as I stated, can't seem to block with any consistency. RB's getting hit behind the line too often and Jalen running for his life too much as well. They don't look like they can beat a good defense. Between the OC and the OL, the Offense just doesn't inspire confidence.

While I hope not, the real solution(s) to this team's issues may be an off season away.