Roob's Observations: Understanding Just How Predictable The 2025 Eagles Were

Roob's Observations: Understanding just how predictable the 2025 Eagles were originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Another way to look at how predictable the Kevin Patullo offense became, a Phillies batting practice pitcher who was in training camp with the Eagles and how Randall Cunningham was robbed in the 1990 MVP voting.

We’re only 2 ½ weeks from the start of training camp, which means Dave Zangaro probably has his tent set up by now outside the entrance to the Jefferson Health Training Complex. If you’re driving down Pattison Avenue, please bring him some food!

JUST HOW PREDICTABLE WERE THEY? The Kevin Patullo offense wasn’t the worst in the NFL. Most weeks, the Eagles got off to pretty good starts, and their 6.1 points per game in the first quarter was 4th-highest in the league. They only trailed through the first quarter four times in 17 regular-season games. But as games went on, other teams adjusted and the Eagles didn’t. They couldn’t. Get this: The Eagles scored 43 offensive touchdowns last year and nearly half of them – 19 of 43 – came on their first three drives. All their other drives combined – and they averaged 10.4 drives per game – generated just 24 touchdowns. They scored a TD on 38 percent of their first three drives (19 of 50) but on just 19 percent of their drives from their fourth drive through the end of the game (24 of 127). Here’s more: The Eagles averaged 6.4 yards per play on their first three drives (15th-highest in the league) but just 5.5 yards per play after that (25th-highest). They averaged 36.3 yards on their first three drives (9th-highest in the league) but only 25.7 yards per drive after that (26th-highest in the league. The talent was there and we saw it week after week early in games. Talent wasn’t the issue. An over-matched play-caller was. Once opposing defensive coaches figured out how the Eagles were attacking, they made adjustments to slow them down, and Patullo and the Eagles’ offensive coaches couldn’t adjust back. And that’s why week after week their offense dried up after good starts. They just kept getting out-coached.

WAS HE A PHILLIE OR AN EAGLE? One of the Eagles’ quarterbacks at 1944 training camp was Steve Marko, who was the Phillies’ batting practice pitcher. Marko was a Philly native who attended Gratz High but left school in 1939 at the age of 15 and eventually joined the Army. He was based at Camp Wheeler, Ga., before transferring to Chenango Valley, N.Y., where he was wounded during training maneuvers. He recovered at Valley Forge General Hospital and after a medical discharge, signed with the Eagles. It was Phillies catcher Bob Finley, who had played football at SMU, who encouraged Marko to try his hand at football. Marko didn’t make the Eagles’ roster in the summer of 1944, but he did play in four games as a halfback with the Brooklyn Tigers later that year. He ran six times for 10 yards. He was in camp the next summer with the Boston Yankes but didn’t make the team. After his brief NFL stint, Marko quarterbacked the Tacony Athletic Association team in the Eastern Football League.

JALEN HURTS STAT OF THE WEEK: Jalen Hurts has had at least one touchdown pass and no interceptions in 39 of his 82 career starts. The only QBs in history with more games with at least one TD pass and no INTs through their first 82 starts are Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson, both with 42. Carson Wentz is fifth on that list with 37.

SONNY JURGENSEN STAT OF THE WEEK: Sonny Jurgensen led the NFL with 3,723 passing yards and 28 touchdowns in 1961, his first year as the Eagles’ starting quarterback. He was the first NFL QB with 3,700 passing yards and 28 TD passes in a season and nobody else would do it for more than two decades. For the first 61 years of the NFL – 1920 through 1980 – Jurgensen was the only NFL quarterback with 3,700 yards and 28 TDs in a season. Dan Fouts finally joined him in 1981, when he threw for 4,802 yards and 33 touchdowns for the Chargers. Jurgensen remains the only Eagles QB with 3,700 passing yards and 32 touchdowns in a season, and he did it 65 years ago.

RANDALL IN 1990: Randall Cunningham was flat-out robbed in MVP voting in 1990. Despite better stats all the way around, he finished second to Joe Montana, who threw fewer touchdowns (30 to 26), more interceptions (16 to 13), rushed for nearly 800 fewer yards (942 to 162), had a lower passer rating (91.6 to 89.0) and recorded fewer total touchdowns (35 to 26) than Randall. Joe, who was 34 and had already won four Super Bowls, won that MVP solely on reputation. Randall got robbed.

HAS ANYBODY HERE SEEN HANK? In 2006, Hank Baskett caught an 87-yard touchdown pass from Donovan McNabb against the Cowboys in Week 5 and he also had an 89-yard TD catch from A.J. Feeley against the Falcons in Week 17. Not only does that make him one of only 10 players in NFL history with two TD catches of 85 or more yards in the same season, it makes him the only one to catch those two TDs from different quarterbacks. Baskett also had a 90-yarder from McNabb against the Rams in 2008, and he’s one of only six players in NFL history with three TD catches of at least 85 yards and the only one in the last 40 years. Baskett didn’t have any other TD catches in his career longer than 10 yards. Baskett has three of the 15-longest TD catches in Eagles history. Only Ben Hawkins, Mike Quick and DeSean Jackson had more than one 85-yard TD. The only other undrafted Eagle with a TD catch of at least 85 yards was Joe Carter (not that one), who had an 86-yarder from Rabbit Keen in the Eagles’ 37-7 loss to the Packers in 1937 at Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisc., outside Milwaukee.

WHERE THE HECK IS FARRELL STADIUM? Contrary to popular belief, the Eagles never practiced in West Chester. Farrell Stadium and the adjacent practice fields, the Eagles’ summer home from 1980 through 1995, are actually in West Goshen Township and East Bradford Township. The West Goshen-East Bradford border actually runs right through the stadium. The east end zone is in West Goshen and the west end zone, the one closer to WCU’s campus, is in East Bradford. Now you know.

TAKE YOUR PICK: With Reed Blankenship gone, nobody on the current Eagles roster has more than three career regular-season interceptions as an Eagle. Zack Baun, Marcus Epps and Jalyx Hunt have three each, Cooper DeJean and Drew Makuba have two apiece and Jihaad Campbell and Kelee Ringo each have one. Active NFL players with more than three INTs as an Eagle are C.J. Gardner-Johnson of the Bills (11), Blankenship of the Texans (9), Rasul Douglas of the Commanders (5) and Avonte Maddox of the Lions (4). Jalen Mills had five and played last year but is not currently on a roster.

GETTING THE BALL DOWN THE FIELD: It might surprise people that among 39 quarterbacks who’ve thrown at least 1,000 passes since 2020, Jalen Hurts ranks seventh in the NFL in yards per completion at 11.6, trailing only Brock Purdy, Lamar Jackson, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jordan Love, Matt Stafford and C.J. Stroud. People who love to blabber on about the Eagles not having a high-powered passing game pick and choose what stats they want to use to support their flimsy argument, but the reality is that even though the Eagles throw less than most teams – only the Ravens have thrown fewer passes than the Eagles since Nick Sirianni became head coach in 2021 – when they do throw they’re efficient and productive. Even though they’re 31st in pass attempts over the past five years, they’re 17th in touchdown passes, 13th in touchdown percentage (TDs per pass attempt), 20th in passing yards, 11th in passer rating, 8th in yards per attempt and 5th in yards per completion as well as 6th in interception percentage. Not to mention second in wins and second in Super Bowl appearances. It’s not about how often you throw but how good you are at it, and the Eagles – even with a nightmarish offense last year – have been very good at it.

LATE-ROUND PRO BOWLERS: Howie Roseman has drafted 15 players who’ve made at least one Pro Bowl as an Eagle and 12 of those 15 were selected in the first or second round. Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising, but it is surprising that he’s only drafted three Pro Bowlers in the third round or later in his 16 drafts. Those three are 6th-rounder Jason Kelce in 2011, 3rd-rounder Nick Foles in 2012 and 4th-rounder Josh Sweat in 2018. He did draft a couple 7th-round defensive backs who made a Pro Bowl with another team – Kurt Coleman and Jordan Poyer. His other pick who made a Pro Bowl with a different team is 3rd-rounder Isaac Seumalo. Since 1980, the Eagles have drafted 42 players who made a Pro Bowl as an Eagle, and 31 of them came in the first two rounds. In addition to Kelce, Foles and Sweat, the Pro Bowler 3rd-rounders Brian Westbrook, Fred Barnett and Jeremiah Trotter, 4th-rounder William Thomas, 5th-rounders Ike Reese and Trent Cole, 8th-rounder Seth Joyner and 9th-rounder Clyde Simmons.