EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Lane Johnson has seen a thing or two in his time with the Eagles. The future Hall of Fame offensive tackle, now in his 13th year with Philadelphia, has won a pair of Super Bowls. He’s also experienced disappointing, frustrating seasons.
Whether or not these 2025 Eagles avoid the latter and head toward the former hinges on one key component from last year’s Super Bowl run finding its footing.
The Eagles’ running game is out of sorts. That was evident yet again when Saquon Barkley managed only 58 yards on 12 carries in a 34-17 loss to the Giants on Thursday night.
After leaving MetLife Stadium as Week 6 losers, the Eagles are 4-2 with back-to-back defeats. There are several reasons for that. But Barkley, the reigning NFL rushing leader and Offensive Player of the Year, being a relative non-factor is a good place to start.
“I feel like the run game will have spurts. But we’re not consistent, which makes us kind of one-dimensional. Obviously stuff we have to fix. We’re not very efficient right now,” Johnson said. “We’re frustrated. I feel like we have a lot of ability. But we’re not producing like we want to.”
Asked what’s specifically wrong with the run game, Johnson said: “A lot.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if we’re predictable. But it seems a lot harder than it needs to be,” Johnson added. “Maybe moving forward we have a bit more variety, hit the perimeter some, doing a little bit more than that. … We’ve got a very talented running back back there.”
Philadelphia Eagles’ Saquon Barkley runs during the first half of an NFL football game against the New York Giants Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)AP
Barkley rushed for more than 2,000 yards in 2024, powering Philadelphia on a Super Bowl run in his debut campaign. But the ground game just hasn’t looked the same.
Barkley has been held to 325 rushing yards and 3.4 yards per carry through six games. In five of those games, he’s rushed for 60 yards or fewer. That happened only twice in 20 total games last season.
Barkley being neutralized has made the offense one-dimensional. The Eagles grinded out wins over the Cowboys and Chiefs in Weeks 1 and 2. But in Week 3, they needed a miracle second-half comeback against the Rams. In Week 4, they survived a brutal second half in Tampa Bay. Against the Broncos and Giants, those issues caught up with them.
Johnson didn’t single one thing out as what’s holding the ground game back, stating that now isn’t the time for a “finger-pointing show.” Asked about first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, Johnson said he’s “with Kevin ‘til the end” and that “a lot of it comes down to execution.”
But a part of it could certainly come down to the play-calling — or at least Patullo’s initial game plan and how the Eagles are (or aren’t) adjusting in-game.
“We’re not very good right now,” Johnson said of the lacking offensive rhythm. “Last year, we ran play-action and fed off each other. Defenses had a hard time guessing what it was going to be. Feel like the last two weeks, you know what it is. You know when the pass is coming. You know when the run is coming. … We’ve got to do a better job of that.”
“It’s frustrating,” Johnson said later. “But we have a lot of season ahead of us. Confident with the guys in this room and how we work to get it fixed and to make games not so hard on ourselves, make it more fluid. We’ve been very stagnant offensively. … We’ve got to fix it.”
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