PHILADELPHIA — How much can a team confirm about itself in isolated games? This is the question the Philadelphia Eagles must consider after their inefficient offense sprang to life in a 31-0 win against a putrid Las Vegas Raiders team that totaled its fewest offensive yards since 1961.
Schematic identities should not be ambiguous in late December. The Eagles have tried on different personalities across 14 games, and none have seemed to fit more naturally than Sunday’s under-center approach against the Raiders. The Eagles punted once and were flagged once while running their most under-center plays since 2021, but coach Nick Sirianni rejected insinuations that their success under center should be extrapolated to future game plans.
“There’s not just one way to do things,” Sirianni said.
Still, the pattern should not be ignored. The Eagles are 4-0 this season when they run 20 or more under-center plays, according to TruMedia. Those games include wins over the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants. Saquon Barkley’s average yards per carry is higher in those games (4.4) than in others (3.7), and the passing game has flourished. Jalen Hurts amassed a perfect passer rating against the Vikings and nearly did it again by completing 12 of 15 passes for 175 yards and three touchdowns against the Raiders.
The evidence is convincing enough that the usually tight-lipped Hurts acknowledged that “some of those” offensive changes against the Raiders were intended to “get the run game going” and “a byproduct has been being able to throw it the way we have.” Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio also credited his unit’s success largely to the offense’s efficient approach.
“When we play that way, that’s the best way we’ve played the last two years,” Fangio said.
The 2024 Eagles won Super Bowl LIX by leveraging a run-oriented offense against their top-rated defense. Barkley broke the NFL’s full-season rushing record while the Eagles averaged their most rushing attempts per game since 1978. Hurts embraced a conservative approach in which he threw a career-low 361 passes, a career-low 37 attempts of 20-plus air yards and took sacks at a career-high rate (9.5 percent). Then he was named Super Bowl MVP after making the Kansas City Chiefs pay in the passing game for focusing on stopping Barkley.
Opponents adapted in 2025, as the Eagles expected. They have struggled in part due to early predictability under first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, disadvantageous situations via the most offensive penalties (47) and the highest zero-or-negative play percentage (33.6 percent) of the Sirianni era and a limited passing game that has not won games when called upon the most (Philadelphia is 1-5 in games with 30-plus pass attempts).
No matter how the Eagles choose to play offense, it is a baseline goal that their operation is clean. They are 3-0 when their offense stays beneath the league average for penalties and negative plays. When totaling those two metrics, their win against the Raiders was their cleanest game yet (15). Their average second-down distance to the sticks was the lowest of any NFL team in any game this season (5.1), per TruMedia. Patullo noted on Dec. 3 how the Eagles weren’t often in “a consistent flow where plays are just kind of coming off the call sheet,” so it’s therefore noteworthy how Patullo called Sunday’s game when they’d finally established a rhythm.
The Eagles did not run the ball against the Raiders exclusively from under center. They averaged more yards on their 23 shotgun/pistol runs (4.5) than on their 24 under-center runs (3.3). When asked Tuesday about the benefits of either design, Sirianni declined to delve into schematics but emphasized that the Eagles had fielded top-five rushing attacks as a shotgun-oriented offense. (The Eagles ran 79 percent of their 2022 runs in the shotgun/pistol and 73.6 percent in 2024, per TruMedia.)
“There’s reasons why you get in the gun, and there’s reasons why you get under center,” Sirianni said.
The Eagles have not abandoned their shotgun runs, but they are running more plays under center and running the ball under center at a higher rate in 2025 (45.8 percent) than in 2024 (26.7 percent) and 2022 (20.9 percent). The blending of concepts has allowed the Eagles to retain the advantages of their shotgun looks while expanding their access to the other.
Their under-center expansion has significantly aided their passing game, especially against zone coverage. According to TruMedia, Hurts had a career-low -0.03 EPA per dropback through the first six games of the season. His EPA per dropback in that span was worse against zone coverage (-0.10). Hurts totaled seven under-center dropbacks in those games. He has since totaled 26 under-center dropbacks in eight games. He’s completed 16 of 26 passes for 293 yards and a touchdown, and his exceptionally high EPA per dropback (0.35) is even higher against zone coverage (0.45).
Hurts is on pace to nearly double his number of under-center dropbacks from 2024. He totaled only three in 2023. Patullo complimented Hurts’ approach in refining his under-center techniques — a process overseen by first-year quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler, who began his coaching career developing Tom Brady at Michigan. The uptick began in Week 7 against the Vikings, when Hurts was 4-of-4 passing on under-center plays for 121 yards and a 79-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith.
“He’s done a really good job,” Patullo said. “I mean, really, from when we kind of started doing this early in the season, working through the Vikings game, that was a big step for him. He works extremely hard at it. You can see him even in between periods, in between special teams stuff, whatever he needs to do. He’s working on his footwork, working on the timing. He’s extremely dedicated to make sure he’s always on time and in rhythm, and he’s working the under-center stuff because it is a little new. We’ve dabbled in it, obviously, in the past, but he’s doing a great job with it, and he works extremely hard at it, so it’s been great.”
The under-center passing game is essentially an extension of how the Eagles leverage their run game. All but two of Hurts’ under-center passes were paired with play-action. In the words of backup center Brett Toth, “the sell” offenses get from defenses from play-action when under-center is “massive.” Defensive linemen who are expecting a run have to transition to their pass rush techniques, and by then, offensive linemen have been afforded a head start on controlling them with their hands. Under-center presentations can also attract favorable defensive matchups and spacing in the field.
Eagles improve play-action under center
TypeEPA/TargetAir yards/TargetYards/Target
Under center
0.53
13.59
11.9
Shotgun
0.0
8.64
6.2
Pistol
0.39
5
8.4
The Eagles opened the second half against the Raiders with a 32-yard play-action strike to tight end Dallas Goedert. By deploying three tight ends, the Eagles invited the Raiders to field their linebacker-heavy base defensive package. Raiders safety Jeremy Chinn creeped to the line to assist against the run, which left Isaiah Pola-Mao alone deep in a single-high look. Goedert’s initial route up the seam, plus A.J. Brown’s shallow cross, kept the Raiders’ coverage defenders focused on the middle of the field, and Goedert then curled into the vacant space toward the sideline.
The explosive pass play contained all the elements Sirianni and Patullo covet in their playbook: good pass protection, clever routes and a threat that affords them an advantage. The Eagles had not yet succeeded running the ball in similar looks. Barkley had gained just five yards on their five previous under-center runs out of 13 personnel. Their commitment to the look eventually led to a huge drive-starter that produced a touchdown.
“We had a mindset, and we stuck to it,” Barkley said. “We didn’t let the defense dictate what we do, and you could feel it.”
The commitment continued and paid dividends in the run game. The Eagles again opened their next drive with an under-center 13 personnel look, and Barkley rushed 17 yards behind pulling blockers Landon Dickerson and Cameron Latu. Sirianni, who avoids extremes, was again reluctant to say committing to specific concepts yields sustained success. Still, he acknowledged Barkley’s perspective of knowing what you want to do and when to do it.
“There’s always things that you want to do with who you are and your identity,” Sirianni said. “Yes, you want to get these certain things done, you want to get these certain things in the plan, and there’s always a fine line of that.”
The Eagles did not abandon the shotgun portion of their playbook. They owed their success in the red zone to those plays. The Eagles struck the Raiders early with a series of shotgun runs in which a tight end motioned to the opposite side to assist with blocking, followed by a pulling guard after the snap. Then, to end their first possession on second-and-goal at the 4, the Eagles ran an RPO off that same blocking pattern to create a wide-open shovel pass touchdown to Goedert. The edge defender, Devin White, chased Barkley, and pulling guard Tyler Steen displaced linebacker Elandon Roberts, the only remaining second-level defender who posed a threat.
The Eagles are one game away from a playoff berth. They have the theoretical benefit of establishing the balance of their offensive identity while sharpening their under-center concepts in two regular-season games against the bottom-feeding Washington Commanders (4-10) that bookend a road game against the AFC-contending Buffalo Bills (10-4).
The Eagles simply will not be facing defenses as dismal as the Raiders’ in the postseason. They will not so easily secure an advantage along the line of scrimmage and therefore could very well run into the trouble they have so often faced this season in attempting to establish their run game. How much could their under-center looks help them then? And how do they complement their shotgun concepts? At the very least, the Eagles are pursuing more clean operations to help uncover answers before the postseason begins.
“Staying on track is really, really critical, and that obviously paid dividends on Sunday,” Patullo said.