Moving On

by Marc Narducci | Feb 27, 2025
Moving On
The Eagles were struggling to open the football season, having gone 2-2 in the first four games with losses to Atlanta and Tampa Bay.

The sky was falling for the team, so it seemed, but an early bye week seemed to be the best medicine.

After the bye, the Eagles would reel off 10 consecutive wins and eventually finish with a 14-3 record.

Of course, they then won four playoff games, culminated by a 40-22 thumping of the two-time defending NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs for the second Super Bowl triumph in team history.

One of the reasons for the turnaround was a change in offensive philosophy, led by offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

Others obviously noticed.

Shortly after the Super Bowl, Moore was hired as the head coach of the New Orleans Saints following his only season with the Eagles.

The Eagles replaced Moore with Kevin Patullo. In 2021 Patullo joined the Eagles as passing game coordinator and added the title of associate head coach in 2023.

Prior to that, he was an assistant with the Indianapolis Colts, where he coached with Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni.

The Eagles expect the offense to be just as explosive under Patullo and with good reason.

With arguably the top tackle tandem in Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson heading and elite offensive line, Super Bowl MVP quarterback Jalen Hurt, 2,000-yard rusher Saquon Barkley, underrated tight end Dallas Goedert and an outstanding receiver tandem of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, there is every reason to expect the Eagles to remain explosive.

That said, the Eagles will miss Moore whose best contribution was his ability to adjust early in the season and finally in the Super Bowl.

Before coming to the Eagles, Moore spent the 2018 season as the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterbacks coach and then served as the offensive coordinator the next four seasons.

He then spent the 2023 season as the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers before coming to Philadelphia.

A standout quarterback at Boise State, Moore spent a few seasons in the NFL as a quarterback, appearing in a total of three games for Dallas in 2015.

As a coordinator he was always pass-happy, no doubt due to his days of slinging it at Boise State. During his four college seasons, he threw for 14,667 yards and 142 touchdowns.

Yet Moore saw that the Eagles were struggling for consistency during the first four games so they instantly became a running team.

Actually, the transformation began in the sixth game of the season in a 28-3 win over the New York Giants, when the Eagles rushed for 269 yards and passed for 70. Counting that game, the Eagles would rush for more yards in nine of the remaining 12 games through the regular season finale.

Then in the first two playoff wins over Green Bay and the Los Angeles Rams, the Eagles rushed for 454 yards and passed for 186.

The stats were almost identical in the Eagles’ 55-23 NFC title game over Washington. In that game the Eagles threw for 230 yards and ran for 229.

Moore showed his flexibility in the Super Bowl, where the Kansas City Chiefs were intent on stopping Barclay, daring the Eagles to pass.

The Eagles obliged. Hurts went 17 for 22 for 221 yards and two touchdowns.

No, the Eagles didn’t abandon the running game, with 45 rushing attempts for 135 yards and a touchdown, but they made KC pay for its defensive strategy of going all-out to stop the run, as Hurts torched the Chiefs’ secondary.


Author: Marc Narducci

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