Philadelphia Eagles secondary is no worse than its offense

The struggles of the 2019 Philadelphia Eagles are being almost entirely blamed on a poor secondary. In reality, their issues run much deeper than that.

Seemingly, anywhere you look over the past month and a half you’ll see some kind of think piece or critical analysis of the Philadelphia Eagles secondary. From the hysteria surrounding what’s been seen as a miss by Howie Roseman with Philly’s inability to sign Jalen Ramsey to the absolute domination the team absorbed against the Minnesota Vikings just last week, the Eagles secondary has been the media’s go-to straw man to burn.

In reality, the Eagles’ secondary issues are just the tip of the iceberg, but they don’t mask the team’s deep-seated issues, the ones on offense.

The Eagles offense currently ranks 20th in the league in yards per game and ninth in points per game. These seem like marginally decent numbers until you look a bit closer. This team has been borderline impotent in over half of their games so far this season.

In four of six contests, the Eagles offense has mustered first-half point totals of seven, six, and ten two times. They went on to lose three of those games. The lone win was a narrowly defeat of the Washington Redskins in Week 1 to earn their first win of the season.

NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Reuben Frank summed up the team’s offensive struggles simply.

The Eagles three losses have each been attributable to dropped passes by receivers, namely Nelson Agholar and JJ Arcega-Whiteside, and the poor play of the secondary. While these factors certainly didn’t help them, it can’t be overstated how bad this team looked in the first half of games. It’s tough to consistently ask a depleted group of defensive backs to win a game when the offense is letting them down on a regular basis.

Standout stars like Zach Ertz and Alshon Jeffery haven’t made nearly the impact expected of them through six weeks of action, and that ripple effect has traveled down to nearly every skill player on the roster. Even with Desean Jackson sidelined, both Ertz and Jeffery have been middling at best, with Ertz scoring his first touchdown of the season in Week 5’s contest against the New York Jets.

BleedingGreenNation took to Twitter to express their frustration at the teams’ imbalance during last week’s game.

Eagles fans saw a similarly slow offense throughout the 2018 season, and it’s a reminder of how badly this team misses Frank Reich as the offensive coordinator. Mike Groh was already on the hot seat towards the end of last season before Nick Foles took the Eagles on another miracle run. This year he’s been bailed out by animosity leveled at Jim Schwartz. That single-minded mentality cannot continue, and this offense needs to be held accountable for its role in the teams’ struggles if the Eagles hope to improve.