Here we go again with another week about the conversation of the Philadelphia Eagles taking their foot off the pedal at the end of a game.
The Eagles' offense only had 16 yards on 18 plays in the second half as they escaped New York with a 13-12 win over the Buffalo Bills. Philly's offense finished with 190 total yards, one of the unit's worst performances of the season, as the defense had to carry the team to a win.
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni probably felt like a broken record as he had to address the fact that he believes the offense did not take its foot off the pedal.
"We were never in the mode of saying, '13-0 is enough.' Not against this QB, not against this offense. So I don't think our mindset was ever (to be conservative). But I got to do a better job in that scenario, and I'll put that on myself."
Sirianni is having trouble convicing anyone that the offense doesn't slow down in the second half
This has been happening all season where the Eagles will get off to a two-possession or more lead and the defense gets tired at the end and starts allowing the opponents to come back in the game. The Eagles' offense is the exact same in the second of every one of those games.
Their drives start with runs on first and second down, which is expected from the defense because Philly is trying to kill the clock, so more guys are in the box. This leads to the most significant problem the Eagles' offense has with third-and-long conversions and not being able to convert time.
On four of the five second-half drives for the Eagles against the Bills, they started with two straight runs. What's the problem here? Once again, Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo is way too predictable about the play calls.
Patullo might get the slimmest of passes since the rain was bad in Buffalo, but that didn't stop him from throwing three straight passes to start the game on the opening drive when he should have been running it. Philly can't do anything offensively to scare defenses or catch them off guard because they know what's coming.
Read more: Nick Sirianni's NSFW message after Eagles win over Bills was Philly poetry
The Eagles fan base is never going to see Patullo change his ways, and this offense could be the thing that destroys this team in the postseason because they are conservative in the worst moments and aggressive at the oddest points of a game. Nothing can go smoothly for this offense, so Sirianni won't be able to convince the fan base that they took their foot off the pedal. They certainly did.