Eagles' offense has nowhere to run

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - "I'm not talking about running the football," LeSean McCoy said, after it was over. "I don't even want to talk about that. Any other questions?"

And so we begin, with the disappearance of the Eagles' running game. Whether we talk about it or not, it is now officially a big problem.

On a day when the Eagles got two special-teams touchdowns and a third touchdown on an interception return, they still lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 26-21. A chance to start the season with a 4-0 record was squandered.

And here is the stat of the day: 12 carries, 22 yards.

After the game was over, coach Chip Kelly placed the blame on the patchwork offensive line, saying, "We got whupped up front." He said the problem was not with McCoy, that, "It was very tough sledding for anybody" in this game, and that, "Running the football is a cooperative deal. It's got to be everybody."

All of this is true. The reality, though, is that McCoy seems to be missing a touch of his customary explosiveness and a helping of his outrageous elusiveness. He has made his considerable professional reputation on his ability to turn nothing into something, on his greatest of escapes. Lately though, when he has gotten cornered, he has stayed cornered. It is very noticeable, and has been for a while now.

In this game, McCoy had 10 carries for 17 yards. Darren Sproles had one carry for 4 yards. Nick Foles had one carry for 1 yard. And because the running game and the rest of the offense could not get anything going, the defense was on the field for 42 minutes. And that was your ballgame.

"Embarrassing" was the word that McCoy used to describe the whole day. Why? "Just the way we played," he said. "We didn't score an offensive touchdown the whole game."

What was the absolute, unshakable strength of the offense in Kelly's first season has become an undependable, ineffective mess. McCoy appears to be a different player - Shady is a shadow of his former self - but it isn't only that. A big part of the problem is obviously injuries along the offensive line - how much do they miss center Jason Kelce? - but the truth is that defenses have now chosen to take away the Eagles' running game, daring them to win with their passing game, and the passing game has not been up to the task.

It raises questions about McCoy. It raises questions, too, about what the absence of deep threat DeSean Jackson means in this mosaic. And the thing is, it is just getting worse.

The first thing you wonder about is McCoy's health. Remember, he suffered from turf toe during training camp. He practices and seems fine, but when your game is defined by that explosion and those changes of direction, it is hard not to wonder. On top of that, there was the knock to the head that he took last week, and his brief removal from the game before being cleared to return.

So, is he healthy?

"It doesn't matter," McCoy said. "It doesn't matter if I'm healthy or not. You know, we've got to win games. I'm fine."

There was just enough crypticness in the answer to make you wonder. Take that, take the thrown-together offensive line, take Foles' consistent inability to hit people down the field this season, and the result is what we're seeing. If you can't run, you have to be able to throw the ball to open up the running game. There are a lot of moving parts here, and that needs to be acknowledged.

Whatever the reason, the Eagles did not run a play on the San Francisco side of the 50-yard line until the last 5 minutes of the game. At the end, they did get to the 49ers' 1-yard line but failed to score. It would have been miraculous had they pulled it off, frankly. That is how inept the offense had been for the first 55 minutes of the game.

"This sucks," McCoy said. "I thought we were going to win this game. We had it - so many plays we could have made and we didn't. It got late and I thought we were going to pull it off, like usual. Especially getting down there to, what, the 2-yard line?"

But notice: After McCoy ran the ball 5 yards to the 1-yard line, the third- and fourth-down plays were both passes, both incomplete. McCoy said he didn't know what defense the 49ers were playing and did not criticize the play calls. Kelly said he thought the 49ers were stacked against the run after McCoy "surprised" them on the 5-yard run.

But that is where they are right now, with defenses dictating to the Eagles. We did not see that last season.

The truth is that, no matter how much they have improved on special teams, and even acknowledging that the defense actually hung in OK against the 49ers, if the Eagles don't start running the ball, and soon, they cannot possibly be the team they hope to be.

"I guess we'll find out," McCoy said. "We'll watch the tape and we'll learn from this and move on."

Or not.

Blog: philly.com/DNL