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The Eagles offense has sputtered to start every game. Kellen Moore aims to tune it up.

The offensive coordinator has a chance to dig deep into the problem during the bye week. Getting Saquon Barkley more involved is a must.

Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has seen the Eagles' attack go nowhere on the first drives of their four games.
Offensive coordinator Kellen Moore has seen the Eagles' attack go nowhere on the first drives of their four games. Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

The bye week doesn’t only afford time for A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Lane Johnson to get healthy and help the Eagles offense return to full strength for the first time since Week 1.

For Kellen Moore, the lull in the schedule allows him to dive into what hasn’t been working for the offense through the first four games. Among those areas of concern are the offense’s slow starts in games, a trend that continued in the Eagles’ 33-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.

For the fourth straight week, the Eagles failed to score in the first quarter, making them the only team in the league that has not done so this season. Their opening possessions have been abysmal — the Eagles have picked up one first down on four opening drives. The unit falls behind the sticks on every drive, putting itself in third-and-10 (or more) at least once on every opening possession. The Eagles have recorded just 12 net yards of offense on 13 plays total.

Week 4 actually was the Eagles’ second-most productive first possession of the season, when the group racked up a whopping 7 net yards of offense before a false-start penalty on the fourth-down punt wiped 5 yards off that total.

Moore, the team’s first-year offensive coordinator, took the blame for the Eagles’ slow start on Sunday, acknowledging that he has to put the team in a better position to be successful early in the game. In doing that, the Eagles can avoid playing from behind and stay in a “balanced attack” throughout the contest, he says.

“The first drive really is a great growth opportunity for us coming out of this bye week,” Moore said Tuesday. “We haven’t been successful in four weeks. Doesn’t mean we have to follow that trend moving forward. We can find our solutions and our better way to handle this.”

Moore said his general goal with the opening script is about identifying the defense and getting touches for his key players. One of the Eagles’ best skill players, Saquon Barkley, has touched the ball just twice on the four opening drives — one run for no gain against the Buccaneers and his slip in the backfield against the Green Bay Packers that lost 5 yards.

» READ MORE: Bad playing, bad coaching, and what comes next: Eagles DC Vic Fangio assesses damage from Sunday’s loss

Jalen Hurts fell short of an opportunity to get the ball in Barkley’s hands for what could have been a catch-and-run touchdown on Sunday. On the first play of the game, the running back ran a wheel route and got into scramble mode when he saw that Hurts escaped the pocket by rolling out to his right. Barkley separated from outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka down the right sideline, but Hurts lofted the ball out of bounds.

“Those are challenging situations where you’re rolling out and there’s a big-play potential opportunity,” Moore said. “But from a QB’s vision standpoint, obviously we can see it from a wide camera angle and see that he’s open. But kind of hard to see if you can identify where the safety’s at as the throw goes.

“So it ended up out of bounds, unfortunately. Not the end of the world. Obviously, we’ve got great opportunities to grow past that.”

By going three-and-out on three straight drives to start Sunday’s game and falling behind by 24-0 in the second quarter, Moore abandoned the running game more than he had in previous contests. The Eagles ran the ball only 20 times, their lowest number of attempts in a game this season. Barkley finished the day with just 12 touches for 116 yards from scrimmage, making it his least-involved game as an Eagle.

It didn’t help the running game’s case that the offense was only on the field for 9 minutes, 46 seconds in the first half compared to the Buccaneers’ 20:14.

“[You] put yourself in a really challenging situation where you’re going to have to play catch-up ball for the rest of the game,” Moore said. “You still don’t want to lose the run game. You still want to try and keep it alive. Obviously, certainly, we’ve got to get [Barkley] more touches in those situations.”

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Nick Sirianni says he’s not worried about his job status after loss to Buccaneers

While the Eagles’ opening scripts have left a lot to be desired, Moore acknowledged that their second-half starts have been much better. The Eagles have scored 17 points (two touchdowns and a field goal) on their opening drives of the second half. That total includes Hurts’ Tush Push touchdown against the Bucs, an opportunity that was preceded by Barkley’s 59-yard gain on the first play of the drive.

The Eagles are averaging 6.5 points per third quarter, which is tied for sixth in the league. The challenge for Moore going forward is figuring out how to get into a rhythm earlier in the contest rather than depending on late-game efforts.

“This is a really fun task for us to navigate and just find a way to get going sooner, get going quicker, because there are moments coming out of second halves, we’ve had successful drives, just coming out of it,” Moore said. “But we’ve obviously got to start faster. And so that’s a big focus for us, just to continue to evaluate that and find our way.”