Kevin Patullo explains why Eagles offense sputtered early vs. Rams but says adjustments got the job done

The book on the Eagles had a little bit of a Charles Dickens flair on Sunday. Best of times, worst of times, and so on. The Eagles rallied from a 19-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Rams after the offense was stuck in the mud in the first half.

“It was a tale of two halves, for sure,” first-year offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said Tuesday. “I think when we look back at the game we were able to kind of make the adjustments we needed to to get it going in the second half. When you get in those moments, you do what [you’ve] got to do to get it done.”

So, what happened?

Patullo didn’t seem to agree with A.J. Brown’s classification of the first-half play calling seeming too conservative at times, or the “playing not to lose” description Jalen Hurts gave Fox’s Pam Oliver during his on-field postgame interview. Conservative, Patullo said, was not the right word.

“When those things happen — like, we went three-and-out, obviously, a few times — you look at, OK, where was the drive starting?" Patullo said. “What was the breakdown on the play? What happened? How do we stop this? How do we get out of this?”

The Eagles, Patullo said, talked leading up to the Rams game about wanting to be the aggressor, about wanting to be in “attack mode.” The first drive showed that, Patullo said. After Zack Baun’s interception, the Eagles scored on a nine-play, 38-yard drive. As Patullo pointed out, they went for a fourth down and then immediately attempted a pass into the end zone on the next play from the 2-yard line, drawing a pass-interference call. They were attacking.

But the next drive, with star right tackle Lane Johnson out of the game, started at their own 20-yard line, and Jalen Hurts was sacked on second down following a first-down incompletion, forcing a third-and-long situation. The next drive started at the 19-yard line with another incompletion, a 2-yard Saquon Barkley run, and then another sack. The fourth drive’s starting point was even worse, at the 9-yard line. You get the point there, and there will be more on the starting field position later.

“We got stuck in those weird situations where we just couldn’t get it out of there and get it going,” Patullo said.

» READ MORE: What we know (and don’t) about the Eagles entering Week 4 vs. the Bucs

The postgame comments from Brown and Hurts weren’t the only feedback loop. Patullo said post-drive communication is a pretty standard routine. He looks at images with other coaches, then chats with Hurts about what happened and what’s next before making his way down the bench, checking in with the receivers, then Barkley and the backs, then ending with the offensive line.

There was one interaction in particular with Patullo, Hurts, and running backs coach Jemal Singleton that was caught by television cameras and showed what looked to be an animated Hurts late in the third quarter after the Eagles had cut a 26-7 deficit to 26-21. Patullo said it wasn’t a “serious matter.”

“It wasn’t really anything about anything that was a heated moment,” Patullo said. “It was just a play that happened and I don’t even remember, to be honest, what we were talking about.”

The Eagles, of course, are 3-0. They have the league’s best red-zone offense so far and are fifth in the NFL in points per drive. But the passing game has at times looked a little sleepy and conservative, and opposing defenses have made things quite difficult for Barkley, whose yards-per-carry average through three games is just 3.3. Adjustments will be needed.

“When you look at it, even through the first three games, we’ve played three different ways,” Patullo said. “We’ve won three different ways. We’ve had to make adjustments three different ways. That’s a good thing for us as an offense because you don’t know what you’re getting nowadays. You show up, you think you’re going to get a certain thing in the first half and all of the sudden you look and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s not what we saw on tape at all.’ So we’ve got to adjust as coaches quickly. This game was more of we’re stuck in neutral and then we had to adjust in a different way because of the points and we were able to do that.”

So far, so good. Or, rather, just good enough. The tune may be a little different if not for blocked field goal heroics. Next up is a blitz-happy Tampa Bay team that has given the Eagles fits, and the Eagles’ plan, and their ability to make in-game adjustments, should be rather telling.

While special teams won the Eagles the game thanks to two blocked field goals, they also were a reason for the offense’s early struggles, with Patullo and Nick Sirianni both pointing to poor field position as one of the issues.

How did the Eagles get into such bad field position? Joshua Karty’s launch angle on his field goals might need work, but his knuckleball kickoff seems to be perfected. The Eagles knew it was coming, but they were still flustered by it. It was hard to simulate in practice last week.

Tank Bigsby, who was brought in in part because of his kickoff-return skills, and John Metchie both muffed kicks, and their mistakes cost the Eagles precious field position. Four of their drives started inside the 15-yard line.

Special teams coordinator Michael Clay said he was watching film Monday with Eagles kicker Jake Elliott and punter Braden Mann, and they had a zoomed-in look on what Karty was doing.

“How do you replicate that?” Clay asked. “Because just like anything else in the NFL, until you prove you can stop it, you’re going to see it again.”

So far, Buccaneers kicker Chase McLaughlin hasn’t shown a knuckleball like Karty’s. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have one, Clay said.

There will be talks in special teams meetings this week about playing those bounces like a shortstop. The Eagles, meanwhile, got another player Monday capable of returning kicks when they claimed Xavier Gipson off waivers.

The Eagles continue to share safety snaps between Sydney Brown and Drew Mukuba. Brown gets the base defense looks and Mukuba gets the rest. The platoon is heavily favored toward Mukuba, who is seeing 79% of the defensive snaps.

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio doesn’t have a ton of experience alternating like this. The Eagles did it, Fangio said, because Mukuba was coming off an injury at the end of camp and Brown had a good summer.

“We just wanted to split it that way and we’ve kind of kept it that way,” Fangio said. “But that doesn’t mean that’s the way it will be all the time.”

As for the cornerback spot opposite Quinyon Mitchell, a hot topic for much of the summer and into Week 2, Adoree’ Jackson had another solid game Sunday.

But Fangio was asked Tuesday about the corners further down the depth chart, Kelee Ringo and Mac McWilliams, and seemed to go out of his way to praise Ringo.

“I’ve told Kelee here recently … He’s going to get his opportunity at some point, and he’s got to be ready," Fangio said.

“I think he’s handled it very well. It hasn’t affected his role as a special teamer, which he’s one of the top ones in the league, and I think he knows eventually he’ll get his shot for some reason whatsoever. He’ll be ready.”