The Eagles ran the ball the way they had to on Monday ... until they didn’t on the game’s most pivotal play

Let us be historically accurate at the start. The way the Eagles played on offense Monday night in losing to the Atlanta Falcons, 22-21, is a way they have played before. They haven’t wanted to play that way. When they have, they have done so out of necessity. But they have done it. They’ve even done it relatively recently. And they will have to do it for a substantial portion of this season.

What did they do?

They ran the ball.

What didn’t they do?

Put the game away.

» READ MORE: Eagles grades: Jalen Hurts solid until his game-ending interception, defensive line struggles vs. Falcons

Welcome to the blessing and the curse of the style of play that once was a staple of the NFL, that has been a rallying cry for every fan and analyst who raged against the pass-happy trends that have shaped the league for more than a quarter century. The Eagles ran the ball Monday night. Actually, they didn’t just run the ball. They ran the ball like a team that was built to run the ball, which is not the kind of team the Eagles have been in a long time. They ran the ball with Saquon Barkley, and they ran it with Jalen Hurts in a way that they had not since 2022, when Hurts’ running ability was the dynamic that set their offense apart and helped them reach the Super Bowl.

They ran the ball with Hurts for 85 yards on 13 attempts, on designed runs and scrambles, on plays when Hurts accelerated and cut like he hadn’t in more than a year, when he had a gear that for whatever reason he never appeared to have last season. “Some things turn on when they need to,” Hurts said. “Wasn’t enough to get the win.”

They ran the ball with Barkley for 95 yards on 22 carries, and Hurts threw the ball to him for four completions on passes that were like runs, swings and screens, and every time Barkley touched the ball, what stood out most was his understanding that reaching the first-down marker should be his highest priority. Don’t fake and juke if you don’t have to. Don’t try to hit a home run. Just do whatever you have to do to get your team another four downs.

He did everything right, until he didn’t. We’ll get to that.

The Eagles ran the ball 10 times on the drive that should have won them the game, a 17-play, 70-yard march that ate up more than 9½ minutes of clock and that ended with Hurts scoring on a quarterback sneak from the Falcons’ 1-yard line with under 7 minutes to play. It was the kind of drive that demoralizes an opponent, and the Falcons were demoralized. Their defensive players were exhausted, and they still were exhausted when the Eagles got the ball back late and moved to the Atlanta 10.

If anything, the Eagles should have run the ball more. They called a third-down pass in the flat to Barkley, and he dropped it, stopping the clock, and allowing the Falcons, who were out of timeouts, to get the ball back with 1:39 left in regulation. “I trust him every day of the week to make a play,” Hurts said. But Barkley did not make that play, and there was no need to throw the ball in that situation. The Falcons no longer were the Eagles’ opponent. The clock was. And those 99 seconds that remained were plenty of time for Kirk Cousins to pick apart Vic Fangio’s defense, to sit back there unbothered by the Eagles’ pass rush — I know, what pass rush? — connect on five quick passes, and finish off the Eagles by finding Drake London for a 7-yard TD with 34 seconds to go.

The Eagles ran the ball this way Monday because they had to, because A.J. Brown was out of the lineup because of a hamstring injury, and they’re going to have to keep running the ball this way as long as Brown isn’t available. He’s their best offensive player, maybe their most important one, and his absence Monday laid bare the Eagles’ lack of depth. Barkley, Hurts, and DeVonta Smith accounted for 277 of the Eagles’ 365 yards of total offense. That’s 76%. That’s too much. But if Hurts is going to continue ignoring Dallas Goedert in the middle of the field and if Kellen Moore is going to continue calling red-zone screen passes to Britain Covey, then Barkley and Smith had better buck up and keep the oxygen tank handy on the sideline.

The Eagles ran the ball this way in 2021, when Hurts’ best attributes were his speed and power and elusiveness as a runner, when they had four tailbacks — Miles Sanders, Jordan Howard, Boston Scott, and Kenneth Gainwell — who were productive ballcarriers when Smith as a rookie was their best wide receiver and no one else was close. But the Eagles didn’t want to run the ball that way in 2021, and we know this because they spent the first seven games of that season not running the ball that way. They had Hurts throw the ball a ton because they believed, and still do, that throwing the ball is the easiest way to pile up points, and running the ball usually leads to lower-scoring games.

Well, three years later, here they are. They lost a relatively low-scoring game despite playing the way they had to play. “That’s how close games are,” coach Nick Sirianni said. “It comes down to a couple of plays.” Without Brown, without his explosiveness, they will have to play this way again. They can win this way. It won’t be easy, but they can. They should have already. They have no one to blame but themselves.