Eagles star Lane Johnson on offensive struggles: ‘We are a constipated offense’
Five games into their 2024 season, the Philadelphia Eagles rank just 18th in points per game. They’re 14th in yards per play, 20th in the share of drives ending in a touchdown or field goal, 27th in the share of drives ending in a turnover, 18th in third-down conversion rate and 27th in red-zone touchdown rate. It’s a far cry from where their offense was just two years ago, when they took the league by storm and made a run to the Super Bowl.
And star right tackle Lane Johnson is frustrated with the team’s progress. He went off following the team’s too-close victory over the hapless Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
“We’re a constipated offense is what it bleeping comes down to,” Johnson said, via NJ.com. “It seems like that a lot. We’re definitely frustrated. We have a lot of ability, a lot of talent and we are making games a lot more competitive than they need to be. We’ve got to fix it. As far as talent-wise, this is one of the more loaded offenses I’ve been a part of.”
During the game, the boo birds rang down from the Lincoln Financial Field stands, and Johnson understood where the fans were coming from.
“I’d be doing the same thing,” Johnson said. “They’re tired of seeing offenses that aren’t efficient, especially in the first half. We’re really putting ourselves in bad positions. Our first quarter hasn’t been our strong point. We’ve talked about it, but moving forward, we’ve got to go prove it.”
Head coach Nick Sirianni, on the other hand, took an opposite approach. He instead admonished the fans for being frustrated with the product they’re seeing on the field.
“We thrive off the crowd when they cheer for us,” Sirianni said. “That’s all I’ll say. When our crowd cheers for us, we thrive off of them. You know, we hear them when they boo. We don’t necessarily like it. I don’t think that’s productive for anybody. When they cheer for us, and we’ve got them rolling, we love it.”
Sirianni could be seen on the sideline toward the end of the game taunting his own home crowd, which is presumably as unproductive as the fans booing the team out of frustration. If Philly can gets its only-recently-high-flying offense going more consistently, perhaps those types of issues will alleviate themselves. Until then, the fans — and the players — will likely remain frustrated.
