Eagles offensive coordinator Mike Groh doesn’t need to get defensive about the Eagles offense. He just needs to help fix it. | Mike Sielski

Twice in those crucial closing moments of an inexcusable loss Sunday, Carson Wentz had walked off the field at Nissan Stadium angry over missed opportunities.

A game-tying field goal in the fourth quarter and a go-ahead field goal in overtime had given the Eagles a chance to beat the Titans. But a touchdown in either situation would have won the game then and there, and the Eagles' defensive haplessness on that final Titans drive – the three fourth-down conversions, the TD pass from Marcus Mariota to Corey Davis, the 26-23 Tennessee victory – would have never happened.

These are the Super Bowl-champion Eagles. They are supposed to be daring and fearless and score touchdowns in the red zone. They are not supposed to play it safe and run the ball on third down from an opponent's 10-yard line with 11 seconds left in the first half and a timeout remaining, as they did Sunday. They are not supposed to be content with tying a game or taking a three-point lead when a trip to the end zone means an immediate and happy trip home to Philadelphia, and Wentz made it clear he wasn't content.

"I was just frustrated," he said. "I wanted to win the game. I didn't want to settle for a field goal. I didn't want to settle for overtime."

So there was the star quarterback, quick to frame those field goals as failures, and surely the Eagles' offensive coordinator, Mike Groh, felt the same way. So Groh was asked Tuesday: What went wrong on those two possessions?

"I thought we took the lead," he said. "We did take the lead. We did go down and score points and put ourselves in a position to win."

>> READ MORE: Lane Johnson agrees, the Eagles' line was offensive against Titans

He delivered that response with a tinge of snide defiance, as if no one had cause to question Doug Pederson's play selection or Groh's contributions to those calls. But of all the members of the Eagles' offensive unit, the man in his first season coordinating it – or coordinating any NFL offense, for that matter – has less reason than anyone to be miffed over any doubts or second-guesses.

After a season in which they scored at least 26 points in 14 of their 19 games, at a time when the mainstreaming of spread-formation concepts and an increased emphasis on protecting quarterbacks have helped NFL offenses fly higher than ever, the Eagles haven't scored more than 23 in a game this season. Yes, the injuries to Wentz, Alshon Jeffery, Darren Sproles, and Corey Clement certainly are mitigating factors, but they don't change the truth of the moment: Groh might need time to grow into the job – time that the Eagles, just 2-2 ahead of this Sunday's game against the down and desperate Minnesota Vikings, might not have.

Remember: Groh's predecessor, Frank Reich, had been an NFL offensive coordinator earlier in his career, with the Chargers, and was a trusted adviser to Pederson in their two years together here. In particular, Reich wielded more power with Pederson whenever the Eagles were in their two-minute offense, suggesting certain plays, recommending against others. Based on what Groh said Tuesday, he apparently doesn't have that kind of influence yet, and the Eagles' performance in the red zone Sunday – they scored one touchdown in four trips there – suggests Pederson would benefit from that voice in his ear.

"Coach and I talked before the game about all the situations over the course of the week, just like we do as an entire staff," Groh said. "We're not there to second-guess calls or anything like that. We're going to go with the play that's called and execute and get ready to call the next one."

Provided Wentz is healthy enough to run the play, of course. Already this season, the Eagles' offensive line has given up 34 quarterback hits, the second-highest total in the league, on Wentz and Nick Foles. The Titans sacked Wentz four times in a game in which he dropped back 54 times, and they got their cleanest shots in on him on a couple of designed naked bootlegs. It seemed, someone said to Groh, an adventure out there.

>> READ MORE: More on Avonte Maddox's role, run-pass ratio, and Chris Long's salary | Early Birds

"Those are your words. I wouldn't say that," Groh said. "We've got as good an offensive line as there is in the league, and [I] wouldn't trade any of those guys. The guys on the other side, they do a lot of studying, too, and they work hard. They had a couple good pressures. They have a good pressure scheme. We knew that going into the game. They do a good job picking the offensive linemen up front, knocking guys off their games, and making it difficult [on] pass games and getting on edges. A couple instances, that happened."

It cannot keep happening. For all the rightful criticism that has been piled on Jim Schwartz's defense for surrendering a combined 53 points in the Tampa Bay and Tennessee losses, the Eagles didn't beat Matt Ryan or Andrew Luck in a shootout. Their defense won them those games. Their offense hasn't done yet what it's supposed to do. Wentz is back and looked excellent against the Titans. Jeffery is back and looked better. The excuses are running out, and the time for kissing anyone's ring, let alone a first-year offensive coordinator's, is over.