Eagles' offense dropping ball in red-zone situations

THERE ARE a ton of statistical reasons why the Eagles shouldn't be 5-1 right now.

Start with a quarterback who is 28th in the league in passing, 29th in interception percentage, 29th in completion percentage and 27th in yards per attempt.

Move on to a defense that is 23rd against the run and is on pace to give up a franchise-record number of touchdown passes.

This a team with the fifth-worst turnover differential in the league and the third-most number of giveaways. Their star running back was averaging just 2.9 yards per carry until the Giants came along wearing a red suit and black boots.

Yes, they are third in the league in scoring. But take away the seven touchdowns scored by the defense and special teams and they drop to 18th. Just nine teams have scored fewer offensive touchdowns.

But the biggest reason why the Eagles shouldn't be 5-1 right now is this number - 40.

That' the Eagles' touchdown percentage in the red zone this season.

Forty percent.

Twenty trips in, eight measly touchdowns out. No team in the league has been less productive inside the 20.

In the previous 10 seasons, just 25 teams have finished with a red-zone touchdown percentage of 40 percent or lower. Just one of those 25 - the 2007 Tennessee Titans - finished with a winning record. Just one of those 25 - the Titans - made the playoffs. The combined record of those 25 teams: 119-218.

Chip Kelly knows his team has to do better in the red zone. He knows that 5-1 could quickly become 5-5 if it doesn't.

"We've got some open receivers and we've got to put the ball on them," the Eagles coach said, meaning his quarterback, Nick Foles, needs to be more accurate inside the 20, as well as everywhere else for that matter.

"We've had a couple of drops when we've been in the red zone. It hasn't been one thing. It's a lot of different things. And then sometimes, you get a zone popped on you when you were hoping it was man. So we've got to do a better job of play-calling [in the red zone] too.

"There are a lot of different little teeny things that we need to continue to work on in terms of how people are approaching us down there and how we're approaching it down there."

The red-zone disease hardly is terminal. In their first eight games last year, the Eagles were even more impotent inside the 20 than they are this year. Converted just nine of 24 red-zone trips into touchdowns (37.5 percent).

Then the light went on. They converted 21 of their final 33 red-zone opportunities and finished a middle-of-the-pack 18th (52.6 percent). The Eagles won seven of their final eight games and made the playoffs.

Foles finished with the second-best red-zone passer rating (119.6) in the league last year. Had a 67.6 red-zone completion percentage. Threw 15 touchdown passes and no interceptions inside the 20. None.

Through the first six games this season, Foles hasn't been nearly as effective. He has a 69.4 red-zone passer rating, including a sickly 45.7 completion percentage. His passer rating is the lowest in the league among quarterbacks with at least 20 red-zone pass attempts.

He is one of just two quarterbacks with two interceptions in the red zone. The other one, ironically enough, is the Cowboys' Tony Romo. But Romo has twice as many touchdown passes in the red zone (10 to Foles' five) and a 60.7 completion percentage.

The Eagles' running game in the red zone also has been largely ineffective. LeSean McCoy has gained just 24 yards on 18 carries inside the 20. His 1.33-yard red-zone rushing average is the second lowest in the league among running backs with at least eight red-zone carries.

"We spent a lot of time last week [during the bye] looking at situational football," said offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. "We looked at what we'd done in the red zone and on third down.

"A lot of it comes down to not one common theme. We like to run the ball in the red zone, as you know. We try to stay balanced in terms of whether we're running or throwing it. We just need to be sounder and execute better in most situations."

* The Eagles are 21st in rushing percentage this season. They have run the ball on 40.5 percent of their offensive plays (166 of 410) in the first six games. They were sixth last year at 47.4 (500 of 1,054). They are averaging nearly four fewer rushing attempts per game this year (27.6) than they did last season (31.2).

* The Eagles haven't blitzed as much as the Cardinals this season (41.1% to 32.6%). But they've actually been more effective than Arizona when sending extra rushers. The Eagles' opponent passer rating when they've blitzed is 73.7. The Cardinals' is 91.5. A look at the opponent passing numbers of both teams against the blitz:

C-A Yds TD/I Sk. Rat.

Eagles 42-83 386 5/2 6 73.7

Cards 58-93 817 4/3 4 91.5

* Nick Foles lined up under center for a season-high 22 of the Eagles' 71 offensive snaps in their 27-0, Week 6 win over the Giants. When asked about it earlier this week, Shurmur said, "Actually, we do it more than you think." Actually, they don't. In the Eagles' first five games, Foles lined up under center for just 32 of 341 snaps, or 9.4 percent of the time. He did it 13 times in the season-opener against Jacksonville, then just 19 times in the next four games. According to center David Molk, they decided to do it against the Giants largely to disguise which direction they were running the ball. "We didn't want them to know where we were going," Molk said. "If we were in the 'gun, they had a key on which way we were going to run the ball and how we were going to run the ball. With Nick under center, there's a little more indecision [by the defense], which is good for us." LeSean McCoy, who rushed for a season-high 149 yards on 22 carries, picked up 75 of those yards on 13 carries with Foles under center. Foles was 3-for-5 for 76 yards and a touchdown [his 26-yarder to James Casey] when he lined up under center.

* The Eagles are eighth in the league in average opponent field position (25.5). Fifty-one of their opponents' 84 possessions have started at no better than the 20-yard line. Just eight have started on the Eagles' side of the 50.

Periodically during the season, we will check in with an NFL scout to get his thoughts on some of the top 2015 draft prospects. Today, an NFC personnel executive evaluates four of the top quarterback prospects - Oregon's Marcus Mariota, UCLA's Brett Hundley, Baylor's Bryce Petty and Oregon State's Sean Mannion:

MARIOTA

Hgt.: 6-4 Wgt.: 219

Cmp. Yds. TD

Pct. /Att. /Int.

2014. . . 70.2 10.40 19/0

Scout: "He's the real deal. Prototypical size, strength and accuracy. Ability to run with the ball. Has an above-average arm. There aren't a lot of negatives that I can see. Even in their loss to Arizona, he didn't play all that bad.

"He's not a vocal leader. He's not a yeller or screamer. But I don't think that's a negative. He's sure passionate enough.

"I would be very surprised if he failed [in the NFL]. Will he be Aaron Rodgers or Peyton Manning or Tom Brady? We won't know that until he plays. But I don't think he's going to be Josh Freeman or Tim Couch or Joe Harrington."

Overview: "It's early in the process, and I haven't seen a lot of guys yet. But right now, he'd be my No. 1 player [in the draft]."

HUNDLEY

Hgt.: 6-3 Wgt.: 227

Cmp. Yds. TD

Pct. /Att. /Int.

2014. . . 72.5 9.10 13/4

Scout: "He's more of a runner than a thrower. One look and then run. He's going to have to learn how to go through his progressions. But he has athletic ability. He has an arm. He can make throws, though he's not nearly as accurate as Mariota.

"He competes. He has talent. But he pulls it down too quick for my liking. You don't know what he's being taught [at UCLA]. Maybe he's being taught that because he's such an explosive runner.

"But when a kid has success doing that, that's a hard habit to break. Case in point: Michael Vick. I'm not saying it can't be done. But it's hard to break."

Overview: "I wouldn't [take him in the first round]. But that's me. You might find five other guys who will say yeah. But I wouldn't."

PETTY

Hgt.: 6-3 Wgt.: 230

Cmp. Yds. TD

Pct. /Att. /Int.

2014. . . 54.7 8.21 17/3

Scout: "I like Petty. He's big, strong, athletic. The thing that bothers me is he has not been as accurate this year as he was last year. I don't know why. He did get a transverse process [injury] in his back the first or second game of the year. So I don't know how much that's affecting his throwing motion. He has kind of a lengthy throwing motion.

"He's got mobility. He's not the runner Hundley is. But he can make yards with his feet."

Overview: "I would take him before Hundley. Not sure if he's a first-rounder. But if I'm in the bottom of the first round and I'm looking for a young quarterback to groom, maybe."

MANNION

Hgt.: 6-5 Wgt.: 227

Cmp. Yds. TD

Pct. /Att. /Int.

2014. . . 63.5 7.20 7/5

Scout: "I like Mannion, but two things bother me about him. For starters, he doesn't have anybody to throw to this year. Brandin Cooks is gone. His receivers can't get open. So his accuracy is down. His completion percentage is down.

"Last year, Cooks helped everybody. And the year before, Mannion had [Markus] Wheaton. But he's big and he's strong. He's not mobile, which I don't like. And he's got to tighten up his delivery. He's got a long delivery."

Overview: "Right now, I'd say late-second, early-third round."

* With C.J. Spiller on short-term IR with a broken clavicle and Fred Jackson out for at least a month with a groin injury, ex-Eagle Bryce Brown finally is going to get an opportunity to play for the Bills this week. Brown, who was traded to the Bills in May for a conditional draft pick, has yet to play a regular-season down. He's been a game-day inactive every week. But with Spiller and Jackson out, he'll share the ballcarrying duties with Anthony Dixon. "My main thing is really just to get in, learn the game plan and pick up where those guys left off," Brown said. "It's an opportunity and I'm looking forward to it." Brown, a seventh-round pick by the Eagles in 2012, grabbed people's attention as a rookie when he filled in for injured LeSean McCoy and rushed for 347 yards in back-to-back games against Carolina and Dallas. But he averaged just 1.9 yards per carry the rest of the season and had four fumbles in 115 attempts. In Chip Kelly's offense last year, he had just 75 carries.

* The conditional draft pick the Eagles received for Brown will either be a fourth-round pick in next year's draft or a third-rounder in 2016. But it isn't tied to Brown. It's tied to wide receiver Stevie Johnson, who the Bills traded to San Francisco the day before they acquired Brown. The Bills got the pick they traded to the Eagles in the Johnson deal. According to a league source, the conditional pick is based on Johnson's 2014 receiving yards. The Eagles will receive a third-round pick in '16 if Johnson finishes with 1,200 receiving yards. If he doesn't, they'll get a fourth-rounder next year. Put your money on the '15 fourth-rounder. Johnson has just 315 receiving yards in seven games.

* In late September, SI.com's Peter King reported that the Eagles were a prime candidate to play in London next season as part of the NFL's International Series. If they are, it's news to the Eagles. "Nothing's been said, hinted or suggested," club president Don Smolenski said this week. "A long time ago when they were talking about playing games over there, I thought we might be a candidate to be a road team because of us being located on the East Coast. But we have not been chosen, selected or been asked." Eagles owner Jeff Lurie is a member of the league's nine-member international committee. King seemed to base his report on the fact that Lurie is one of just three owners on the committee whose teams have yet to play in the International Series (Kansas City and Buffalo are the other two), which began in 2007. Counting the three games the league is playing in London this season, 17 teams have participated in the series' 11 games. Five of those 17 teams have made two trips. If the Eagles ever are selected, it would have to be one of their road games. Their stadium lease with the city of Philadelphia prohibits them from playing a home game anywhere but Lincoln Financial Field. Smolenski said Lurie is not averse to the idea of the Eagles playing in London. "He's neutral," Smolenski said.

FROM THE LIP

* "I'm definitely not a perfect person. I have a lot of things I wish I would have done differently. I'm moving forward. I'm learning from those lessons." — Wide receiver Percy Harvin, after being traded from the defending Super Bowl-champion Seahawks to the 1-6 Jets

* "At the end of the season, when Mike [Tomlin] called me in, I actually thought it was about a contract extension and a raise. But it was about no contract and find another job." — Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, on being fired as the Steelers' offensive coordinator after the 2011 season.

* "I have a really nice condo. And guess what? Jay Cutler built that condo. We're great. We're great. You know, we're like brothers. If I have a problem with Jay Cutler, I'm going to go to Jay Cutler. If Jay Cutler has a problem with me, he's going to come to me. We have that type of relationship." — Bears wide receiver Brandon Marshall, a day after questioning Cutler's leadership ability

BY THE NUMBERS

* The Colts haven't given up a score in the first quarter of their last five games. In their last four games, they haven't allowed their opponent to convert more than one third-down opportunity. Opponents are 4-for-41 on third down in the Colts' last four games.

* Percy Harvin had 22 catches with the Seahawks this season. Twelve of them were behind the line of scrimmage.

* The Panthers, who were second in the league in points allowed last season, have given up 37 or more points in four of their last five games.

* Cardinals rookie kicker Chandler Catanzaro is the only kicker in the league with at least 15 field goals without a miss.

* There have been 10 comeback wins of 14-plus points already in the league. That's the second most such comebacks through the first 7 weeks since 1970. There were 12 in 2011.

* Aaron Rodgers has thrown 18 touchdown passes and one interception. He's the only player in NFL history with at least 18 TD passes and one or zero interceptions through his team's first seven games.

* The Ravens have an NFL-high 10 runs of 20-plus yards this season. A year ago, they had the lowest yards-per-carry average in the league (3.1).

Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb are sort of being reunited this week. McNabb will be the game analyst for Fox's broadcast of the Chiefs-Rams game. McNabb played 10 seasons for Reid in Philadelphia before his unceremonious Easter Sunday 2009 trade to Washington. "Andy's like a big kid," McNabb told the Kansas City Star's Randy Covitz. "You hear so much about some of these other coaches who are hard to deal with. They're sticklers on everything. Not that Andy isn't a disciplinarian, but he treats you like a man. He's one of those players' coaches who you can go into his office, you can talk about anything on or off the field, and if he doesn't have the answer, he'll be wiling to go out of his way to find that answer for you to help you out."