Philadelphia Eagles fans have a laundry list of things that infuriate them about offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, but one kind of play call sends the fan base into wanting to scream in the middle of the road.
That play call, of course, is those pesky halfback draw runs on third-and-long. Without fail, if the Eagles face anything longer than a third-and-10, they are most likely to run what fans like to call the "surrender draw."
During the Eagles' 10-7 win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 10, Patullo ran that insane play three times, and none of them resulted in first downs. The Eagles' offensive coordinator was finally asked about this by the media, and his explanation is unlikely to appease fans. At all.
"I think it depends on each situation, the game, what the coverage is, what the situation is within the game, what's the field position look like. I know that [is] a big part of it, and we're in constant dialogue with Nick about this, too. Everybody knows we're on the same page. Certain games, like Denver, we threw the ball down the field a little bit, third-and-long. I think it depends on game-to-game and really the situation, the field position and things like that.
"Yeah, I think there are definitely times you want to be aggressive. We've been at times, and it's little more situational-driven. You do not want to run the ball, obviously, every third-and-long. That's not going to work out really well in your favor. But I think depending on whether you're backed up or where the ball's headed, sometimes you think like, 'Hey, we've got a three-man rush. They're going to drop into coverage.'
"If you look back at the Jacksonville game last year, I think it was a third-and-20-something against the Jaguars, we handed it off and scored a touchdown. It's been done before. It's nothing new. It's always kind of been there for us. It's just that we've had more third-and-longs, which has kind of been something we've got to stay out of. If we can stay out of those, we hopefully don't have this situation pop up."
Kevin Patullo on runs on third-and-long: "The one was early in the game, we were backed up a little bit, and I think it was just more of the way the game went. We had that one drive where we had the penalties and we kept kind of going backwards. That was just one where it went…
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) November 13, 2025
Let the dialogue regarding Patullo continue on
At some point, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni will have to have a conversation about Patullo and his lack of understanding in play-calling. The Week 7 Minnesota Vikings and Week 8 New York Giants games are the only ones where Patullo called good games, but the rest have been average at best.
It's wild that Patullo brings up last year's rushing touchdown against a terrible Jaguars team. Like A.J. Brown said this week, the Eagles can't focus on last year because teams have made adjustments to them. It should be clear to Patullo that the draw plays on third and a million are not working.
Examining the offensive statistics, the Eagles' offense ranks 23rd in total offense (303.2 yards per game), 25th in passing yards (191.7 yards per game), and 21st in rushing yards (111.6 yards per game).
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But sure, Patullo, keep running those surrender draws, and let's see when it will work at the expense of winning games.