PHILADELPHIA — It was late Thursday night, and the Eagles had lost to the New York Giants, 34-17, and someone in the visiting locker room at MetLife Stadium asked A.J. Brown if perhaps the Eagles — who had lost two games in five days, who have been ragged on offense all season, who had been lousy on defense over their previous five quarters of play — were tired.

The question was nothing more than a sympathetic softball. We’re all in this together, and we all feel bad for you guys. So here’s an easy one, A.J. Say what you will about Brown’s social-media habits, but he could see clearly that someone was condescending to him. Most professional athletes do. They know when they and/or their teams aren’t playing well, and they expect to be asked directly and honestly about it, and Brown wasn’t buying the implication that the Eagles’ early-season schedule was a reason for their struggles.

“As far as guys [being] tired, this is what we do,” he said. “That’s no excuse. I don’t think guys are tired. I think guys are trying to figure this thing out and get this thing rolling. I don’t think we’re looking for a break. Guys are eager to fix this.”

The issue isn’t whether the Eagles want to fix their problems, but how they can fix them. If curing what ails them were simply a matter of getting more rest and having some key players — Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell, Landon Dickerson, Nolan Smith, Grant Calcaterra — recover from injury, there wouldn’t be much cause for concern.

But there are deeper troubles here. The Eagles are losing too many battles along the offensive and defensive lines of scrimmage. Their tackling has gotten worse. They lead the NFL in taunting penalties, which suggests at least a relative lack of discipline. And their offensive coordinator, Kevin Patullo, so far doesn’t appear to be creative enough in his play design and play calling to overcome Jalen Hurts’ weaknesses, particularly Hurts’ reluctance to throw and inability to complete midrange passes and his tendency to hold the ball in the pocket.

That final factor is the one that could cause a slight crack to widen into a gaping hole — one into which the Eagles’ season could sink. It’s reasonable to believe that their defense will improve as the weeks go on, that Carter and Mitchell and Smith will return, that rookies Jihaad Campbell and Drew Mukuba will get better as they gain experience, that coordinator Vic Fangio will figure this out.

Some or all of those things might not happen, but it is reasonable to believe they will. But the offense’s regression is a thornier problem, because it’s multidimensional in nature, and one of those dimensions is the disconnect between Hurts and his two primary wide receivers, Brown and DeVonta Smith.

Again, it is not the only dimension. The offensive line isn’t the same dominant unit that it was last season, and the Eagles’ failure to run the ball with any consistency is damaging them tremendously. To invoke Lane Johnson’s comments after Thursday’s game, one could argue that the Eagles were “predictable” in 2024, too. Everyone knew Saquon Barkley was getting the ball. Opposing teams just couldn’t do anything to stop him. He was that good, and the blocking was that good.

Without that same level of excellence (or even competence) in the run game, the Eagles need Hurts and Patullo to get the ball to Brown and Smith more easily and more frequently. And all season, Brown has done everything short of lighting signal flares to call attention to the reality that Hurts isn’t keeping up his end. The predictability of the Eagles’ play-calling seems based at least in part on the limitations under which Patullo believes he is working; he would call a wider variety of plays if he trusted that Hurts could carry out those plays.

Understand: This is not to suggest that Hurts isn’t a good quarterback. It’s to suggest that 99 quarterbacks out of 100, even at football’s highest level, have limitations, and it’s up to that QB and his coaches to transcend them. But it’s also to suggest that Brown and Smith don’t appear to be looking at Patullo first and foremost as the source of the offense’s struggles, and there were two obvious examples Thursday night.

Hurts badly overthrew a wide-open Smith early in the third quarter for what could have, and probably should have, been a 90-yard touchdown, and on his fourth-quarter interception by Giants cornerback Cor’Dale Flott, Hurts never looked at Brown, who was breaking free in the corner of the end zone.

Smith declined to speak with the media after the game, saying that he had to “see the doctor,” and after Brown fended off questions about his reported come-to-Jesus meeting with Hurts and Barkley by repeating “I don’t recall” several times, he defended Patullo.

“He’s nonstop,” Brown said. “Honestly, I think he’s doing an amazing job. He’s trying to get us the ball and talk about things that we may see. There’s nonstop communication. I know he’s getting a lot of scrutiny, but I think he’s doing a good job keeping this thing going.”

For his part, Hurts bore responsibility for Thursday’s loss and the offense’s performance. “I’ve got to be better,” he said. “I have to lead better in those situations.” He does, and sugarcoating his spotty play and the Eagles’ overall backslide from last season to this one will do him and the rest of the team no favors. They’re not tired. They’re just playing poorly. Everyone can see it. The players are starting to say it. Something has to be done about it.

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