PHILADELPHIA — It was easy to catch the chants rising out of the Lincoln Financial Field stands Friday, a call for change that feels closer and closer to happening, no matter what Nick Sirianni might say, no matter how much the Eagles head coach might stand behind his friend and offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo. Those “FIRE-KEVIN” singsongs were clear to everyone inside the stadium and to a nationwide streaming audience on Prime Video.

Just like the Eagles’ 24-15 loss to the Chicago Bears and another ragged offensive performance, those chants and that atmosphere of frustration and disgruntlement were a sign that this season is reaching a tipping point. And for all the loyalty to Patullo and defiance to reality that Sirianni flashed after the game, his words might not end up meaning much.

“No, we’re not changing the play-caller,” Sirianni said, “but we will evaluate everything.”

The most important word in that sentence from Sirianni, though, was we, because we could end up including team chairman Jeffrey Lurie and vice president Howie Roseman, and those members of we have filmed this movie before — and not that long ago. Sirianni was equally steadfast in 2023 about taking up for then-defensive coordinator Sean Desai, but, sure enough, Sirianni’s defense of him was about as strong and effective as the Eagles’ defense under Desai and his replacement, Matt Patricia. That is, not very.

Now Patullo has become the latest poster child for the Peter Principle. He’s gregarious and friendly and has spent a lot of time in the NFL coaching quarterbacks but had spent no time calling plays until Sirianni turned the offense over to him. Now a unit that boasts some of the most talented and accomplished and highly paid skill-position players and offensive linemen in the league is among the worst offenses in the league. Twelve games this season, and the Eagles have scored 24 points or fewer in eight — two-thirds — of them, including the last four.

Lurie and the Eagles aren’t about to bench Jalen Hurts or A.J. Brown or Saquon Barkley or anyone else. And even if Patullo is hamstrung as a play-caller by Hurts’ height, by his reluctance or inability to throw the ball into tight windows of space, by the injuries and spotty play of the offensive line, he also hasn’t shown that he’s creative and imaginative enough to overcome those flaws and shortcomings in the offense.

Sirianni’s mantra, since his arrival, has been that players make plays, that a wide receiver or a lineman or a tight end, if he’s coached well enough in the fundamentals, ought to prevail in his one-on-one matchup against a cornerback or a defensive end or a linebacker. The problem for the Eagles is that they’re winning fewer of those micro-contests, those games within the game, than they did a year ago, and Patullo isn’t helping them win more of them.

A simple question was put to tight end Dallas Goedert after Sunday’s game: How often do you guys feel like you have a strategic advantage on a defense, where you’re going to fool them or you’re going to run something that they don’t see coming?

Goedert paused for five seconds, then answered.

“Tough question. I don’t know if I really have an answer for that one. We’ve got to make plays. We’ve got to execute better. And all 11 have to be on the same page.”

Barkley refused to chalk up the Eagles’ struggles to their strategy or system. “I don’t really look into plays like that,” he said. “The times that we have successful plays, it’s not just because we have a strategic edge. We’ve got guys making plays. We’ve got coaches making great calls.

“I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I know what everyone is probably saying. When you go back and watch the film, we’ve got some great calls, and we just didn’t make the plays, or we’ll have a penalty. We keep seeing the same stuff. I get up here and say the same thing, and it’s not like I’m just feeding you guys these answers to, I don’t know, be a pro. But it’s the truth, and I guarantee Jordan [Mailata’s] saying the same thing. Zack [Baun’s] saying the same thing. Lane [Johnson’s] saying the same thing. The reality is, we’ve got to go do it.”

There is a chicken-or-egg element to the Patullo question. No one, other than Patullo himself, can say for certain whether he’s orchestrating this offense to account for Hurts’ weaknesses, whether he’s calling what Hurts is comfortable with and capable of carrying out, whether Hurts’ limitations are limiting Patullo’s options. There’s no getting around the reality that the Eagles have made Hurts and the passing game the locus of their offense before — early in 2021, early in 2024 — and each time, they shifted their play selection toward running the ball, toward taking it out of Hurts’ hands.

Last season, they won a championship with that approach because Barkley and the offensive line were that good, that dominant. The Eagles could afford to be predictable then; their opponents knew what was coming and still were powerless to stop it.

Now the Eagles’ opponents know what’s coming, know how to stop it, and do stop it. Lurie has always placed a premium on having a team that could score lots of points and do so relatively easily, and he can’t be happy with this two-game losing streak, this season-long slog, and the offense’s contributions to those developments. What had been a slump is now a slide and could yet be another collapse, and Lurie isn’t likely to let his head coach’s assertions and assurances stand in the way of a change that he deems necessary to save a shot at another Super Bowl.

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