While a lot of the focus for the Eagles' recent inconsistency has been on Nick Foles' erratic play and the defense allowing big plays, one other area has emerged as an area of increasing concern.

The running game.

The Eagles, among the NFL's best teams running the football much of the season, have struggled to run consistently the last month.

The first 11 games of the season, the Eagles ranked second in the NFL with 148 rushing yards per game and third with 4.7 yards per carry.

The last four games, they're 23rd in the league with 106 rushing yards per game and 24th at 4.0 yards per carry.

That's a huge dropoff.

"In the running game, there's still a lot of positive signs," offensive coordinator Frank Reich said Wednesday morning.

"It tends to come and go in waves. We're still extremely confident in the schemes and the players getting it done. We feel like we've made good progress. Always trying to find new ways and creative ways to put our players in position and that's our job as coaches and we'll just continue to do that."

On Monday night, the Eagles started out strong, with 53 rushing yards on 12 carries in the first quarter.

The rest of the game? They were 9 for 25.

"Whenever it’s stalling, it’s easy to get away from it as a play-caller, I think," Jason Kelce said. "We just have to do a better job executing; that’s what it comes down to.”

The Eagles rushed for 150 or more yards five times through the Bears game in Week 12 but none since.

Their 78 rushing yards against the Raiders were their fewest since they had 58 on opening day against the Redskins and their fewest at home since a game against the Redskins late in 2015.

"It's been solid," head coach Doug Pederson said Tuesday. "We weren't as consistent (Monday) night, obviously. I wouldn't say there were assignment errors but give the Raiders credit. There were some good plays by them defensively. We got some penetration in there that just stopped some of the runs.

"When you have that kind of penetration on the D-line, it's hard for our guys to get up to second-level defenders. Just missed on a couple opportunities (and) a couple holding penalties and things of that nature set us back."

The natural question is how much the quarterback change is affecting the running game.

Certainly, Carson Wentz's ability to run changes the way teams defend the Eagles. Wentz ran for 299 yards with a 4.7 average in his 12½ games. Foles has three rushing yards this year.

But Pederson said the Eagles are still seeing the same concepts defensively.

"We're still seeing seven- and eight-man boxes, just like we did with Carson in there," he said. "With the ability of the RPOs (run-pass options), you're going to have an eight-man box with safeties and things of that nature. We're still seeing it even with Nick."

"The run game, defensively, we're not seeing anything real dramatically different between the two."

LeGarrette Blount's dropoff has been dramatic.

The first 11 games of the season, he averaged 4.8 yards per carry — seventh-best in the NFL during that span.

The last four weeks, he's at 2.6 yards per carry — third-worst during that span.

He's the first Eagles back with four straight games with five or more carries and an average of 3.5 or lower since Duce Staley — now his position coach — in 2001.

But Pederson said he doesn't see any difference in Blount and doesn't plan on changing the rotation the Eagles have used all year.

"I'm not seeing that," he said. "We'll continue with the plan that we've had set forth when we got Jay (Ajayi) in. They're both effective, and Corey (Clement) is a nice change of pace as well. We just have to continue to keep working at it."

Ajayi is averaging 5.8 yards per carry and Clement 4.4.

But Pederson said he doesn't plan on changing the current rotation.

"I think about that, but I'm big on, ‘If it's not broke, don't fix it,'" he said. "We've just got to get better at it. The plan would still be to continue the way we're going."

Another sign of a declining running game: The Eagles had an NFL-best seven runs of 30 yards or more the first 11 weeks.

They have none the last four.

"Still really close," Pederson said. "We've just got to keep working on it."