One of the bigger questions in the offseason was how much of the Oregon offense Chip Kelly would bring to the pro game. There was a ton of talk around the read option this past offseason and how defenses were going to stop it. I think we all expected Chip to bring the read option to Philly, but I am not sure anyone predicted that we would see it as much as we have through 5 games. Furthermore, while other teams like Seattle, Washington, San Francisco, etc. are not having as much success with the read option as last year, the Eagles have completely gashed their competition with it week after week.
READ All About It will be a new weekly feature here at The Chip Wagon where I will break down some of the read option plays we see each week. Looking back against the Giants on Sunday, the Eagles and Michael Vick read-optioned the Giants to death, perhaps more than any other opponent this year.
We know the Giants have talent issues on defense. So what did Chip Kelly do? He repeatedly targeted Justin Tuck and JPP, their two best players with the read option and rendered them pretty close to useless in this game. Let's have a look at a variety of plays.
There has already been some talk heading into Tampa Bay, that the running game is going to take a hit if Michael Vick doesn't play. Of course Mike is averaging 60 yards rushing per game, so there is that...but more importantly for Lesean McCoy, it's unlikely that he is going to see some of the gaping running lanes he's gotten used to on the read option. Here are a couple of examples.
First one, we target Jason Pierre-Paul. Just think about this concept. He is their very best defender and our strategy is going to be to not physically block him at all. This is a picture perfect example of why the read option is so dangerous:
You see Vick is reading Paul who is playing contain and protecting the backside against a potential Vick run. Jason Peters starts with the initial double, and then peels off to get the LB at the second level:
Jason Pierre-Paul is completely out of the play and look at the gaping hole!
Here's another example, only this time Justin Tuck is the victim:
Of course the flip side is when the DE crashes down after McCoy. The risk is you leave Vick open to keep the ball. We did this a couple time, again with great success.
This is a nice example of another packaged play. It's likely a hand-off/keep option for Vick but you can see we run the threat of the bubble screen in the slot to keep the Giants slot defenders away from the box.
Vick reads the crashing DE, the bubble screen clears out the DB covering Desean, and Maehl gets a nice block on a DB. Note the situation. It's 3rd and 3.
People who say Nick Foles can't/won't run the read option are off. There's no reason not to run this exact same play to move the chains with Foles on a keeper if the right read is there. There is tons of room to run.
This one is a bit trickier. On this play, Vick is reading Kiwanuka and he crashes hard down the line. Put it appears the Giants have the scrape exchange set up with a waiting LB to clean up if Vick keeps.
But the success of this play is a combination of two great plays. One, Vick is elusive and gets by the defender...however, not without some help from his LT Jason Peters. Looking at the two shots below, it is astonishing to try and understand the angle Peters ended up on this play and that he made a nice block:
Not sure that's a keeper Nick would have salvaged.
Case in point, we tried it in the red zone with Nick. Giants were again using the scrape exchange:
Vick might beat this one on one, but the likelihood of Foles doing so is extremely low:
Sheil already highlighted this play as a new packaged play. I want to focus a little more on the controversial call to run on 3rd and 9. This was a read option packaged play. And as you watch the play evolve, it really had a chance of working. First and foremost, it was man coverage on the outside and the Giants only had 6 in the box against our front 5. Peters is going to leave JPP unblocked as he is Vick's read. He keeps Vick honest and the right read is a hand-off to McCoy:
As the play develops, the key block to watch is Herremans on Paysinger. Paysinger gets pulled in on the run, and Herremans gets on him. This play is looking very promising for the Eagles:
Most notably, because the Giants were in man coverage on the outside, they have their back turned to the play and are completely out of position to stop McCoy before the first down marker. Look at the space McCoy has to run:
Unfortunately, Herremans can't keep #57 engaged, he does a great job getting off his block and gets over to make the tackle on McCoy:
One last one to highlight one of the challenges of running the read-option in the red zone. The problem in the red zone is that the safeties are a lot closer to the LOS. This means that if they make the right read, they can get into the backfield to stuff the run much quicker. That's the issue on this play where the safety makes a great play. Herremans is almost playing this as if the safety is playing deep. If the safety is deep, the likelihood that he can get into the hole that fast is low, so Herremans is used to looping outside the RT to wait for the safety who needs to take a different angle to the ball. On this play, the safety is much closer to the LOS because of the red zone, and as a result can get to the hole in time. This was a big loss and we settled for a FG shortly after:
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