I haven't had the chance to go back and look at some of the Cowboys previous performances prior to last weeks game, but it was quite obvious by the end of the 1st quarter that the Eagles saw a match-up they felt they could exploit.
Eagles ran a wheel route against the Cowboys LBs 3 times in the first quarter alone. Sadly, they were unable to connect on any of them for various reasons. Here was the first attempt at around the 10 minute mark of the 1st quarter. Eagles have Lesean McCoy in the backfield who is going to come out on a wheel route. One of the key aspects of this is Jason Avant's route.
It is run as a natural pick but it was so obvious he could have easily been called for offensive PI. Lesean is wide open coming down the sideline and Foles is looking his way but does not pull the trigger:
The Cowboys eventually get pressure causing Foles to move and despite having a wide open McCoy who is waving for the pass, Foles can't find him. Instead he settles for a poor pass attempt to Zach Ertz coming out of shallow crossing route that is incomplete:
The Eagles dialed up the same play less than a minute later with Bryce Brown in the backfield.
Cowboys actually have decent coverage from the linebacker but Nick still likes that one-on-one matchup:
Foles doesn't hesitate to unload and throws a pretty decent ball to Brown. Not sure this is a play Brown is going to make routinely:
One more time about 5 minutes later. McCoy in the backfield:
Foles gets the match-up he wants, LB on McCoy. This time he overthrows an open McCoy a tad, however in fairness McCoy actually draws a flag for defensive holding, otherwise the throw is probably on the money:
Missed opportunities abound in last Sunday's matchup.
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