Last season we tried to maintain a weekly feature where we highlighted the use of the read-option after every game to illustrate how much we use it, and it's impact on different defenses. If preseason game #1 showed us anything, it showed us that the read-option will continue to remain a key staple of the 2014 offense as all 4 quarterbacks used it in some fashion on Friday night.
Quick refresher for new readers who haven't been regular readers of the blog. The term "read-option" does not solely refer to the simple play where the offensive line leaves an unblocked defender on the line, reads him, and chooses to keep the ball and run, or hand off to the running back in the other direction. Looking at our stable of QBs this year, and other than GJ Kinne, that's not a play that should regularly be featured in this offense. Instead, we refer to the read-option as a play that has several options built-in and the QB will read a key defender (or two) to make a decision on where the football should go.
So let's have a look at some familiar looking concepts:
Here is an inside zone read packaged with a bubble screen on the top. The yellow arrows below show where the receivers are headed. The defender circled in red is the edge defender who will be unblocked that Foles will read:
The dotted yellow line below shows Foles' reading through the mesh point. His options are to hand off to Sproles, to keep himself, or to throw the bubble screen to Brad Smith. Looking at the shot below, it certainly seems throwing to Brad Smith is the best option. There are only 2 defenders on the top of the screen against 3 Eagles and Maclin and Momah are blocking out front:
At the top of the screen you can see Maclin delivers an excellent block. But Foles has handed off to Sproles and there would have been a nice running lane, but the Bears DT effectively shoots his gap and gets past Todd Herremans resulting in a tackle for a minimal gain:
This is another zone read with a packaged WR screen. I've read elsewhere that some have criticized Sanchez for his decision to throw this ball out wide, but as you see the play develop, he absolutely made the right decision, but the execution was not there. The first thing to note is the benefit of running the up-tempo offense. The Bears defense looked completely lost on this red zone possession. They were rushing to the line and didn't know where to line up. So the first pre-snap check for Mark Sanchez is to look to the match-up on the top of the screen. The Eagles have James Casey and Josh Huff at the top and only one Bears defender. Note the Bears safety in red. So it's clear pre-snap that Sanchez should go immediately to Casey. At the line of scrimmage you can see Sanchez reading the unblocked edge defender (dotted yellow line):
Sanchez makes the right decision, but unfortunately his throw to the flat is very poor causing Casey to have to reach back and go down to the ground. Huff does an OK job blocking in front and if the throw was on the money, Casey probably would have waltzed in for a TD:
One thing you might notice on the above play is a new twist that to the inside zone that we did a little last year and ran several times last week. This features Zach Ertz on the line and contributing as an extra blocker to the inside. Again, we are running the inside zone read option with a packaged WR screen on the top. However note the position of Zach Ertz and follow him through the play:
Note that the Eagles still leave an unblocked edge defender that Sanchez is reading, but you also see at the second-level the DB cheating which leaves the WR screen open. In this case, Sanchez was probably better off throwing out to the screen as you see the unblocked defender is crashing down on the RB:
Instead, Sanchez hands off and the Eagles don't convert the 3rd and 3. Poor read by Sanchez, but one thing to note is that Ertz makes a nice block which would have opened up the hole for Tucker. Unfortunately, the unblocked defender crashed too hard and was able to make the play.
The Eagles get the Bears back on the same play on the goalline. Notice Ertz lined up and he will again block inside:
Again, it's read-option and they are still going to leave an edge defender unblocked but Ertz gets his hat on a LB:
And watch how far he drives the LB into the end zone as Tucker runs right behind him for the TD:
Excellent effort blocking from Ertz on both plays. It's an area he really had to work on to earn more playing time in year 2. His performance in this regard was very encouraging.
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Moving on, let's look at one of my favorite plays from 2013 that we will break down even more (Spoiler Alert!) as we close out the top 25. It's the Read Sweep that we ran a lot last year that really showcases the athleticism of our offensive linemen.
This play is a designed sweep play which has the C and OG pulling to the outside (yellow). It also includes a read-option component leaving an edge defender unblocked (red)
Here Foles is reading the unblocked edge defender and will choose to hand-off to Sproles or keep himself. You can see Kelce and Herremans pulling out on his block.
The reason why I love this play is because when it is executed well it is a thing of beauty and the Eagles do a nice job on this one. Check out this view Kelce takes out his man in the open field and Herremans wipes out his man wide. Sproles has a beautiful lane to run through. Brad Smith is also lining up his man downfield. Also note the defender in red that Foles has "blocked" he has no impact on this play and he wasn't even touched!
To make things even better here's one more downfield block from Maclin and notice Herremans' man is on his back. The Eagles #1 unit did not have a strong performance last week, but this was picture perfect, beautiful execution.
We went back to this play with the back-ups for another explosive running play later in the game. Note David Molk and Matt Tobin will pull:
The unblocked edge defender is highlighted in red:
Check out the blocks. Tobin takes out his man. Gardner is downfield on his man and Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff are blocking on the perimeter:
Good movement, but Molk shows why he isn't Jason Kelce and actually slips on the terrible turf at Soldier Field but Tucker is able to avoid the tackle and the result is a big play thanks to excellent blocking and effort downfield:
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Finally, let's finish with a couple of passing concepts.
The Eagles love packaging hi-lo concepts with an option in the flat and one down the seam. This was one of their go-to plays for Sanchez and Barkley the other night. Let's look at a couple different ones.
Here the Eagles set up the WR screen on the top and hope that it serves as a distraction to the Bears LBs. We roasted the Bears zone coverage a couple of times on this play in the regular season last year. As Matthews goes to the flat and Barkley fakes that way, check out the reaction of the LBs and the attention he gets. Meanwhile, note James Casey sneaking behind the LBs:
And finding a HUGE hole in the space between the LBs and safeties that was expanded to to the pressure from the screen:
We ran the exact same play a little latter. Again, look at the LBs react to the screen. Again, Casey will sneak behind and you can see a huge vacancy in the field between the LBs and safeties. Unfortunately, Matt Barkley missed Casey on this one:
One more from Mark Sanchez against zone coverage. Casey is an option in the flat and Ertz is going to head downfield. Depending on the reaction of the LBs and DBs Sanchez has 2 options on this play.
Sanchez sells the flat route well and the safety bites, leaving an opening for Ertz over the top:
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Finally, you'll recall this GJ Kinne special from the Raiders game last year. It starts off as a traditional inside zone read leaving the edge defender (red) unblocked. Kinne has 2 initial options. Hand-off or keep. Because the DE crashed down hard, Kinne makes the right choice and keeps:
But this puts the slot corner in bind to either cover the WR screen or crash down to take out Kinne on the run:
He elects to go after Kinne, and GJ wisely throws a quick forward pass (note he is behind the LOS) to the uncovered WR out wide for a nice gain:
Do people still think the read-option is a fad?
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