In case you haven't heard, Mark Sanchez got his first start in 2 years (and his first as an Eagle) last night in Philadelphia. The results was a blowout win versus the Carolina Panthers. Despite the end result on the scoreboard, Chip Kelly intimated that there was lots of room for improvement and he was not impressed by the overall play of the offense. Reviewing the game it is clear that there are some things the Eagles have to clean up before a huge game in Lambeau Field on Sunday and we'll get to those as the week goes on. However, despite the criticism, Chip Kelly did say he felt Mark Sanchez did a good job in his debut. Sanchez really seemed to have good command of the offense and ran the offense with a high tempo. By far the most impressive part of his performance was the excellent movement and poise he showed in the pocket.
During the weeks before the Eagles outburst of sacks over the last 3 weeks, Chip Kelly and Billy Davis were stressing that despite the lack of sacks, the pass rush was doing a good job. Billy Davis keeps referring to "moving the QB off his spot". That's goal #1 in the pass rush department. Last night, Mark Sanchez barely got touched and while major credit should go to the offensive line and running back in blitz pickup Mark Sanchez did a great job stepping up, avoiding the rush, and sliding the pocket to extend the play and create more favorable throwing lanes. Let's have a look at a few examples.
Here Chris Polk does a nice initial job of blitz pickup. The yellow circle denotes Sanchez's throwing base and spot.
but as Polk's guy turns the corner, Sanchez is forced to step up into a clean pocket. His eyes remain downfield and he does a nice job of sensing the rush. He locates Brent Celek in one-on-one coverage. Note Celek is looking back to the ball and the defender has his back to the ball:
Sanchez delivers a nice ball towards Celek's back shoulder where only he could make the play:
On this play as soon as Sanchez plants on his back foot Matt Tobin has whiffed on his pass protection:
Sanchez slides away from the pressure and steps up in the pocket. He even gets a hands to the face but he keeps his eyes downfield and delivers an accurate throw over the middle:
On this play, Lane Johnson is getting bull-rushed into Sanchez:
Mark calmly slides away from the pressure and sets his feet and delivers a strike to Zach Ertz over the middle:
On this play Sproles does a good job on blitz pickup, but reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Luke Kuechly comes up the middle free on a blitz:
Once again, Sanchez calmly slides away from the pressure and keeps his eyes downfield:
and delivers a gorgeous ball to Brent Celek:
Sanchez looks dead in the water on this still as Kelce is beaten cleanly off the snap:
But once again he steps up in the pocket with eyes focused downfield:
and delivers yet another perfect ball in the middle of the field:
One more for the road:
Once again Sanchez slides to evade the rush, set his feet:
and throws another nice ball:
There's no question that Mark Sanchez is going to have to a hell of a lot more to erase the memories of the butt fumble and his previous failures in New York. But at least on this night, Mark Sanchez showed eyes around the NFL why he was a former 5th overall pick.
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