On Sunday the Eagles continued to keep the running game going despite facing, in my opinion, the best player in the entire NFL. JJ Watt made a huge impact on this game early on but as the game went along the OL settled down and the tempo probably didn’t help the Texans stay fresh. More notably, the Eagles chose a heavy dose of sweep plays to the outside away from Watt. Breaking down the design of these sweep play just never gets old.
One of the more exciting drives of the year came in the final minutes of the 3rd quarter. The Eagles scored a TD on a 4-play scoring drive and all 4 plays were called running plays. Two of those calls were a play we’ve covered extensively on the blog over the last 13 months. The sweep read. It’s worth breaking down the design of this play.
One of the keys is how the Eagles target the second level defenders highlighted in red below. First, this will be a designed sweep read-option where Johnson will leave the edge defender on the left unblocked and Sanchez will read him. This leaves Johnson the option to block down on the weak side LB at the second level. On the strong side of the line, Jason Peters and Brent Celek are responsible to pin their men to the inside. It’s worth noting that Celek’s assignment is JJ Watt:
Let’s see how it unfolds. First, check out Sanchez’s read on the unblocked defender. The defender is attacking wide and conservatively. That certainly looks like a lot more respect on the zone read than Nick Foles is usually getting. Check out the job Brent Celek does collapsing JJ Watt down the line. As described, Kelce and Tobin are going to pull around and take on the second-level LBs:
As Celek continues to crash Watt down and out of the play, check out the great execution on the 3 second-level blocks:
and McCoy breaks free with 2 additional lead blockers downfield in Cooper and Maehl. Unfortuantely, Maehl can’t sustain his block or else this play might have been bigger:
A couple of plays later, we go back to the exact same play to the opposite side of the field. This time with Chris Polk in at RB. Again, Brent Celek is responsible for the pin block on JJ Watt and Kelce and Gardner will pull to the outside. Again, Peters can leave the edge defender unblocked and down block on the second level defender:
Again, check out the respect Sanchez garners from the edge defender. It’s quite surprising:
As the play develops Gardner gets enough of the attacking edge defender and while Celek is unable to pin Watt to the inside, he is able to keep his hands on him and sustain his block. Kelce makes it all the way out side to make his block on the outside and Polk is able to get to the sidelines:
And Polk does a great job lowering his shoulder, taking on tacklers and gain some extra yards:
Yes, it's great to have Jason Kelce back. However, it is worth noting (and I will show more in the next post) that Kelce did show some signs of rust and wasn't finishing his blocks with the same consistency we've grown to expect. Same play. Again, check how the scheme is designed to take on the second-level defenders:
Peters pins his man inside, Celek and Herremans immediately release to the second level LBs and Kelce and Tobin are responsible for cleaning up on the outside. Again, note the respect Sanchez gets on the zone read.
As the play continues Tobin gets a great block on the edge defender. Celek gets a nice block at the second level. Kelce has his eye on the DB who is the last line of defense:
Unfortunately and quite uncharacteristically, Kelce doesn't get there. The DB takes a nice angle and is able to wrap up Sproles. Watching this play in real-time, it looks like Kelce gives up early on this play. Not sure if he hurt himself or what, but we aren't used to seeing him get beat to the ball so badly. It's a shame because you can see Josh Huff and Riley Cooper have excellent blocks downfield. Sproles could have turned this into a big one.
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