One of the Eagles go-to plays in the middle of the field last year was combining a wheel route out of the backfield with mesh concepts underneath. The Eagles have continued to run it in 2014 but without as much success as last season. They broke it out again yesterday and on 3 particular plays you can see the challenges it brings to the defense.
Remember this play from last year?
Well here it is again. McCoy is going to run a wheel route with Celek and Huff running the mesh concept underneath in 12 personnel:
You see the mesh underneath with Huff and Celek running shallow crossing routes. McCoy is going to get matched up on Kamerion Wimbley:
Sanchez recognizes the mismatch on his first read and launches the ball. The problem? If Sanchez leads McCoy in the open field, this probably has a similar result to the play against the Redskins and Ryan Kerrigan. Instead, Sanchez underthrows the ball:
McCoy makes a very impressive grab, unfortunately he got called for a push off. What should have been a huge play, gets called back on a 10 yard penalty all because of a poor throw from Sanchez.
We go back to the same concept a little later this time in 11 personnel. Here you get to see the other option:
Sproles runs the wheel route and Matthews and Cooper run shallow crossing routes and you see the rub concept:
Sanchez delivers a nice ball at the sticks and Matthews is able to break the tackle:
and get some extra YAC for a big play:
On another key 3rd down later in the game, the Eagles go back to the same concept again, once again in 12 personnel:
Or do they?
Ertz and Huff appear to be running shallow crosses to form the mesh. However, this time, they stop on their routes and cut back to the outside:
A nice tendency breaker and Ertz gets wide open for the 1st down:
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