In Parts 8 and 9 we highlighted how the Eagles started to run more plays under center in order to not tip their hand on the direction of the inside zone playside. It will be interesting to see how much this continues in 2015 now that we’ve had a complete overhaul of our RB corps. As pointed out by Sheil Kapadia:
According to ESPN Stats and Information, Murray is second among free-agent running backs in yards-per-rush out of the shotgun over the last two seasons, behind only new backfield partner Ryan Mathews.
However, in 2013 and 2014 one of the Eagles very favorite plays is the split zone. The split zone is a very common variation on the inside zone that many different teams run. The general idea is to run inside zone with your 5 OL to the playside. This will often involve leaving the backside edge defender unblocked like we do in our inside zone from the Shotgun formation. However, on this play, the QB does not “block” the edge defender because he’s under center and will turn his back to the defense. This defender now becomes the assignment for the H-back who starts lined up on the opposite of the formation. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
The beauty of the inside zone is that it often opens up opportunities for cutback lanes based on the reaction of the defense to the playside. The Eagles take advantage of the cutback by assigning an H-back to block across the formation and taking out that unblocked edge defender off the line. Here’s an example with Chris Polk lined up in the backfield directly behind the QB who is under center. The 5 OL and Brent Celek will block inside zone to the right. Jason Peters will block to the playside leaving the edge defender, #51” initially unblocked. After the snap, James Casey will motion across the formation:
Johnson and Gardner actually block it up well on the playside but #27 will fill the hole. Note James Casey coming across the formation:
Casey executes the sift or wham block and you see a nice cutback lane appear for Polk:
he hits the hole decisively and breaks off a big run:
Here’s another example. Eagles will block inside zone to the right. This time, Zach Ertz is lined up directly behind Brent Celek. Following the snap he will come across the formation:
Here the Giants are in man coverage and you’ll see that Ertz’s motion post-snap will draw the defender responsible for him. At the mesh you’ll see Foles reading the unblocked edge defender.
Ertz comes across the formation and executes the wham block:
Note the DB responsible for Ertz in coverage overruns the play thinking he needs to cover Ertz in the flat. Ertz essentially “blocks” 2 defenders on this play and a huge cutback lane is open for McCoy for an explosive play:
The Eagles run this play a ton and they do some from the same formation with 2 TEs, one being used as an H-back. Why would the defender cover Ertz on the flat knowing he is actually going to block on this play? Because, as usual, Chip Kelly has a constraint play or wrinkle on this same look that the defense must account for. Here’s the same concept with Ertz coming across the formation as an H-back. It’s important to note that contrary to the above play, the Cardinals are playing zone so nobody covers Ertz coming across the formation. Foles will read the unblocked edge defender at the mesh point. At this point, the unblocked edge defender has to be bracing for the wham block, right?
Wrong. Foles keeps and Ertz blows past the edge defender as he collapses down on the run fake:
Ertz is wide open in the flat for an easy throw and big play on a great playcall on 3rd and short:
In the next post we will come full circle on the series and discuss why a lot of these “variations” on the inside zone are really just a set of compromises because Chip is trying to run his scheme without a mobile QB. With the Nick Foles/Sam Bradford trade it certainly appears as though the Eagles starting QB in 2015 won’t be a mobile one. As a result, we’ll take a look at the compromises Chip has been forced to implement into his offense attack and what other concepts he might use if he rolls with Sam Bradford in 2015.
Recent Comments