In Part 8 we focused on the number of ways the Eagles mix up their formations as to not give away the playside direction of the run. One of the examples was lining the QB under center with the running back directly behind him, thus not dictating the direction of the run play. In addition to this wrinkle, the Eagles liked to run counter from this formation. They absolutely destroyed the New York Giants in the first game with this concept.
There are several main elements with the counter play off inside zone. The OL blocking assignments are essentially the same as inside zone. The image below shows that the Eagles will block inside zone to the right. Standard zone blocking:
The next key is selling the play fake. Note Foles off the snap motioning for a handoff that indicates a run to the right. Note also McCoy’s jab step to the right. This is designed to draw the 2nd level LBs to bite on the direction they believe is playside. Check out the reaction from the Giants LBs highlighted in red. In addition, it also forces the DL to react to the playside setting up favorable blocking angles for the OL:
Next Foles is going to switch hands and McCoy is going to switch to the other direction. The edge block on the backside is critical and Brent Celek does an excellent job of sealing his man inside thanks to an advantageous blocking angle. Also note the great block from Josh Huff in the slot. Finally, note the Giants LBs have been completely washed away to the playside:
The result is a huge lane for McCoy:
Speaking of the tight end, the Eagles love to run this play with 2 TEs lined up on the backside. On this play, you’ll see Brent Celek and James Casey lined up on the left side of the line to form a 7 man line. Again, you’ll see standard inside zone blocking to the right:
Following the snap, again you’ll note McCoy jabs to the right and Sanchez fakes the handoff to the right:
All blocking is to the right but McCoy will loop back as Sanchez changes hands to handoff in the opposite direction. You’ll note excellent blocks by Casey and Celek on the backside. You’ll also see Riley Cooper coming into the frame. He’s assigned to take out the deep safety:
and he does just that:
Wide receiver and tight end blocking from the slot are absolutely key on the execution of this play. The Eagles design crackback blocks to take out the edge defender on the backside. Here the Giants bring a DB into the box, #35. The OL will zone block to the left away from #35:
Foles playfakes to the left and McCoy jab steps. Note that coming into the screen is Zach Ertz who was lined up in the slot:
Ertz executes a nice crackback block leaving Shady one-on-one against a safety in the open field:
One more example highlighting excellent blocking from the Eagles wide receivers and tight end. Inside zone blocking to the right and again Celek is responsible for a key backside block on Jason Pierre-Paul:
Foles playfakes to the right and McCoy jab steps to the right. On the edge of the screen you will note Riley Cooper coming in on the crackback block:
McCoy changes direction to the left, check out the terrific block by Celek who manhandles Jason Pierre-Paul and Riley Cooper gets a good block from the slot:
But there is another defender coming into the play to take away the backside highlighted in red. But note Jordan Matthews coming across executing yet another crackback block:
Which opens up the outside for McCoy to run for a nice gain:
Next up we’ll take a look at the Eagles split zone play. Stay tuned here at the ChipWagon for the continuation of this series.
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