So that was not the start we were all hoping for. Frustrating first half. The Eagles couldn't get anything going. I don't have a problem with the Eagles gameplan. Clearly they liked their matchup in the passing game but Bradford was rusty to start and the Eagles were unable to set the tone early. Obviously one of the biggest question marks of the offseason was the Eagles strategy at Offensive Guard. They let long-time veteran Todd Herremans go and then surprisingly cut Pro-Bowler Evan Mathis during a contract dispute. Enter Allen Barbre and Andrew Gardner. Both players had a strong preseason, but they both had a rough outing last night and were one of the main reasons the Eagles struggled to get their ground game moving.
Jason Kelce pretty much summed things up with this quote:
"In the first half, there was a lot of tripping and things that were off here and there," he said. "We're still trying to build a little bit of chemistry up front with two new guys being in there."
The chemistry just wasn't there at the start of the game. Take this sweep play for example. For the most part, the Eagles ran this play well last night, but the first time they ran it, the guys just weren't on the same page. On this play, Gardner and Kelce are designed to pull to the outside:
Off the snap, Celek gives the edge defender a shove before releasing to the second-level. This is Gardner's man to pick up:
However Gardner is quite hesitant and you can also tell that Kelce isn't sure if Gardner is going to take him on or not. Based on this hesitation Gardner whiffs. The result is a huge loss for Murray on 1st and 10. The Eagles love to get their tempo going early in games, but it's big negative plays like this on 1st down that really set them back.
Here's inside zone. The whole line executes well and Johnson and Kelce will release to the second-level:
But Barbre cannot sustain his block and he gets beat on the inside:
Had Barbre sustained his block you can see this had a chance to be an explosive play with good blocking at the second level:
The next example is a mental breakdown from Barbre. This is the Eagles standard inside zone. Blocking assignments to the playside shown below:
But Barbre hesitates off the snap and doesn't block anyone, much less his man:
Murray is dead in the water as the LB comes through unblocked. A shame too, as you can see the play was developing nicely on the playside:
And here's Barbre getting beat again on an otherwise well blocked play. Barbre is forced to hold negating a big run from Sproles:
On the very next play, it's Gardner who can't sustain his block and is forced to hold his man negating another run from Sproles:
Lastly, I was a little disappointed that Chip didn't mix in a bit more variety in the running game. The Falcons were looking for inside zone all game, and while throwing in the misdirection sweep toss was a nice mixup, it would have been nice to see some outside zone and power. On the huge 3rd and short call, Chip went with inside zone and the Falcons LB was all over it. First the Falcons stacked the line of scrimmage with a 5 man line and attacked both A gaps occupying Kelce and Gardner:
The MIKE quickly fills the hole to where the inside zone is developing. As you can see, Kelce sees him, but doesn't have the time to get out there:
The LB fills the hole and gets to Matthews behind the LOS untouched:
It would have been nice to see a Power call there.
I'll have another look once the All-22 comes out, but on first glance the Falcons didn't bring anything that the Eagles shouldn't have seen before. In the end, it came down to execution and the Eagles simply did not execute.
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