The Chip Wagon

Where Did it All Go Wrong? The Rise and Fall of Chip Kelly

I apologize for what was a very quiet 2015 NFL season at the Chipwagon this past year. There are a couple reasons for that. 1) I started a new job in September and it has been pretty demanding of my time and balancing that with the family life didn't leave a lot of time left to put blog posts together. 2) Watching the 2015 season was one of the worst and most frustrating seasons I can recall watching. I realize that this was far from one of the worst seasons in Eagles history, but from beginning to end it was just so frustrating and aggravating to watch. We had lapses in execution all season long and Chip's offense that I loved so much in 2013 and 2014 just went completely stale.  The truth is, there is no one reason why things didn't work out in Philadelphia. Certainly, Chip the GM, Chip's personality, the power struggle with Howie Roseman and his apparent fractured relationship with Jeff Lurie will lead the way in the headlines. Our old friend @sheilkapadia was spot on this assessment which really nicely summarized the downfall of the Kelly regime. However, to look at it from another angle, one really needs to understand that Lurie's decision was not exclusively a non-footbal decision. To put it bluntly, the Chip Kelly we fell in love with just stopped showing up on the chalkboard in 2015. The offense we saw in 2015 was a stripped down version of what we saw in 2013 and 2014 and lacked any imagination, creativity or evolution as defenses around the league continued to adjust and catch up. Furthermore, it seemed in 3 years Chip Kelly's offense lacked some of the fundamental concepts and philosophies that need to be considered and applied in the pro game. Here is my post-mortem and likely final chapter on Chip Kelly's offense.

The Philosophy and Evolution of Eagles Run Game Part 4- Packaged Plays

Part 1 we covered why shotgun, part 2 we tackled mobility at the QB position, and part 3 we dove into the use of bubble screens as a constraint to our inside zone read option game. Today we'll tackle a topic that perhaps is more Foles-friendly. Packaged plays. 

Here's Chris Brown on packaged plays:

Good offense has always been about deceptive simplicity — the clearest path to success is to make things as simple as possible for your players while also keeping defenses off-balance. It’s a difficult recipe, as an offense that is too simple can get dissected, analyzed, and shut down by a savvy defense, but a team that tries to do too many things will master none of them. Packaged plays solve the quandary by combining simple plays all the players can execute in such a way that — if the quarterback makes the right decision — the offense always has the advantage, because no defender can be in two places at once.

There have been two major reasons behind this expansion. First, they work in perfect harmony with the up-tempo no-huddle offenses that have swept through college football and will seemingly be ever-present in the NFL this fall. But rather than ask a bunch of young quarterbacks to get all Peyton Manning with audibles and gestures at the line, these plays build the options right in and let the quarterback make a decision on the fly. In short, these plays use the mental part of the read-option — allowing a quarterback to read a defensive player to ensure that the defense is always wrong — without putting him at risk. As long as the quarterback can make smart, quick decisions, these plays should work as well with Joe Flacco as they do with RG3.

To round out the discussion surrounding, "Why Shotgun?" and with the packaged play definitions from Chris Brown above in mind, let's look at how the Eagles have used packaged plays over the last couple of seasons. 

A Look at the 4 Verticals Concept

By my count, Sanchez and the Eagles are a perfect 7 for 7 in the red zone since he's taken over the starting job. The Eagles are doing a much better job at scoring TDs instead of field goals once they get into the opponent's territory. However if you evaluate what the Eagles are doing schematically, it really isn't any different than what they have been doing the last couple of years under Chip. Chip continues to do a great job of scheming one-on-ones as we get closer to the opponents end zone and the major difference the past 2 weeks is that the players are executing better. Earlier today, we wrote about how the Eagles are finding TD success with the 3 x1 formation.  From a schematic standpoint another concept that has really stuck out is 4 Verticals.

This is a concept that was covered very well by @SheilKapadia and @Coach_Flinn over at  Birds 24/7. Let's take a look how the Eagles have used this concept the last couple of weeks to lead to score TDs instead of FGs.

On the Eagles first offensive play from scrimmage against the Panthers, the Eagles went with the 4 vertical concept. The really interesting thing is how the Eagles dress it up. This is 1st down and the Eagles are in their 12 personnel on what appears to be a run-heavy package with James Casey and Brent Celek. Seeing this formation, you almost expect the split zone with Casey coming across the formation. To counter, the Panthers keep 8 defenders in the box to defend the run which leaves only one deep safety

Read more here. 

 

Formation Talk: The 3 x 1 Set

Chip Kelly likes to get creative with his personnel packages. This year we've seen 01, 02, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 21 personnel on the field. Perhaps more. Chip and Pat have shown over the last couple of seasons that they like to mix up these personnel packages and use every player on their roster on offense on a gameday.  The other thing Chip has done a great job of this year is mixing up formations that can set up favorable one-on-one matchups against both man and zone schemes. In this post we are going to re-visit a formation/concept that's really working well for the Eagles this year. The 3 x 1 Formation. 

Bringing Back the Sidewalk and the Ambush

One of the most explosive play calls for the Chip Kelly offense in 2013 was the screen game. I covered it many times last year, including here, and highlighted how the Eagles used misdirection and deception to disguise the screen game. Quite frankly the Eagles have not had the same level of success in the screen game in 2014. The majority of intended screens to McCoy and Sproles have been snuffed out highlighting how closely our opponents have been studying the film from last year. One of the screen concepts that Kelly introduced to us last year was the Ambush and the Sidewalk. The concept here is that Kelly would assign one lineman, called the ambush player, to account for any trailing defenders who could chase down the screen from behind. The sidewalk concept referred to 2 downfield OL forming a "sidewalk" for the ball carrier to run through. Sometimes we had an additional OL leading the way through the sidewalk to pick up any "leakage" as Kelly would call it. While the traditional HB screen has not been working as well, Kelly has implemented the Jailbreak screen to reasonable success and with some improved execution I suspect it will lead to a few explosive plays down the stretch in 2014. Most importantly, is the inclusion of the ambush and sidewalk principles in our jailbreak screens: