The Chip Wagon

The Eagles Passing Game is a Hot Mess

Yesterday I broke down just how bad the Eagles ground game was on Sunday. Problems amongst almost every member of the offensive line. Still, it isn’t the first time an NFL team has had to overcome a poor ground game performance. Unfortunately, the Eagles passing offense might be even worse right now with erratic QB play front and center. When Chip Kelly traded Nick Foles and a 2^nd round pick for Sam Bradford all the concern was surrounding Bradford’s health. People thought it was a terrible move considering he was coming off back to back ACL injuries. That said, the optimists among us said if, just if, Sam could stay healthy he’s the exact QB Chip Kelly is looking for. Great arm, intelligent, quick decision maker with repetitive pinpoint accuracy. Despite Sam’s lackluster QB stats and win-loss record, of which most blamed coaching and supporting cast, people believed that Bradford could still be what everyone thought he would be as the #1 overall pick many years ago. 

All-22: Bradford and the Deep Ball and the Sproles Match-up

After the Monday night debut there has been some discussion about the Eagles gameplan and how they chose to attack the Falcons defense. Heading into the game we knew this was going to be a Cover 3 defense and we talked about a variety of ways the Eagles would attack that Cover 3 defense. Certainly we were expecting a heavy dose of the running game with our 60 million dollar backfield and some deeps shots against that Cover 3. Turns out, we didn't see much of either. So what did we see?

Know Your Enemy: Beating the Falcons Cover 3 with the 4 Verticals Switch Concept

Looking ahead to the season opener, Greg Cosell did a great job on PE.com breaking down Dan Quinn's Cover 3 defense. He showed ways in which offenses approach Cover 3 and how to beat it. Specifically he focused on 4 verticals. I wanted to go back to when the Eagles played Dan Quinn's Seattle Seahawks defense last year and show another 4 verticals concept that I expect we'll see more of tonight. 

 

The Philosophy and Evolution of the Eagles Run Game Part 13- The Sweep

Warning! This is going to be a long one. Primarily because it is perhaps my favorite foundational running play that the Eagles run. What you will see in this post is how the Eagles take one of the oldest plays in football, execute it to near perfection and then continue to layer different concepts on top of it to keep defensive players guessing. 

Before we dive deep in with lots of screenshots, one of the other reasons the Eagles sweep is one of my favorite plays is because it is so damned pretty. Some people love to see the long bomb, some love the one-handed catch, some love the big hit over the middle. Me? I love to see big ass offensive lineman get down the field and take out linebackers and safeties. In short, this is why I love the sweep and this is why I love Jason Kelce:

The Philosophy and Evolution of Eagles Run Game Part 10- The Split Zone

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.