Film Review: “The Eagles do all the small details that matter wrong. This is coaching.”

Well, this Week 18 Eagles-Giants game wasn’t very fun. This one is going to be a quick one, because I only watched the first half, and I feel like I’m just repeating myself at this point. Sigh.

Offense

The game got out to a bad start when the Eagles decided to try and block the Giants’ pass rusher with a tight end. Have they not seen opposing OC’s try and do this to Haason Reddick before? This is just poor game planning and it’s no surprise that the play doesn’t work.

I could write a book about this play. It drives me insane. I’ve seen people argue that the Eagles aren’t seeing the pressure but you can see pre-snap here that the Eagles see that the Giants are blitzing someone. The offensive line literally point at him! So what is the plan here?! Dallas Goedert surely MUST be hot here. He could just turn around and it would be better than this. Hurts can’t throw it to him because he hasn’t turned around by the time Hurts hits the top of his drop so Hurts has to bail and the play breaks down. I almost can’t be bothered to go into too much detail because I’ve been talking about this for 2 years. This play though really bothered me. I don’t think it’s a good blitz by the Giants, and the Eagles should be able to take advantage here. This is really, really frustrating.

The Eagles must commit to running the ball this week. They have to. This offensive line is really playing well right now, especially on these pin/pull outside zone concepts. I’ve been saying for about a month now that this team is getting back to its best in terms of running the football. The Eagles are really running well from 12 personnel too, and I would make this the focus against the Bucs. Kenny Gainwell was running really well in this game, and then the Eagles just decided to stop running. That can’t happen this week. The Eagles have problems with their pass game, but I think they could have an elite run game. Just run the ball this week. Please.

I don’t moan as much about the Eagles’ lack of motion and stacks/bunches because I believe the Eagles do have the talent on offense to win without the scheme helping them. However, without AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith this week, it was so clear that this coaching staff has no idea how to scheme open receivers. No one was getting open. The Eagles could just run some simple stacks or short motion to help the receivers get off press coverage, but they didn’t do it. They didn’t adjust to the loss of AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith at all. The Eagles are so frustrating that I posted this play twice… hence why the next play is play 6!

If you want to know more about my thoughts to this play, either read above or click on any article that I’ve written over the past 2 years about the Eagles offense. It’s so depressing…

It might surprise some of you that I included this play. But I have a lot to say about it. This play sums up everything that is wrong with the Eagles’ offense right now. This is a simple tunnel screen. After watching this play, I wondered what happened. So I went on YouTube, and started watching some coaching clinics on running tunnel screens to check I wasn’t going mad. Most coaches run it the same way the Eagles do here, but all of the fundamentals are wrong. There are so many minor things wrong with this play, so let’s do an old-fashioned bullet point list to point out the issues I have with this play.

• You don’t want to run the screen against a team that is pressing your outside receiver.
• You don’t want to run the screen against a team that has the safety close to the LOS.
• If you run it, the ball needs to get out quickly. bullet-point.
• You need the outside receiver to come flat toward the quarterback not backward. If the receiver goes backward, you it means the cornerback can come downhill and not across the formation. If the cornerback comes downhill, this means the slot receiver can’t make the block because the angle is all wrong.
• If you are facing press, you should use motion or a stack to create a better blocking angle.

Did I miss anything? I think you can argue the Eagles do all the small details that matter wrong. This is coaching. It’s not just on Sirianni or Brian Johnson, this is on the entire coaching staff. Maybe I’m harsh because it’s the first play of a backup quarterback but, I think this play highlights a lot of frustration I have with this offense.

This team is talented enough to score points against the Bucs’ defense. It’s time to commit to the run, and I do honestly believe this offense can play well this week. Maybe I’m a crazy optimist, but I’m expecting the offense to have a good performance, despite how badly this week went. Whether I am right or not, I expect the offense to have a major shakeup in the offseason.