It’s a frustrating time to be a consumer of Philadelphia Eagles coverage right now, what with all the narratives asking, “What’s wrong with LeSean McCoy? What’s wrong with Nick Foles?” Folks, this really isn’t that complicated.
Like the old saying goes, it all starts up front.
The Eagles’ offensive line was in shambles heading into the club’s Week 4 matchup against the San Francisco 49ers, with three starters out and a fourth displaced. There’s no mystery as to why the offense wasn’t able to mount a single scoring drive during the 26-21 loss, or why McCoy and Foles both experienced one of their worst days as a professional.
Chip Kelly even admitted it himself during the head coach’s postgame press conference carried live on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.
“We just got whooped up front. We’re not very good up front right now. We’ve got a lot of guys banged up, and that’s not an excuse; it’s just the reality of it.”
Sure, you could go back to the tape and find a handful of plays where McCoy passed up a perfectly good hole, or Foles was flat-out inaccurate with a pass. The reality, however, is those plays were once again few and far between.
Let’s skip ahead to the second half and take a look at McCoy’s struggles on the ground.
This first-down carry appears to be designed to go to the back’s right, but there isn’t much there. No. 55 Ahmad Brooks in red is setting the edge, No. 91 Ray McDonald is defeating backup right guard Dennis Kelly’s block and No. 57 Michael Wilhoite is filling the hole for good measure.
McCoy’s best chance at positive yards is to cut the ball back, even though defensive end Justin Smith is blowing by tight end Brent Celek over there.
Smith overly pursues the ball-carrier, but No. 41 Antoine Bethea does a nice job of taking away the cutback lane. Left tackle Jason Peters is unable to sustain his block on No. 52 Patrick Willis, and No. 51 Dan Skuta does a nice job of setting the edge. There’s no way out.
That’s a lot of work for a four-yard gain.
Here’s another view from up in the clouds. Bethea must have seen something from his safety position before the play, because as soon as the ball is snapped, he’s already making a beeline toward the line of scrimmage. Perhaps he’s coming on a disguised run blitz. Whatever the case, it worked, because Bethea winds up making the tackle.
Here we go again on the next series.
Notice where Smith, No. 94, is lined up prior to the snap—between Peters and Matt Tobin. The five-time Pro Bowler is about to take advantage of the continuity issues between a traditionally dominant left tackle and a left guard making his first NFL start.
Smith simply runs away from Peters, while Tobin heads straight to the second level of the defense, allowing the defender an easy path into the backfield. The assumption here is Tobin was supposed to chip the defender. Otherwise it’s an extremely poor play design if Peters is expected to beat Smith to a spot when the defender is lining up with a head start.
McCoy manages to escape Smith, and again tries to cut the run back, but check out Bethea again at the bottom of the screen. He doesn’t overly pursue the play, so when the ball-carrier reverses course, the safety is there to cut off the escape route. It was no gain on the attempt.
The unit’s issues extended to pass protection, frequently putting the quarterback in dicey situations.
Two plays after that last run, the Eagles have a 3rd-and-5. This is the scene just as Foles is reaching the top of his dropback. Makeshift right tackle Todd Herremans is getting beat around the edge by linebacker Aaron Lynch. Brooks is coming free in the middle on a stunt, and backup center David Molk doesn’t even realize it yet.
You could argue Foles has wide receiver Jordan Matthews open over the middle, but if he cocks to throw, there’s a good chance Lynch strips the ball away, or Brooks jumps up and bats the pass if the quarterback gets it off. Foles manages to escape the pocket, but by then, it’s too late.
This third-down play was dead in the water before it even got started.
Eventually, all of that pressure does lead to an interception on Philadelphia’s next possession. On 2nd-and-2, the 49ers are only rushing three, so Foles actually does have time initially. As you can see, though, nobody is open. Foles is looking at Celek, but the tight end isn’t as open as he might seem. For that matter, no one is.
That would be OK, except Peters is literally watching Tobin try to block Smith. This ends rather predictably.
Foles is hit as he attempts to get the ball to wide receiver Jeremy Maclin 60 yards down the field, and not surprisingly, the pass falls woefully short. It was still a poor decision by the quarterback as the 49ers had double coverage on the target, but the blow undoubtedly took something off of the throw, and decision-making aside, once that defender gets into the backfield, I don’t see any happy endings here.
Believe it or not, things got worse before they got better.
Here’s McCoy taking a handoff on 1st-and-10 in the fourth quarter, and there’s defensive tackle Demarcus Dobbs—a converted tight end—running right past Tobin. You would think the continuity between him and Peters would be improving, but it got worse.
Here, Foles isn’t even finished carrying out the play-fake to McCoy, and Lynch has already beaten right tackle Todd Herremans to the inside. Foles manages to throw the ball away, but this is as easy of a sack as there is in the NFL.
The unfortunate series leaves Philadelphia in a 3rd-and-14, which isn’t exactly a high-percentage play. Astonishingly enough, the Eagles wind up punting.
When these types of breakdowns are occurring as often they did on Sunday, No. 1, they kill drives. Even if Foles and McCoy hit on the couple of plays they might’ve missed, how long until another setback up front puts the offense in an impossible down and distance?
Furthermore, how does a quarterback or running back get comfortable and trust what he sees when every other play winds up like the ones above?
Foles completed 21 of 43 passes for 195 yards with two interceptions in the loss. McCoy carried 10 times for 17 yards, a paltry 1.5 average. Those performances are about as disappointing as it gets, particularly for Pro Bowl players.
The good news is reinforcements are on the way. Lane Johnson has returned from his four-game suspension and is expected to start at right tackle. That will allow Herremans to slide back over to right guard, his natural position, while also getting Kelly off the field. As for Tobin and Molk, who were making their first career starts, they can only get better, I think.
And give San Francisco credit as well. This was as solid of a defensive performance as a team has had against Philadelphia this season. There aren’t receivers running free all over the field. There aren’t many holes at all for the running backs. Not a lot of teams have the personnel to play the Eagles’ high-powered offense as tight as the 49ers did.
That being said, there really is no mystery as to what happened to the Birds on Sunday. As long as they’re missing multiple starters along the offensive line, you can expect the inconsistency in both the running and passing attacks to continue.
from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1mTXgD0
via IFTTT October 02, 2014 at 12:02AM
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