As promised, I reviewed the Week 5 game against the Arizona Cardinals, and I’ll be honest, Jonathan Gannon dodged a bullet. As I’ve said before, Kyler Murray had his best game on film, but just like the Cardinals offense having drive-killing penalties and backwards plays, so did the Eagles offense.
I’m not gonna lie, there was a lot I didn’t like and there were things I did. Here’s the breakdown first: I saw a lot of zone coverage, a lot of off-ball coverage that the Cardinals took advantage of with Hollywood Brown vs Darius Slay, but I also didn’t see anything that was egregious when it comes to common sense football, like guarding the sticks on 3rd and long (till Rondale Moore takes a dump off 17 yards).
These were the stats for the game:
Total Yards: Eagles 357 < Cardinals 363
Passing Yards: Eagles 218 < Cardinals 239
Rush Yards: Eagles 139 > Cardinals 124
1 interception by the Cardinals.
3rd down efficiency: Eagles 46% < Cardinals 57%
Time Of Possession (TOP): Eagles 34:39 > Cardinals 25:21
Penalties: Eagles 3 > Cardinals 2
Sacks Allowed: Eagles 2 < Cardinals 1
Full boxscore available at Pro Football Stats
How did Gannon do against Kyler Murray in Week 5?
Yeah, that vaunted Eagles defensive line got to Kyler Murray once.
The Eagles defense played a lot of 4 down defensive linemen. I’ve said it before that this allowed for wider throwing lanes, where Kyler Murray punished the defense along with James Conner having a good game on the ground. I have to point out the flaws that I saw on film starting with this 3rd and 17 conversion.
On this call, the Eagles are sitting in quarters coverage with the corners way off the line of scrimmage, and for good reason, they have a big cushion with 17 yards. This is just fundamental football especially since the Cardinals were on their own 23-yard line. The Cardinals go empty with a 3 by 2 formation, trips to the field side, this is signaling as if they are going for it deep. The Cards actually catch the Eagles defensive backs off guard with Kyler holding the ball long enough to pull the defenders closer right before dumping it off to Rondale, who fakes to the outside before cutting back in. If people are wondering why teams dump the ball off or screen pass, it’s because the defense is guarding the sticks. On this play it was just bad circumstance, and I’m not gonna fault the play call, it was the right call. Getting “cute” and dialing up a blitz could leave fewer defenders in coverage and more pulled toward the QB before he dumps off to the WR.
The first issue I had with this game was the off-ball coverage, primarily with Darius Slay.
This is the perfect example of the whole “our corners suck so Vance has to play them off the line of scrimmage”. This is Pro Bowl Corner Darius Slay being picked apart underneath. This didn’t happen all game, and up to this point the Eagles defense was top five in man coverage calls, but this bothers me immensely. I do like that his corners are taught to jump on routes or come down instead of playing bail being that far off.
The way Marco is taught to play bail goes with the philosophy of staying over the top of routes, but this takes away the ability to come down on routes as oftentimes you will see corners leveraged outside with their hips parallel to and facing the hashmarks.
As opposed to how Darius is playing off the ball, he’s not bailing over the top of the route, more so he’s using more of a mirror technique trying to match the receiver with his hips facing said receiver, keeping an eye on both him and the quarterback. This gives the Eagles corners better opportunities to jump the routes underneath, it’s risky but it allows players like Slay and Bradberry to combine for 6 interceptions and 20 pass break ups as opposed to our tandem of Marco and Byron having 3 interceptions and 12 pass break ups.
One final thing I want to cover is the set ups. In the second quarter, the Cardinals offense (Kliff and Kyler) noticed the Eagles were in this defensive formation which looks like Quarter Quarter Half, the Quarter Quarter to the field side to hit the trips with 4 defenders over 3 receivers (4 over 3). They notice the Linebacker (#57) buzzing underneath on the No. 3 receivers route.
This was useful not only to get the linebacker to pull himself out of the box, but it gave a tell that unfortunately the Cardinals just couldn’t capitalize on.
I love how the Eagles coach the safeties to come down on these breaking routes. This was a clutch breakup by Marcus Epps (#22). Once again, the way they handled the No. 3 receiver is by buzzing the linebacker.
On every zone coverage call whether cover 2, Quarter Quarter Half, or straight up Quarters, they don’t dedicate a corner to cover the No. 3 receiver on these 3 by 1 or 3 by 2 offensive formations, mostly because they already have 5 defensive backs on the field.
Finally, the almost game-breaking call that would’ve changed the game and possibly won it for us. We all remember this play.
For whatever reason, even though the Cardinals kept picking on the buzzing linebacker, they couldn’t take advantage because of dropped passes and miscommunication. The Eagles defense (Gannon) dodged a bullet several times because the Cardinals offense noticed the tell. This was only possible because the Cardinals continued to spread everyone wide with the Eagles defense in nickle, forcing the linebackers in coverage. Of course, Jonathan Gannon could’ve had a safety jump on these routes, but at the end it really didn’t matter.
At the very least Coach Gannon will have faster linebackers that have shown they can survive against receivers in coverage, which will allow his defense to stay in nickle (which is considered the new base). So if he plans to implement the same coverage schemes he will have better players to execute them as far as linebackers and safeties are concerned. Look for Byron Murphy (if he comes back) and Marco Wilson to be more aggressive coming down on routes.
All in all, I’m very excited to see our players in this scheme. On to review the Eagles in the Superbowl!
