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Blue are your options, via Philly Mag

GLITCH PLAY! GLITCH PLAY!

There’s none better than Sheil Kapadia over at Philly Mag at breaking these things down. All week, we’ve talked about the Eagles’ package and option plays, and why they are so confusing and hard to defend. Kapadia breaks down one such play, which the Eagles ran five times in the first quarter on Monday, including three times in one drive:

The Eagles first ran this specific packaged play on their initial drive. It combines a handoff toLeSean McCoy with a screen to DeSean Jackson and a pass to Brent Celek.

The player Michael Vick is reading is linebacker London Fletcher. If he steps up to play the run, Vick delivers to Celek down the seam. Up top, you can see Jason Avant has a block set up for a screen to Jackson. And the other option is handing it off to McCoy.

One key here is that the control is all in the hands of the quarterback. Once the call is made by Kelly, Vick is the one who has to assess the defense and make the decision. The rest of the players don’t know what he’s going to do. They just do their jobs. Avant goes to block the DB. Jackson steps back in case the screen comes his way. And the offensive line executes its blocks.

Lots of geekery, but if you can handle it, go read.

Now, we’ll wait for the NFL to issue a mandate that you can’t run that play, it’s a glitch which EA hasn’t patched yet!