Welcome to the weekly All-22 Film article.

Today we’re gonna take a few quotes from defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and match them with ugly clips from Sunday’s loss.

I was going to start with the first first Stefon Diggs’ touchdown, but then decided to axe it, since we went over that on Monday. Let’s actually begin with a couple of quotes about the second TD, when the Eagles were playing single high safety and got beat deep on both sides of the field anyway.

Schwartz touched on that play briefly when answering this question:

It looked like there was some miscommunication at times on the backend. A, Is that fair? And B, if it is, what do you think the issues were?(John McMullen)

JIM SCHWARTZ: Yeah, 100% fair. As coaches, you go through a lot of things. Part of what you do in the National Football League is you try to manage where your matchups are and there are physical errors, there are technique errors or another guy makes a play, or something like that. That’s life in the NFL, but communication issues will get you beat quick.

I think one of the main things that came down – and you are probably talking about the play of guys wide open down the field. Our team needed us at that point. I think we had either just turned it over or just gone for a fourth down and they had the ball right around midfield, and it is our job to go out there and get a stop right there. That would give us a lot of momentum. Hold them out of field-goal range, get a three-and-out. Instead, not only did we not do our job, but we gave up a quick play. That is something that we can’t allow further in the future. It wasn’t just one guy open, there were three guys wide open on that play. It wasn’t a new coverage or anything else, but when it is all said and done, that is my responsibility and we can’t let it happen again.

That’s correct, this was after the failed 4th and 2 near midfield, which resulted in the Vikings getting the ball back and deciding to take a shot down the field, a sort of “momentum” play which carried over from the turnover on downs.

Here’s the play again:

Multiple guys are all over the place there. Rasul Douglas thinks he has help over the top. Malcolm Jenkins starts in that direction, but then cuts back to the left hash after the other two receivers break free. In the second part of the video clip, you can see the confusion with Rodney McLeod and the linebackers, who then bite on the play-action and bootleg.

There was a follow-up question at Tuesday’s presser:

Malcom Jenkins explained on that play why he didn’t make his assignment. What was the problem on the other side on the deep post? (Jeff McLane)

JIM SCHWARTZ: You guys know I never get into the specifics of each one. It is enough to say that we broke down. Anybody that watches it knows that you don’t scheme stuff up to have three guys running down the field. We want to try to get our corners some help. They were struggling in their matchups and we were trying to get them some help, and the opposite happened. We ended up getting in a position where we weren’t helped, and it is not a good feeling.

We paid the ultimate price for it. Not just a touchdown, but a touchdown in a tough situation. That is a situation that defenses take a lot of pride in. There’s a turnover or a situation where you reach that point of the game, you need to come up with that play and good defenses do. We are still striving to get to that point where we can be called a good defense.

Total breakdown on that play. Multiple guys on the wrong page with one another. Jenkins told reporters he vacated the deep end of the field.

Second topic, Jim Schwrtz:

We ran a zero blitz into a stone cold, stone wall on one. Malcolm was able to make a good play and get the guy out of bounds, but they weren’t going to let themselves be blitzed in this game. That was sort of the way it was. Whether it is an edge rush or anything else, you need maybe a little bit more in your coverage, make the quarterback hold the ball a little bit more. All of those things go together. We need a little bit more out of our defense in general, not just our edge pass rushers.

This was the play where Adam Thielen couldn’t get his second foot down and was ruled out of bounds instead of getting the touchdown:

That’s the zero blitz, with Kirk Cousins spotting Rodney McLeod coming.

This is similar to the Lions game, the Marvin Jones touchdown, where the cover zero blitz results in a 3v3 in man coverage while you get an 8v7 advantage at the line. Again, they couldn’t get there before Cousins just lobbed the ball up in the air for Thielen to go get:

Nice job by Malcolm Jenkins to get over there and push Thielen out, but if you’re gonna bring eight guys against seven, especially bringing the safety through the B Gap, then you’ve gotta disguise it better, because Cousins saw it coming and went for the pylon.

Third topic, Schwartz:

I thought really it probably doesn’t get a lot of attention, but I thought a really big play in the game was their first drive. We had them third down and 12 or third down and 13, and we gave up a first down. The quarterback was able to hold the ball just for a minute and get past Rodney. Really good play. Guy made a great throw, a guy made a great catch. You sort of tip your hat to them.

Yeah, this was a big play. First drive, after Fletcher Cox had just ripped off a tackle for loss, chance to get off the field.

Two safeties here, quarters coverage, actually a really impressive throw by Kirk Cousins, who chucks it while McLeod’s head is turned:

That’s a rather nasty throw.

McLeod was right there, but look at the position of the receiver, just hitting the break, when Cousins gets rid of the ball:

Brilliant inside shoulder toss down the field, which was thrown confidently with a safety right on top of his receiver. Cousins was really good on Sunday even when the Eagles weren’t giving him wide open targets.