Eagles vs. Dolphins game film.

It’s not pretty, but there’s a lot to look at from an X’s and O’s perspective, so that’s our silver lining here. We can resurrect the All-22 column with some decent quotes about what went right and what went wrong in the hideous 37-31 loss.

Our first quote is from offensive coordinator Mike Groh, on Carson Wentz and a moving pocket:

Q. In that game, it seemed like there was an effort to kind of move the pocket a little bit more with QB Carson Wentz. First, is that fair? And if so, why? (Dave Zangaro)

MIKE GROH: I think I stated last week that we have a menu of plays every week on the game plan that we can go to. Those were effective plays and we got a lot of production out of those plays. Carson did a good job. The guys out there did a good job of executing the plays. Made some plays out of the pocket. So like I said, we have those available to us. Coach called them in the right spots. Credit to everybody.

Agreed, Wentz looked better on the move, both on scripted and un-scripted plays.

This one stood out to me:

Under center, pre-snap motion, some play-action to get Miami moving laterally. It’s not a fantastic throw by Wentz, but he hits Alshon Jeffery for a big gain.

I liked that call because it was one of the few times they were able to get a little misdirection going, which in turn lengthened the play and allowed somebody to get open. Wentz also had a couple of short release options there, one of which pulled the linebacker out of the space where Jeffery ended up catching the ball.

Second quote, also from Mike Groh:

Q. TE Zach Ertz has more catches than any tight end in the league, but his numbers are way down on third down. Sunday was like the fifth time in seven games that he hasn’t had a third-down catch. Are teams doing something specifically to take him away on third down? (Paul Domowitch)

MIKE GROH: I think he’s drawing some unique coverages. And that’s week to week. It depends on who we’re playing. We’re obviously aware of that and try to put plays in that would free him up in those situations.

But it’s not like they’re calling us and saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to double Zach on this one.’ We have our ways to try to unlock him in those types of situations, but that’s where other guys have to step up. If there are two on him, then it’s one-on-one somewhere else.

The Eagles finished 7-14 on third down Sunday while Ertz individually turned six targets into three catches for 24 yards.

Going down the list of third down passing plays on the film, here’s who Carson Wentz targeted:

  • 3rd and 7 – Miles Sanders release (15 yard completion for touchdown)
  • 3rd and 5 – Greg Ward (incomplete)
  • 3rd and 7 – J.J. Arcega-Whiteside (incomplete)
  • 3rd and 3 – Nelson Agholor (complete, six yards into tight window)
  • 3rd and 6 – Alshon Jeffery (complete, 16 yards)
  • 3rd and 2 – Alshon Jeffery (incomplete)
  • 3rd and 2 – Dallas Goedert (complete)
  • 3rd and 15 – J.J. Arcega-Whiteside (15 yard completion for touchdown)
  • 3rd and 3 – Dallas Goedert (complete)
  • 3rd and 5 – Alshon Jeffery (10 yard touchdown pass)
  • 3rd and 7 – sacked (play before missed field goal)
  • 3rd and 5 – Alshon Jeffery (defensive pass interference)
  • 3rd and 14 – Alshon Jeffery (incomplete)
  • 3rd and 4 – Alshon Jeffery (offensive pass interference)
  • 3rd and 16 – Alshon Jeffery (incomplete)

So Ertz had zero total targets on third down. He wasn’t on the field for all of those plays, and I didn’t see a ton that jumped out at me on film, but on the JJAW touchdown, Wentz looked in his direction before rolling right and waiting for somebody else to get open:

Trips left, Ertz on the weakside with Miami in cover 2. They had safety help on the Ertz side, which is why Wentz didn’t try to shove that ball in there. Nice job by him to extend the play instead.

Here’s the moment where he looked in his tight end’s direction, but decided not to try the tight window pass:

Third quote, this one from defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz:

Q. Is there any merit to the idea of going with a two-deep safety look when you get into a game like that where the corners aren’t winning their 50/50s and their shot plays are coming back to bite you? (Tim McManus)

JIM SCHWARTZ: Yeah, we did that against Green Bay. That was our adjustment in the Green Bay game, to try to — because [Packers WR] Devante Adams was doing those same kind of things making plays.

When we went to it in this game, the quarterback moved the ball down the middle, which is where you’re weak. Again, we sort of decided to go with our strength. What has been our strength over the last month have been our corners defending one-on-one on the outside part of the field and playing tight coverage and playing penalty free.

We didn’t get that done in this game.

Miami had a couple looks for Mike Gesicki right in the middle of the field, as Schwartz mentions, when the Eagles played two deep safeties.

Here’s one of those plays:

Not sure who is responsible for what there, but Nigel Bradham isn’t close to Gesicki when the pass is completed. I think he’s actually responsible for the shallow crossing route, but I could be wrong. You see a bit of talking before the snap as well between Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod.

Looked like that coverage just broke down entirely, because there are three Dolphins wide open in the middle with nobody even close to them:

Finally, one longer quote from Schwartz, no video really necessary here, but something interesting statistically, where he talks about jump balls and how the Eagles just did a poor job in general with those:

…we were making two out of three of those plays over the previous five games or whatever it was. In this game — and when I say 50/50 ball, I mean a guy that’s covered but the quarterback still throws it. A 50/50 ball might be just lobbing the ball deep. It might be throwing a slant when the guy is covered. 50/50 is the guy is covered but the quarterback still throws it. I counted 13 50/50 balls and we only won four of them. So we were backwards.

….

we were probably in that 65% of winning those over the last month, and in this game we were whatever the four of 13 is, 30% or whatever it is. We were down in there. You just have to win your fair share of those and get them stopped in other ways..

Yeah, four of 13 comes out to 30.7%, so they won less than one-third of those 50/50 balls that Fitzpatrick put up there. If they were better on the 3rd and 13 heave or the Gesicki wheel route, that number improves to six of 13, which is 46% and likely results in an Eagles win.