Brian Johnson Elaborates on Target Distribution "Based on What the Defense Presented to Us"
Last post on this topic before it jumps the shark completely. Nick Sirianni spoke on Tuesday about Jalen Hurts only targeting three receivers on Sunday night, and Brian Johnson was asked about it Wednesday:
Q. Head Coach Nick Sirianni was asked about the three receivers getting the targets. Obviously you are going to go through your top three guys, but he also mentioned many times a wise man avoids all extremes. You don’t want to become too predictable with just throwing to the three guys every game; is that correct, or are you okay playing it that way? (Jeff McLane)
BRIAN JOHNSON: I think just based on the type of defensive structure that we got, with how they’re playing, it’s going to create a lot of one-on-ones on the perimeter. You know, with the style of defense that we got, we feel really, really good about those matchups on the perimeter. That’s just how it kind of goes. So, some weeks it’ll be like that. Some weeks it won’t.
I think for us, in particular just in that particular game in terms of how we were getting played defensively, there were a lot of opportunities for one-on-one matchups with two great options.
Q. Were there missed opportunities from QB Jalen Hurts not seeing those other guys when he should have? (Jeff McLane)
BRIAN JOHNSON: I think the ball for the most part went where it was supposed to go based on what we were trying to accomplish and based on what the defense presented to us. So, I don’t think that was anything that was intentional other than the defense — coverage dictates where the ball goes sometimes. When you get some of that single-high defense like that, you get favorable matchups, one-on-ones on the outside, and that’s why you saw the ball go there.
Johnson gets to it in that last sentence there. Single-high safety.
On a sequence like this one, with the Eagles going empty set with trips right, you get your top guys 1v1 on the perimeter:
A few plays later, the Eagles went with their common split back 11 personnel look, and with the safety shading to DeVonta Smith’s side, A.J. Brown was 1v1 on the outside:
Moral of the story – the shots were there. They just couldn’t hit it big. A.J. Brown had a couple of deep looks that he couldn’t reel in, and Hurts just missed Smith on an improvised end zone shot that would have made it a one-score ballgame.
Again, nobody is going to argue with throwing the ball as many times as possible to Brown, Smith, and Dallas Goedert, but when the coaches come out and tell everybody that’s the plan, it works simultaneously as a confirmation that the other skill players are just out there for the sake of being out there.