Eagles

Sometimes the All-22 Eagles Film Makes You Scratch Your Head

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Dec 5th, 2023 · 2:28 PM EST

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I said we were done with the Niners game, but I lied. One clip I want to share, which is the all-22 from the second drive when Jalen Hurts slipped and took a huge loss, forcing a field goal attempt:

pic.twitter.com/TjYbhFHCiq

— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) December 5, 2023

I’m not some all-22 expert, but I skim the film and sometimes wonder what’s up with the Eagles’ route combinations (and Jalen’s decision making, to an extent).

For some context, the Birds are in 11 personnel here, so it’s three receivers, a running back, and a tight end. On the field are D’Andre Swift, Julio Jones, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Albert Okwuegbunam. It was 2nd and 6 at the San Francisco 14, and they had Jones run a five-yard curl, Swift leak out for a middle check down, and the other three run these intermediate post routes, all going to the right.

The logic? Maybe the down and distance justifies an end zone shot. If you throw incomplete, you come back on 3rd and 6, gain some yardage, then maybe shove your way to a first down.

There was probably a small window to hit Smith here, but Hurts is looking first at Brown. Swift is picked up by Dre Greenlaw while Fred Warner has eyes on Hurts. It was man coverage across the board, with four 1v1s –

It did look like Brown was held on the play, so maybe Jalen could have just chucked it into that corner and gotten a flag. Either way, falling incomplete in the end zone would have been a better result than a huge loss:

This is just one sequence, but it’s a little weird watching the Birds on tape, because you see these instances where they run clunky mirrored routes, or they’ve got 2-3 guys all going 10-15 yards down the field. Redundant vertical routes with nothing underneath, like two receivers running 15-20 yards into six defenders. And when the check downs are built in, sometimes Jalen is flushed and fleeing to his right before Swift or Kenny Gainwell even leak into the middle or the flat. It’s almost like Hurts taking off on his own replaces the dump off, or he looks at Brown and Smith only, then decides to get out of there. I can’t put a number on how many times I’ve watched live sequences where it seems like they have literally no options short of 10 yards, or Hurts just reads 1-2 to Brown and Smith before leaving the pocket.

It’s strange, because two of the biggest passing plays they had in this particular game were slants. It makes you wonder why we don’t see more of that. Short tosses, mesh concepts, picks and rubs – anything from that family of schematics. Dallas Goedert coming back should help, because Hurts trusts throwing to him a lot more than the other tight ends, but it doesn’t totally alleviate the problem, because it’s one of design and not personnel, save for the guy with the ball in his hands.