Eagles

What the Hell was this Sean Desai Call?

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Dec 11th, 2023 · 2:16 PM EST

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The Eagles gave up a comical touchdown drive before halftime on Sunday night. There was a lot of talk about Kelee Ringo getting flagged twice on the same play, but look at the pass rush here:

abominable: pic.twitter.com/c2bNohGPNP

— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) December 11, 2023

The Eagles are playing dime. Nine guys across the line of scrimmage, press-man coverage, just one linebacker on the field with (presumably) Kevin Byard and Sydney Brown off screen. They walk Zach Cunningham and Haason Reddick up to the line and give Dak Prescott a different look.

But Reddick doesn’t rush, Cunningham is responsible for Tony Pollard coming out of the backfield, and Josh Sweat gets crushed by Turd Ferguson on a chip, so the result is a triple team on Fletcher Cox and only Brandon Graham gets anywhere close to the quarterback:

It’s a weird design to begin with. You’ve got two guys more than five yards past the line of gain, but press-man across the board with a three-man rush.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with Reddick lining up at defensive tackle. In fact, the Eagles have stacked defensive ends on the interior for obvious passing downs over many years with various defensive coordinators. But using him as a spy is wasteful, especially in a scenario where you’ve got a rookie corner 1v1 on the outside and two safeties completely off the screen. Reddick was one of the only guys getting close to Dak on Sunday night, and sacked him earlier on this same drive, so dropping him off in some sort of disguised look is beyond fugazi.

Make it make sense!