One of the most-maligned Eagles plays of 2023 was “four verticals,” when typically three receivers and a tight end would all run go routes and Jalen Hurts would get clobbered for a sack before anybody could get their head turned around.

It made a reappearance on Sunday afternoon.

This was the 3rd and 1 play right before halftime that resulted in a sack:

Saquon Barkley badly whiffed in protection, which led to the Myles Garrett field goal block and the Cleveland defensive touchdown. You needed a yard there to move the sticks after Saquon ran out of bounds and failed to convert on second down, putting the Eagles in the 3rd and 1 to begin with. Sirianni said after the game that he made the play call:

I’ll say this: I made the call on third and one. Nobody else but me. You know, like I said to you, I did that on defense one time as well.

I made a call on defense. It didn’t work out just so you know. I’ll put that out there. That wasn’t on Vic. I won’t tell you which play. I’m going to do that from time to time. This time it didn’t work. That’s on nobody else but me.

Then we’ve got to do a couple things a little bit different with how we – (Myles Garrett) is really good at blocking kicks. 95, man, holy crap. That guy is something else. Myles Garrett, I’ve never seen him — maybe in 2020. Yeah, I saw him up close and personal in 2020.

But that dude is something else. He’s as advertised. We watched him all week and we thought about him all week. I don’t think anybody thought of Myles Garrett as much as we did. We had a plan for him on an offense and then he makes a play on special teams.

Okay anyway, kind of a meandering quote but you see he’s still coming in and calling offensive plays from time to time, and even admitted to calling a defensive play as well. In this case, it’s a zero blitz from Jim Schwartz, so all of the receivers are 1v1. You’ll take A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in that situation all day long; they just couldn’t protect Hurts long enough or well enough to even get the shot off, which resulted in the longer field goal attempt and ensuing block. Typically if you’ve got man-to-man coverage, then taking a shot to A.J. or Smitty is something you’d really feel good about, but the protection wasn’t good enough and it backfired on them, which is what we oftentimes saw last year.