Eagles

Brian Johnson Nodding in Approval as Jalen Hurts Throws into Triple Coverage on a “Four Verticals” Call to End the Eagles’ Season

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jan 12th, 2026 · 9:50 AM EST

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There’s been a lot of chatter about the final play from Sunday’s loss.

Jalen Hurts threw into triple coverage for Dallas Goedert as the Eagles pulled “four verticals” out of their high school playbook, a failed attempt to move sticks on 4th and 11 with seven San Francisco players defending four Birds.

Here’s the play itself, and a log of what was called on the final drive:

Here are all the plays, in order, the Eagles ran on their final drive yesterday, with a ✅ for completions and an ✖️ for sacks or incompletions:

✅ 4-Verts
✅ 4-hitches
✖️ Slant-flat / Smash
✅ Mesh
✅ Mesh
✅ 4-hitches
✖️ Double-slant / Smash
✖️ Double-slant / Verts
✖️ Spacing… pic.twitter.com/r6cClVHfmi

— Kevin Smith (@KTSmithFFSN) January 12, 2026

There was much of the same throughout that entire drive. A lot of 2×2 in 11 personnel, predictable routes that we’ve seen all season long.

Here’s the rest of that tweet from Kevin Smith:

1. These are all routes we run in our high school program. Which isn’t to say you have to be intricate to succeed. But this is elementary stuff.

2. There was no motion, no pocket movement, no QB draws or designed runs. Nothing to make the defense uncomfortable. Just mirrored routes and basic concepts from static 2×2 and 3×1 sets.

3. The final play had no chance to succeed. It was 4th-and-11. The LBs are dropping deep. You have to have something underneath to hold them, or to provide a catch-and-run option. To make it worse, Philly used a time out to set this up. I understand the frustration of Eagles’ fans with their offense. This drive was unimaginative, to say the least.

They called a timeout and came out with four verticals. Somewhere, Brian Johnson was watching on his recliner, smiling. What’s worse is that if they had kept the timeout, they would have had all three remaining, enough to stop the clock three times and force a punt with a hold, likely giving them time for a Hail Mary heave at the end of the game.

At the same time, you’re looking at 2nd and 11 after taking a sack on 1st down at the San Francisco 20. Throw something easy on second down and try to make 3rd and 4th down more manageable. Even if you got it to 3rd and 6 or 4th and 6 that would have been much more tenable than 4th and 11. But they failed to pick up any yards at all, forcing themselves into a crap play call to end the game.

Put four verticals into the bagster!