Eagles

Jim Schwartz Says Eagles Blew Defensive Call on Josh Sweat’s Strip Sack

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Dec 15th, 2020 · 1:21 PM EST

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Interesting quote from Jim Schwartz at Tuesday’s press conference.

He doesn’t typically give us X’s and O’s to work with, but he was answering a question about Kevon Seymour and backup secondary players when he randomly dropped this nugget:

“K’Von Wallace stepped in. Marcus Epps stepped in. Jalen Mills had to move to corner. There were a lot of moving parts in those things and we were playing a lot of zone. Generally, zone defenses take a lot of adjustments and calls and things like that and for the most part I thought those guys did a pretty good job.

Our worst execution of a defensive call was Josh Sweat’s forced fumble. They came out, we had miscommunication there. But Shaun Bradley, who was out there pretty much for his first extended playing time, did a good job getting a receiver covered down the middle even though we didn’t have the overlap that we needed, we were able to buy a little bit of time for Josh to come back.”

Huh, well that’s intriguing. That strip sack was a huge defensive play and really swung the pendulum back in the Eagles favor. It was definitely a turning point.

Here’s the play again, from the all-22 film with both the wide angle and back angle:

Jim Schwartz, at Tuesday's presser, said the "worst execution of a defensive call" was on Josh Sweat's forced fumble.

They had a miscommunication here but Shaun Bradley was able to slide back and get close enough to Emmanuel Sanders to make Taysom Hill hesitate: pic.twitter.com/RFKrsqN6ob

— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) December 15, 2020

Yeah, you can see it there. They actually send three guys into that shallow area of the zone, and Emmanuel Sanders is coming out of the slot with a straight shot down the field. Bradley sees it and is able to stay with him long enough to force the hesitation from Taysom Hill, who pauses and then gets sacked.

Here’s a freeze frame:

Looked for a moment there like Hill had Sanders down the seam. I wonder if Drew Brees lets that ball go and the Eagles get torched. We’ll never know! Thankfully.

But yeah, some blown coverage there and you see four Eagles around Tre’Quan Smith in that red trapezoidal figure I drew. If Bradley doesn’t slide back and stick with Sanders, that’s a Nate Gerry/Chase Claypool-esque touchdown.

Thanks to Jim Schwartz for sharing this nugget with us.