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Jalen Hurts and Kevin Patullo Don’t Seem to Think that Snapping the Ball with One Second on the Play Clock is a Big Deal
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Couple of quotes this week about the Eagles’ being super slow in snapping the ball. They’re actually the NFL’s slowest team when measured in how close to the play clock they’re snapping the ball:
“‘So, I don’t know how big of an issue it is,’ he said.”
Here’s what Kevin Patullo said about it earlier in the week:
Q. I mean, a lot of the plays, the snaps are going off at the clock. I assume that’s because he’s getting to the line too late or– (Jeff McLane)
Kevin Patullo: When you look at that, I don’t think it has really anything [to do] with getting to the line too late. I know we get out of the huddle, for the most part, the guys get out at a decent pace, and so it’s just a matter of just orchestrating what we have within each play. Whether it’s a motion to shift, if there’s a couple plays in one, if there’s something we’re looking for, if we’re trying to ID stuff. Knock on wood, fortunately we have not had delay of games. We’ve got to continue to do [well] in that area. I think as far as that, there’s a piece of it. Then sometimes, we’re able to do different things on the ball, and that picks up the pace obviously, too.
This is a good topic. A multi-pronged topic. Avoiding delay of game is one thing, and they’ve evaded those flags all season long.
It’s the lateness in snapping the ball, combined with Tyler Steen’s silent counting tapping of Cam Jurgens, that creates repeated situations in which we think defenders are able to time their get off in advantageous ways. There’s no statistic that proves this, but the eyeball test sure does support the thought that defensive linemen in particular are able to pounce on predictable and plodding snaps. The Eagles lead the NFL in stuffed runs and there’s plenty of video out there showing Jurgens completely whiffing on blocks after snapping the ball, so if you trust your gut, you believe that they’re making it way too easy for opposing players to jump, which would help explain why the O-line has been so underwhelming this season.
But the main caveat here isn’t necessarily when they snap the ball, it’s when they break the huddle. How much time do they have to get up to the line and diagnose the defense and make adjustments? The Eagles use no-huddle at a top-5 NFL rate (17%), but it’s not combined with tempo, and it’s always out of the shotgun. Jordan Mailata mentioned this back in September when he went on the record saying they needed to break the huddle earlier:
That’s one of the better quotes of the entire season. They just haven’t been giving themselves enough time to complete the entirety of the process, i.e., deliver the play call, break the huddle, analyze the defense, make adjustments, then snap the ball. And in plenty of situations, as Patullo mentions, the Eagles have several checks built into base play calls, so Jalen Hurts goes up to the line with a simple concept and the leeway to shift based on what the defense is showing. Ideally, the more time you have to diagnose, the more likely you are to make a good decision.
On the flipside, the Birds were a really conservative team in 2024 and ran the ball well and chewed clock and dominated time of possession, so it’s not like there was any urgency in firing off plays. This isn’t Rich Rodriguez trying to cram 100 offensive plays into a game, and/or go three-and-out and put the defense right back on the field. It’s deliberate. But the Eagles haven’t been able to do it this season the way they did last season, which is why the offensive process looks noticeably janky at times.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com