Eagles-Packers Film Review: Jalen Hurts didn’t play particularly well but he didn’t get much help from offensive design

Offensive analysis from Philadelphia’s Wild Card win over Green Bay.

The Eagles won a playoff game against a very good Green Bay Packers team! This should be celebrated, and I feel confident about the ability level of this team. If you want to celebrate this win without looking at the negatives, then this article may not be for you. And that’s OK! I’m just going to be honest in this one, because the passing game was a concern. As it has been far too often this season.

Offense

I’m going to start by quoting … myself! I tweeted this out on Monday:

I’m not entirely through the game yet, but I’m more convinced than ever that the play design is average. However, the coaching staff is telling Hurts to be risk-averse.

This is the #1 defense and run game in the league. I believe this staff believes that we can win any game we play without turnovers.

I don’t love the strategy, but they won 22-10 yesterday against a good Packers team. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant. I think it’s the reality.

FYI – this still doesn’t mean the play designs can’t be better and Hurts can’t play better. Those things are still true.

Let’s ask you a question. If the Eagles play the Lions in the Conference Championship and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl without turning the ball over, do you think they win the game? Essentially, the Eagles believe that they will. The offensive strategy is to run the football and play risk-averse football. That’s the truth. It is all over the film. It’s not my personal preference, but the Eagles have won a lot of games this season playing this style. So, it’s hard to be overly critical.

However, despite all that, I will be critical of some things. Let’s go.

Let’s begin with a touchdown! The Eagles took advantage of the Packers’ fumble on the opening kickoff. It’s not a fantastic design (shock), and no one is open, but I was so glad to see Jalen Hurts stay in the pocket here and wait for something to come open rather than try to escape the pocket. The pass protection here is unbelievable, but one of the reasons that it is so good is because of Hurts’ mobility. The Packers use a ‘cage rush’ and don’t get upfield quickly. Hurts takes advantage of this and picks them off. What a lovely start.

I saw a lot of complaints about this 3rd down call online. Sorry to be controversial, but I don’t hate this call as much as others. I think Hurts should keep it and take advantage of the 7v6 in the box. My only complaint is that when you run this RPO, there is always a chance that you may throw it out wide. Therefore, don’t throw it behind DeVonta Smith. That’s just stupid. Put a tight end or Johnny Wilson to that side of the formation.

The Eagles’ run game wasn’t as dominant as I would have liked in this game. My biggest complaint was that they didn’t pull their lineman enough. When they did pull a lineman, they had a lot of success. Having Dallas Goedert back made a difference in the run game, too. He was outstanding as a blocker throughout the game. This is pin/pull about as well as it could possibly be blocked. This is beautiful. Saquon Barkley looked as explosive as ever, too.

I would love to see the Eagles’ rushing numbers this year when running Counter (or a variation of Counter). I’m convinced they would average something absurd, like 7 yards per carry. It just feels like the angles they create are outstanding and Saquon always reads it so well. On this occasion, Hurts keeps it at the last minute and picks up a big gain. Hurts was significantly better when running upfield in this game, and the coaching staff really needs to get him to stop bouncing it outside. He had a few frustrating runs in the game.

I don’t think any play symbolizes my earlier point about being risk-averse than this play. This is post-wheel. The Eagles have scored on this play a few times. The Eagles get an obvious one-on-one matchup with Saquon Barkley on a linebacker. He doesn’t get open early, so Hurts eliminates him from his progression. I think he eliminates him too early. One of the reasons you want a quarterback to eliminate what isn’t there quickly is so he doesn’t get hit in the pocket. I want Hurts to be aggressive and try to force this into the corner of the end zone. Barkley is an outstanding receiver, and he could make a play on a perfectly thrown football. We don’t see the Eagles make these risky tight-window throws and I think it comes from the very top. It’s the Eagles’ philosophy.

Also, I have been banging on about the Eagles’ backside concepts all season but I could count on one hand the amount of times Hurts gets to his backside reads and completes a pass on time. I just don’t like how the Eagles design their backside timing routes. They rarely time up with Hurts’ drop. And Hurts is not a good backside thrower anyway. I would much rather Hurts take a slightly risky shot in the corner of the end zone than get to his backside reads.

I don’t think you could design a worst play against a cover 0 blitz on first down if you tried. I think I could spin a random play generator on Madden and come up with something better than this. The Eagles shift Barkley, and he is followed by a linebacker, which make this look like a pretty obvious cover 0 man blitz. The Packers do send a cover 0 man blitz. The Eagles decide to run a running back screen. Barkley is literally staring right at the guy that is covering him. How on earth was this ever going to work? Someone explain?

Offensive football is a lot about misdirection. There’s nothing wrong with this design. It’s a standard play-action play with the defense being stretched horizontally by the motion. It’s fine. But the execution is poor. If you want to stretch the defense horizontally, why not run DeVonta Smith or Jahan Dotson to the flat rather than Goedert? Goedert runs this route very slowly and doesn’t sell the stretch. Similarly, the play-action fake is weak and the Packers’ linebackers do not buy it for a second. This results in there being no window to hit AJ Brown on the quick slant. In order to create this window, you need to draw the linebackers up and stretch the defense vertically. They don’t do this, so Hurts has nowhere to go with the football.

Here’s another design issue. How many times this season have we seen dropbacks that do not time up with the drop? This is another simple design. It’s fine. The Eagles isolate AJ Brown and get him one-on-one. It’s a good play. Jalen Hurts takes a 5-step drop and by the time he is ready to throw, the play is already dead. This should be a quick slant. This isn’t a one-off, either. This has happened consistently over the past few months. The finer details matter.

This is the worst design of the game. I’ve not got a clue what’s going on. Half the receivers are jogging. No one seems to believe they are going to get open. Do you know what is worse about this one? The three previous plays were all runs. Surely, you want to design your pass game to take advantage of the elite run game. Going to empty after three straight runs takes away that possibility. I don’t understand it. I’m not going to defend Hurts for some of his play in this game, as I’ve already said, he could have been more aggressive with throws such as the wheel to Barkley. But this is just bad design, straight up.

I’m going to give you some stats from my podcast co-host Shane Haff that summarizes what I feel.

The offense was called with the expectation that the defense would give up 10 points. It was super conservative/risk averse. Hurts didn’t have a TWP (turnover worthy play) and only has 2 in his last 7 games, but he has 0 BTT (big time throws) in that same time frame and has attempted only 10 passes of 20+ yards while having one of the best deep ball receivers in the NFL.

Last year Hurts had the lowest expected completion percentage in the NFL and was 4th in completion percentage over expectation. This year he has the 5th lowest expected completion percentage and the highest completion percentage over expectation.

For the 2nd year in a row Hurts is being given some of the most difficult throws in the NFL and making the most of it. It’ time for the offensive design to step up and do its part.

When we talk about giving Hurts easy throws, this is what I am on about. This is so easy it blows my mind that we don’t do it more. Unlike the above play, it takes advantage of the Eagles’ run game, and this play came on the back of two straight runs. It doesn’t have to be this hard. Just do this more.

What an incredible play by Dallas Goedert. Rather than throw a running back screen into a clear cover 0 blitz, the Eagles decide to give Goedert a chance to make a cornerback look silly. And he makes him look very silly indeed!

For all the talk of poor offensive design, this is a beauty. I’m gutted this one didn’t work. I was worried about AJ Brown’s knee live, but I thought he looked fine on the rewatch. However, I think he’s just ever so slightly slower than usual on this one and Hurts just puts too much on it. It was so close. I hope we see this one again, as I still think the Eagles can catch another team out. The big risk would be running it on 4th and 1… gulp.

Let’s end with Counter. It doesn’t get any better than this. I hope the Eagles run a variation of Counter 20 times against the Rams on Sunday. If they can’t stop it, then keep doing it.

To summarize…

• The Eagles’ playing risk-averse football is having an impact on the passing game.
• Jalen Hurts did not play particularly well in this one.
• Jalen Hurts did not get a lot of help from the offensive design. Some of the 3rd down stuff was appalling.
• The Eagles’ philosophy is that the above does not matter that much right now. This is a team that arguably has the best defense and best running game in the NFL. They believe they will win games if they do not turn the football over.

Personally, I can accept this style when you take an early lead. However, if the Eagles do end up in a shootout one game, I hope that this team has some better pass plays up their sleeves. Because right now, I’m not sure it’s good enough to win the Super Bowl.

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and ask any questions. If you enjoyed this piece, you can find more of my work and podcast here.