Zone Read: Eagles-Seahawks, the Day After
GAME BALL OFFENSE: ZACH ERTZ
Talk about slim pickings.
Ertz had two catches for 39 yards, including a 35-yard touchdown. It’s tough to figure out why the Eagles didn’t try harder to get him more involved against Seattle’s linebackers.
“I think I was open a few times,” Ertz said. “Maybe the protection wasn’t perfect so he came off of me early. But hats off to them. They were better than us. They eliminated some things.”
The Eagles had to know going in that they had tough matchups on the perimeter: Jeremy Maclin vs. Richard Sherman and Cooper against whoever was lined up on the other side.
Darren Sproles was not targeted, and the Eagles couldn’t get much going to Matthews. This seemed like a game where Ertz should have been given more opportunities.
GAME BALL DEFENSE: MYCHAL KENDRICKS
I thought he and Fletcher Cox really played well. Each guy finished with 11 tackles.
Kendricks was used as a spy on Wilson on multiple occasions, and without the benefit of having re-watched, it seemed like he did an excellent job. Early on, Kendricks forced Wilson out of the pocket, and Barwin picked up a sack. Later, he forced an intentional grounding. And Kendricks also got Wilson to throw the ball away on one occasion.
There weren’t a lot of bright spots, but Kendricks was one of them.
Overall, the Eagles limited Lynch to 86 yards on 23 carries (3.7 YPC). But they couldn’t get off the field on third down (Seattle went 7-for-16), and Wilson made a lot of plays where he bought time and found receivers downfield.
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THAT’S WHAT HE SAID
“I wouldn’t necessarily call this one ‘competing’ on offense. I think we sh*t the bed pretty much as much as you could.” – JASON KELCE
A big part of the story on offense was that the line got pushed around. The Eagles looked like they were getting on track against bad defenses (Dallas and Tennessee), but they did not get the job done against Seattle’s front.
McCoy carried 17 times for 50 yards (2.9 YPC), and Sanchez was sacked three times.
“I think if you look at the games where we’ve had success on offense, especially a lot of success, the vast majority of them, we’ve run the ball effectively,” said Kelce. “I think this offense, just like any offense, goes the way the offensive line goes. And when the offensive line is moving guys to the ground and protecting the quarterback, we tend to succeed. We have the playmakers to do that. Really, when we struggle, it’s when the guys up front don’t get it done. And today, I don’t think that we got it done.”
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FIVE THOUGHTS AND LEFTOVERS
1. A couple coaching decisions to get to here. With 1:08 left in the first half, the Seahawks faced a 3rd-and-13 from their own 30, and Kelly used a timeout.
“I thought our defense was going to stop them on 3rd-and-13, so I was trying to give us time on the clock so we had ample enough time if we were going to put a drive together to try to get some points at the end of the half,” Kelly said. “I didn’t think when we sacked them, if it stayed where it was, I wasn’t going to call a timeout… but when you sack them and you get them back and it’s 3rd-and-13, hopefully we get a stop on defense and now we’ve got the ball back with about a minute to go in the game, and we got a timeout.”
No issues from me here. Yes, the offense was brutal in the first half, but anyone who’s watched Kelly over the past two years knows he always believes his unit will get it together on the next drive. At 3rd-and-13, the odds are in your favor for a stop. It just didn’t work out that way. But I have no problem with the decision.
2. With 4:15 left in the game and the Eagles down 10, Kelly opted to punt on 4th-and-11 from the Philadelphia 26.
“I just didn’t think we were going to convert,” he said. “I didn’t want to give them the ball right there.”
It wasn’t an egregious error, but I think you have to go for it in that spot. The defense had already played a ton of snaps. You’re probably going to lose anyway. Why not at least take a shot?
Overall, the offensive game plan was pretty conservative, but I think that was probably the right call. A big part of coaching is knowing your personnel. And Kelly knew Sanchez against the Seahawks’ secondary was a bad matchup for the Eagles. In the first half, the offense ran it 14 times and called nine pass plays. The idea was to keep it close and perhaps steal the game at the end. That obviously didn’t work, but taking more chances on offense and cutting it loose would have only resulted in more turnovers.
3. During the week, we wrote about how the Seahawks were unconcerned with the Eagles’ tempo.
“They have to deal with us just like we have to deal with them,” said Sherman afterwards. “You can hurry up all you want, but if you cannot get yards, cannot complete passes, then it’s just quick three and outs.”
And that’s exactly how it played out. The Eagles couldn’t sustain drives and only ran 45 offensive plays.
The Seahawks ran the same defense they always run. They bank on having superior talent and being well-coached in their schemes. On most weeks, that’s good enough, and Seattle has only allowed 20 total points in the last three games combined.
“They were more vanilla today than they had been all season,” said Kelce. “They really did not do anything exotic. They played pretty much the same thing that they’ve done all year, their bread and butter, Cover 3. I thought that we were gonna be able to do a decent job running against them coming into the game. I thought we had some looks that we were gonna be good at and we just didn’t execute.”
Added Matthews: “It’s what they normally do. That’s the thing about ‘em. They stick to what they know, and they’re really good at it. And they play really sound. They’ve got great players across the board. That’s their M.O. That’s their mantra. And they did really good tonight. They got the best of us.”
4. Defensively, a couple plays stand out. Wilson kept the ball on a zone read, Trent Cole crashed, and he took off for a 26-yard touchdown.
“I was telling the guys it was a bad call,” said Billy Davis. “I all-out blitzed and I put Trent Cole in a bad spot and then the read option hit the all-out blitz. And then Trent is responsible, but as he’s going forward for his blitz, he got out-flanked quickly and it was a bad call. I wish I had that one back.”
Later, Malcolm Jenkins got beaten for a 23-yard touchdown against Baldwin.
“I went all in and was trying to keep them off-balance and I went all-out blitz and they had nice protection,” said Davis. “That gave them one more second to hold it and [Baldwin] put a nice move on Malcolm Jenkins. I wish I had those two calls back.”
This was one of the only times this year where an opposing offense took advantage of the Eagles’ decision to stay in base at times against 11 personnel. I have to go back and watch, but during live action, I counted three completions of 15+ yards against Jenkins when he was in the slot. On the other hand, Brandon Boykin gave up a 20-yarder too.
5. Some leftovers… No one wanted to talk about it afterwards, but clearly the Eagles were frustrated with the officiating during the game. There was a missed ineligible man downfield call, and Wilson got away with throwing the ball away while standing in the pocket. I asked Kelly specifically if he got an explanation on those calls.
“Yeah, that his receiver was in the area, and it doesn’t matter if the ball goes, according to them, 100 yards over the receiver. They’re allowed to do that.”
Kelly hasn’t been that animated with the refs in two years. …The defense seemed gassed on the final drive, but performed well during the stretch before that, producing three punts and a fumble. The offense just couldn’t take advantage. …Jenkins had a chance to make things interesting in the fourth, but dropped a potential pick-six.
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