Zone Read: Eagles-49ers, the Day After
GAME BALL OFFENSE: JEREMY MACLIN
I thought about not handing one out to this side of the ball, but decided to give Maclin the nod.
The Eagles’ No. 1 wide receiver did a fantastic job of hauling in a Foles pass with one hand near the sideline for 22 yards on 3rd-and-14 during the 90-yard drive late in the fourth quarter. Just a phenomenal catch at a critical time. He had a somewhat similar grab last week against Washington.
Maclin had other opportunities as well, but Foles overthrew him on a couple deep balls.
He wasn’t far off from a big statistical day. In a game where most offensive players came up small, Maclin seemed like one of the few exceptions.
GAME BALL DEFENSE: MALCOLM JENKINS
Maybe there will be a point this season where it goes to someone else, but not yet.
Jenkins gave the Eagles a 14-10 lead by picking Kaepernick off in the second quarter and then delivering a tremendous return 53 yards to the end zone. Jenkins has now notched an interception in three straight games.
I’ll fully admit that I had my doubts about this signing in the offseason, but so far Jenkins looks like the best safety the Eagles have had in years.
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THAT’S WHAT HE SAID
“We called the game a lot differently than we normally do when we’ve got the other guys in there, but that’s just par for the course. You’ve gotta try and make some decisions in terms of which ways we can go with it and run certain plays just because of who’s in the game.” – CHIP KELLY
That is as honest an answer as you’ll get from a head coach. Kelly is basically saying he can’t call everything he wants to call because of the state of the offensive line. Two things here.
One, Kelly knows it’s on him to come up with a solution, especially since Kelce and Mathis are going to be out for awhile. This is part of the reason Jeffrey Lurie is paying Kelly $6.5 million – to come up with answers when circumstances are less than ideal.
Two, it didn’t seem like Kelly called all that different of a game. He knew he had three backup linemen starting, but from what I saw, he called a normal game. This is something we’ll look out for when the All-22 is released.
The Eagles have the Rams and the Giants in the next two weeks. We’ll see what Kelly comes up with going forward.
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FIVE THOUGHTS AND LEFTOVERS
1. I thought Jenkins struck the right tone when asked if he was frustrated with the offensive output.
“We can’t come out and expect [the offense] to put up 40 every game,” he said. “I thought we did a great job of handling that. We scored two times on special teams, once on defense. That’s really all we needed. [If] we get one more stop on defense, that last drive we had is for a field goal and not a touchdown. The way they drove down when we needed it, they go 90 yards and couldn’t quite get it into the end zone because we were going for six. But that’s a field goal. It’s funny how this league works. That margin of error is so small, especially on the road vs. a well-coached, talented team like the 49ers, it’s those little things. But it’s encouraging knowing that all else fails, we’re still one play away from winning.”
The defense was far from perfect, but the guys on that side of the ball battled. Even after the two failed plays from the 1 yard line, the Eagles forced a three-and-out, and the offense got the ball back with 1:23 left.
I’m hesitant to call this a step in the right direction, but the defense definitely rebounded from a bad performance against Washington in Week 3.
2. Lots of talk today about the two play-calls from the 1. We discussed this yesterday, but I can’t say I have a huge issue with the decision-making there.
If you want to make the argument that they should have at least tried to run it in on third down, I’m OK with that. But given how putrid the run game has been for two weeks in a row, I’m not sure handing it off would have given the Eagles that much better of a chance.
On third down, had McCoy done a better job in protection, perhaps Foles would have had a chance to complete the pass to Brent Celek. On fourth down, based on the replays I have seen, it just seemed like a high degree of difficulty throw, regardless of where Foles went with the football. I do, however, understand why Kelly wanted to move the pocket for him and get him away from pressure (even though Foles took a hit anyway).
3. We’re a quarter of the way into the season, and Foles’ inconsistency continues. He followed up a great game against Washington with a clunker against the 49ers. Foles’ 42.3 passer rating was his second-worst as a starter. And his 4.5 YPA was the third-worst of his career.
On the season, Foles is completing just 57.8 percent of his passes (29th) and averaging 7.07 yards per attempt (19th). His inaccuracy has really shown on balls downfield.
There are obvious caveats that apply. Foles is playing behind a banged-up offensive line and doesn’t have the luxury of a strong running game. But the Eagles’ best hope in the coming weeks might be a high-efficiency passing game where the ball comes out quickly. In order for that to work, Foles has to play better.
4. The biggest bright spot from the game might have been the Eagles’ pass-rush. The defense finished with four sacks and seven QB hits on Kaepernick. They drew multiple holding penalties and did a good job of forcing him to hold onto the ball.
“We were moving him from his spot,” said Connor Barwin. “With a guy like that, you’re gonna let him get out maybe once a game, so we weren’t happy that we let him get out and run three or four times if I’m not mistaken. You might give up one, but we could have been better in that area. Other than that, I thought we were pretty disruptive.”
I would agree.
5. Some stray notes from a weekend in San Francisco. …I haven’t smelled that much pot since my college days. …They take “hipster” to another level out there. I saw one guy cram a PBR into his shirt pocket as he was walking down the street, acting like his actions were totally normal. …The WiFi in the airport there is great, which is a huge bonus to nerds like me. …I need McManus to catch up on HBO’s Silicon Valley so that my jokes make more sense next time we visit. …Speaking of Silicon Valley, some of the companies near the stadium sound made up, like Flextronics. Sounds like somewhere that would employ George Jetson.
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