Zone Read: Eagles-Cowboys, the Day After
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN…
1. What happened with the Mark Sanchez/Riley Cooper back-and-forth early in the fourth quarter?
Sanchez appeared to be trying to get Cooper lined up in a specific spot, but the wide receiver wasn’t on the same page as the quarterback. The Eagles were forced to use a timeout, and it looked like Cooper and Sanchez were pretty animated as Sanchez walked towards the sideline. Brent Celek had to intervene at one point.
“We’re a family, and families get heated and get upset,” said Sanchez. “That’s the way it goes. Both of us had something to say. We said it. And that was it. I’d rather have something like that than a guy that’s just uninterested and doesn’t care, isn’t ready to play, doesn’t work as hard as Coop does. He’s playing his butt off, and that’s the best part about something like this. Neither of us took it any further. That’s it. Right or wrong, we move on because we’ve got another team to play.”
On the play after the timeout, Sanchez looked for Cooper on a crossing route, but the wide receiver didn’t have his head turned around, and the result was an incompletion.
Cooper was not in the locker room by the time it opened up to reporters after the game.
Between the comments he made about Jeremy Maclin and the dust-up with Sanchez, this was not a great week for Cooper.
2. Why Sanchez was more willing to keep the ball on zone-read plays in this game?
Sanchez finished with 28 yards on the ground, the second-highest total of his career. And he kept the ball on zone read plays on multiple occasions.
“They were trying to bend the end and tried to take away the back,” Kelly said. “And obviously, when they try to outnumber us, the quarterback can be a weapon at certain points of time during the game. We saw something from the sidelines and just that if they presented the same look, there’s an opportunity for us to pick up some yards.”
Against Tennessee, Sanchez had multiple opportunities to keep the ball, but he instead just handed it off over and over again.
That was not the case against Dallas. He did some damage with his legs, and the Eagles finished with 256 yards on the ground overall.
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THE NUMBER THAT MATTERS: 6.3
That’s McCoy’s yards-per-carry average in his last two games. He’s totaled 289 yards on 46 carries in wins over the Titans and Cowboys. Granted, neither team is good against the run, but it’s an encouraging sign for the Eagles that they decimated both teams on the ground.
“I had so many more opportunities to make guys miss one-on-one,” McCoy said. “So much space, by far. Getting up to the blocks, wanting to run the ball, giving me space. At times I had too much space, I made the wrong cut. The game ball really belongs to them guys up front because this was by far their best game. And they’re getting back. Now it’s kind of like my line again. I hear so much talk, but these are the guys that get it done. So that is what it is.”
Added Jason Peters: “It means a lot to Shady, the rushing champ last year. Got a chip on his shoulder all the time. When we don’t get the yards he’s supposed to get, he tends to get a little down. I’m just happy for the guy to get him back on track.”
Asked if he felt the success was extra meaningful with the league’s leading rusher on the other side, Peters said: “Oh, yeah. We came into the game, I told him, ‘You gonna let DeMarco Murray out-rush you today?’ He’s like, ‘You’ll see.’ He took over the game early. We got up 14-0 and never looked back.”
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THE BEST OF 140
Mark Sanchez, by yelling at Riley Cooper while blowing out the Cowboys you’ve passed the final test. Marry me.
— Mike (@85mf) November 28, 2014
I don’t mean to pile on Cooper, but c’mon. That’s funny.
@CutonDime25 http://t.co/fsHNMWSJts pic.twitter.com/CchukBud9T — Evan Mathis (@EvanMathis69) November 28, 2014
Amazing post-game jacket selection by McCoy.
After the final question of McCoy’s press conference, Eagles director of public relations Derek Boyko said: “Your jacket’s trending on Twitter, so we gotta go.”
And several Tweets from the Cowboys locker room:
Dez Bryant on cut on lower lip: “They was being kind of cheap, but that’s another story. It is what it is. Get it cleaned up, I’ll be fine.”
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) November 28, 2014
Jeremy Mincey: “We’ll be ready for the second go-around [with the Eagles], I promise you. … This game lit a fire in this locker room.”
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) November 28, 2014
Terrance Williams expects Romo to figure out Philly defense. If Eagles show same looks next time, Williams says Romo’s “going to kill it.” — Jon Machota (@jonmachota) November 28, 2014
Let’s do it again in two weeks, shall we?
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