Inside the Call: Vick's 76 Yard TD to Maclin

The idea behind this creation is to show you–our readers–how the Eagles develop some of their exciting plays that have been seen in notable games, and how they have been able to execute them to perfection. In what is currently somewhat of a dull time of the season, the offseason is all about rumors and Draft coverage, but we hope to bring a creative and interesting twist to Philly fans. Without further ado, here is the first Inside the Call...

Let’s take a look at Michael Vick’s 76 yard touchdown strike to Jeremy Maclin in the playoff meeting against the Dallas Cowboys.

The play occurred on second down, with three yards to go, and the Eagles trailing by seven. With Vick’s shaky throwing capability, the Cowboys weren’t expecting him to throw, let alone throw a 76 yard strike. Dallas knew how the Eagles used Vick throughout the course of the season, and couldn’t even imagine the Eagles allowing him to test his arm out in the postseason. But they were wrong.

The Eagles outsmarted Dallas with the placement of Vick at Quarterback, instead of their team leader, Donovan McNabb. Vick showed his potential, if you could call it that, after he hit the Eagles leading rookie receiver, Jeremy Maclin, for a 76 yard touchdown to tie the game up at 7-7.

The Diagram

How it worked

The play began with a play-action, which caused the Cowboys front seven to freeze just in case LeSean McCoy (29) happened to possess the ball. Vick’s decision to roll left bought a lot of time for Maclin (18) to beat his man.

Whoever questioned the Eagles offensive line must have not seen this play. Max Jean-Gilles (62) did a beautiful pull block to eliminate DeMarcus Ware (94) from the play. Aside from Jean-Gilles’ block, tight end Alex Smith (82) finished off Ware after the initial block from Max Jean-Gilles. The blocking scheme clearly targeted the Cowboys’ best defender, and was designed to take him out the play to give Vick time to throw.

Now let’s look at how Maclin sprung open. The rookie out of Missouri proved that he has matured a whole lot from Week One with his excellent route on this particular play. Mike Jenkins, who played fantastic in 2009 for the Cowboys, was the one responsible for covering Maclin on this play. The route brought Maclin inside the numbers, giving Jenkins the difficult task of “guessing” as to which way Maclin would turn. The Pro Bowl corner decided to bump Maclin on the inside, but didn’t realize the speed the rookie possessed, and quickly stumbled to the ground when Maclin headed to the sidelines.

Vick saw the slip-up by Jenkins, and threw an absolute dart to Maclin, who turned it up field and took it to the house. It’s also worth noting that DeSean Jackson (10) ran a post route on the play, and ended up cutting off Terrance Newman (41) from his pursuit of Maclin.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think of this, and let me know if you have any plays from this past season that you would like me to present in future articles.