Because I'm obsessed with the Eagles signing Nnamdi Asomugha, I thought it might be interesting to go back to the Eagles-Raiders game from 2009 to see if and/or how the Eagles' offense attacked him. Apologies in advance if it's beginning to get annoying.
Unfortunately, Asomugha suffered an eye injury after only seven Eagles dropbacks. He missed a few series, came back for a couple series, and then was done for the afternoon. In total, Asomugha was on the field for a total of 14 Eagles dropbacks.
How many times did the Eagles throw at him? Zero. 0/14. A larger sample size would have been more telling, but based on the limited film we have, either Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg gameplanned to stay away from Asomugha, or Donovan McNabb was simply too afraid to look his way. Here is the tape (Asomugha is easy to find, as he always lines up at RCB):
A few things to note:
- At the 0:49 mark, that's an absolutely spectacular jam by Asomugha on Jeremy Maclin. Watch Asomugha look in at McNabb, wait for him to lift his leg (signaling that the snap is coming), focus in on Maclin, and then at the snap... BAM... Quick jab to Maclin's inside shoulder, and then retreat. Gorgeous, and even more impressive considering Maclin is lined up a yard off the line of scrimmage. If you look at Jason Avant up at the top of the screen in the slot, he's already 5 yards downfield by the time Maclin even begins his route. That's a perfect execution of a jam, and that's all it takes in the NFL. Make the receiver delay his route by as little as a second, and he's basically eliminated from the play.
- At the 1:22 mark, we see Asomugha being worked on for an eye injury. Almost immediately after he was out, the Eagles attack his replacement, Stanford Routt, who picks off the pass and returns it for a TD (called back for a penalty). This shows that they were likely indeed staying away from Asomugha.
- When Asomugha returned from injury, it's interesting that the Eagles didn't try to test him. In the NFL, if a player is dinged up, you go right at them. The Eagles chose not to.
Again, this isn't the biggest sample size, but if you're hoping the Eagles make a run at Asomugha, you can probably count them among the teams that respect him to such a degree that they completely avoided throwing at him.
And yes, this is all dependent on the new CBA, blah blah blah...