Infusion of new ideas key to Eagles’ offense

The coaches film for the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles’ win over the Washington Redskins went live mid-day yesterday, so me and Benjamin Solak got on our horses and broke it all down.

One thing we saw, and have seen for the last couple weeks, are new formations and concepts from the offense better suited for running back Josh Adams. This includes a slightly higher frequency of under center snaps and a boost in under center running plays. This helps Adams, who is better working north-south with his shoulders situated parallel to the line throughout his initial steps.

It also helps Carson Wentz. The Eagles are using new concepts with their “sniffer” alignment (see Nelson Agholor below) and it’s adding fresh elements to their play-action game. Play-action saw a significant spike against the Redskins (30% > 49%) with the higher use of under center snaps.

An underrated aspect to the “scripting” debate is that the Eagles have been calling plays that have worked for them before. They’re solid designs, but these have gotten stale and predictable. This infusion of new ideas, including (especially?) in the screen game, was key in getting the offense going again.

Another key to getting the offense going early was one of Wentz’s best drives and definitely his best opening drive of 2018. Completing all of five of his passes, Wentz quieted the narrative that he wasn’t effective scrambling by adding two passes while scrambling. This included a 19-yard pass to Golden Tate up the sideline and a 6-yard touchdown to Tate that capped off the drive. Wentz showed spectacular placement, arm strength and improvisational skills throughout the entire drive.

One the defensive side of the ball we broke down the games of Rasul Douglas, Nathan Gerry, Sidney Jones and a host of others. It was a good day for the defense against a below average Mark Sanchez led offense, especially for the defensive line.

All that and more on The Kist & Solak Show #49! Listen to it on the media player below or click here if the player doesn’t load. As always we appreciate the five-star ratings and written reviews on Apple Podcasts, they really help the show get noticed. FLY EAGLES FLY!