Eagles Film Analysis: Offense takeaways from the win over the Saints

This Eagles performance from the Saints game was frustrating due to some questionable calls and turnovers, but the film is good. This was a pretty strong offensive performance despite the Eagles only scoring 15 points!

Offense

I thought Kellen Moore called an excellent game. He focused on getting Dallas Goedert the ball, but it wasn’t predictable. He got Goedert the ball in several different ways and from a number of different formations. This was probably my favorite call of the entire day. The Eagles come out with 13 personnel and run a deep shot that takes advantage of Goedert’s ability to run these intermediate/deep routes. Goedert has always been fantastic at running post and corner routes. This is a beautiful play call, and just look at how good the pass protection is. It is perfect. Jalen Hurts takes advantage of the clean pocket and delivers a strike down the field.

Since posting that tweet, I saw this thread from Ben Fennell pop up on my timeline…

Here’s a reminder of what I said in my ‘Concept of the Week’ article last week.

It feels like Kellen Moore is the kind of offensive coordinator who looks around the league at what other teams are running.

I feel pretty good about that statement!

Anyway, It’s time to say something controversial. This interception is not on Jalen Hurts. This is a nice concept in the red zone, and DeVonta Smith can go both ways, making this a tough cover for the safety, Tyrann Mathieu. Smith has to cross the face of the safety here and run a better route. I think Smith sort of slips or is unsure about his footing, and it’s fair to point out that many players were slipping throughout the game, so I’m not sure he deserves too much blame, either. I’ve seen some people say Hurts is over-aggressive, but I also see people criticize Hurts for not throwing over the middle of the field with anticipation. This throw requires him to be aggressive and throw it early, and I don’t think the interception is his fault.

However, this is Hurts’ fault. I don’t like focusing on turnover numbers too much because every turnover has a story (just like the play above). But this isn’t good. Hurts isn’t a rookie, and I don’t want to see many more plays like this. I think Hurts has been a lot better in the first three weeks of the season than many people have suggested, but I can understand some of the negativity around turnovers like this. This is just a case of poor ball security.

Despite saying all of that about turnovers above, I think this is the most interesting play from the game. This is 3rd and long, and Hurts has a throw that he could take to the tight end on the short in. However, that throw would not result in a first down unless the tight end breaks a number of tackles. A lot of quarterbacks would take this throw. Instead of taking the throw, Hurts bails to his left and delivers a dime. This is not an easy throw. There’s a lot of good quarterbacks who play in excellent schemes (think Jared Goff) who can’t make plays like this.

This is a beauty of a throw too. I watch quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence (who many analysts still rank above Hurts – which blows my mind), and they throw balls 5 yards over an open receiver’s head once or twice a game. Carson Wentz used to do this, too. We take for granted just how accurate Jalen Hurts is as a thrower. Most of the time, his ball placement is outstanding. You rarely see him completely miss a wide-open receiver. Looking at all of Goedert’s catches in this article, you will notice how he is always lined up in a different position. Also, take a look at the pass protection on this one. Jeff Stoutland is simply an unbelievable coach. Fred Johnson came in at right tackle and looked great. Tyler Steen came in at right guard and looked great. This really doesn’t surprise me because I thought they looked great in preseason, too. How many teams have two good backup offensive lineman? Most teams don’t have five good starters! This is what I said in my preseason articles…

I don’t know much about Fred Johnson but I think he has played pretty well in both preseason games, earning singled-out praise from Nick Sirianni. Could he be another Jeff Stoutland success story?

Tyler Steen looked good on the move and in the run game. Although it seems like he has lost the starting job to Becton, I am glad he looked good because Becton is a bit of an unknown. Steen has always looked athletic when I watch him, and he looks very comfortable when asked to pull.

I have really enjoyed watching Kellen Moore’s offense this year, but there are definitely a few questionable dropbacks every week that leave me scratching my head. There must have been someone who ran the wrong route in this play because the spacing was off. I’m guessing the idea is to throw to DeVonta Smith on the wheel route which I think may have worked if he wasn’t clearly held. This should be pass interference, and I’m not sure why it wasn’t called. Once again, I wouldn’t blame Hurts for this 4th down because there isn’t a lot he can do.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Kellen Moore would want the Eagles to run from under center more. This has always been a huge part of this offense. Under center outside zone has been a huge staple of his offenses because it allows him to run play-action and bootlegs. Whenever the Eagles have tried to run from under center though, it hasn’t gone well. Which is why I think this play could be significant. If the Eagles can start running outside zone from the pistol, they can still get to some play-action bootleg stuff. I will be keeping a close eye on this one.

I’ve somehow not spoken about Saquon Barkley yet. He’s been the Eagles’ best player this season. This looks like a standard inside zone run, but there are some awesome parts to this play. Firstly, the Saints run a stunt, and the Eagles’ left-hand side of the offensive line picks it up perfectly. Secondly, look at how the RPO element of the play holds the nickel cornerback here. I know many people moan about the RPO bubble screens, which don’t always go very well, but you run the bubble screens to help the running game like this. Sometimes you have to run plays that help set up other plays.

Despite everything above, most teams can run the same play, and they will gain 10 yards. The Eagles gain 65 yards. Why? Because Saquon Barkley is an explosive freak. There are not many running backs that can outrun defensive backs like this.

I knew watching the game live what my concept of the week would be. The Eagles ran mesh a lot this week. I’ll get into Mesh more in that article, but it’s a good play because you can dress it up in many different ways. The Eagles had the most success running it in this game, with Dallas Geodert lined up opposite trips. This worked well because the Saints were doubling Goedert at times when DeVonta Smith went out. Sometimes, offenses can use a double or a bracket against them. In this case, the Saints had the cornerback very far outside Godert, making Mesh the perfect call. Additionally, the Saints had a safety from deep covering Goedert, but he has to get through all of this traffic. It was a great call from Kellen Moore.

Mesh again! It’s Goedert opposite trips once again but from the other side. And it’s the same result! Both the cornerback and the safety get stuck in the traffic in the middle of the field, so Goedert looks wide open. Watching these two plays live, you would never have believed that the Saints were bracketing Goedert on both these plays.

I’ve focused on the pass game a lot this week. But the running game was outstanding once again. I predicted in the preseason that this wouldn’t be a running back by committee because Saquon Barkley is too good to take off the field. He is playing at such an elite level. I feel really good about the Eagles’ offense right now because they can win in various ways. There is something extremely satisfying about the Eagles winning the game with a standard inside zone run and then running the exact same play on the 2-point conversion. There are a lot of teams who have to get creative in order to get 2 yards. Not the Eagles. They can just run it in with a power back and an elite offensive line (even without Lane Johnson and Mekhi Becton).

This was a really strange game because I don’t think I have ever come away so positive from an offensive performance when the team has only scored 15 points. Without a few mistakes here and there, the Eagles easily could have scored 25+ points in this game. It was a good performance without their best wide receiver.

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and ask any questions. If you enjoyed this piece, you can find more of my work and podcast here.