Eagles-Browns Film Review: Some good stuff on offense to build on

The Eagles won! I didn’t enjoy this game against the Browns much live, but I enjoyed it more on the rewatch. I saw some good stuff on offense that the Eagles can definitely build on. Let’s get into it.

Offense

If you have read my stuff all year, you know I have been clamoring for the Eagles to run more from under center or the pistol. They finally did it in this game! Outside zone from under center is a big part of Kellen Moore’s offense but it hasn’t worked well this year, so he decided to go with the outside zone toss and it was a successful play on a day when the running game did not work well at all.

The Eagles need to get something going from under center, and it looks like they might try to do it with the toss play. I’m a big fan. There is a lot of talk about this not being ‘Kellen Moore’s offense’ due to some of the concepts we are seeing, but it is clear that plays like this are new to this year and come from him. Watching this play reminds me of how freaky Cam Jurgens is, too. How quickly does he get to the 2^nd level here? I’ve repeatedly said how weird it is that Eagles fans haven’t missed Jason Kelce that much and I think it’s because his replacement moves so similarly!

The Eagles’ designed quarterback runs were also effective in this game. This is something I’ve also called for. Hurts doesn’t always look quick when running side-to-side, but he’s still a very effective rusher when getting north to south. The toss play and QB runs worked against a Browns’ defense that quickly gets up the field. My big complaint with the run game was that they didn’t do more of this stuff. There was way too much inside zone from the shotgun that went nowhere. The running game ended up not being very efficient despite the Eagles really committing to it.

Ah, it’s time to have the same discussion we have had for the past two years about the Eagles’ offense being too aggressive. I will remain consistent. I do not mind the deep shots to AJ Brown being called relatively frequently. AJ Brown is elite at running deep routes and Hurts throws a beautiful deep ball. However, I think there are times when the Eagles’ offense is too vertical and reliant on go routes. This is one of those occasions. I didn’t mind taking a shot to AJ Brown on 2^nd and 6 against clear single-high coverage, but I wouldn’t say I like this call to DeVonta Smith on 3^rd and 6 against a very good cornerback in Denzel Ward. It’s a bad matchup and a low-percentage play for a 3^rd down call. This is too much like 2023.

I really struggle with some of the narratives around Jalen Hurts. I remember reading everywhere that it’s Jalen’s fault we don’t use motion and he doesn’t like it. Well, he has been very successful when the Eagles use motion this year! This is a classic Kellen Moore play that I watched him run a lot with CeeDee Lamb against the blitz. This is a great call against pressure and a great concept to get Smith open easily. I think Kellen Moore has made this Eagles’ offense very efficient against the blitz, which continued on Sunday.

FINALLY! I’ve been calling for this all season, and we finally saw a play-action bootleg! I know I sound like a broken record, but the play-action bootleg from under center was a huge part of Kellen Moore’s offenses in previous years. In my last article on the Eagles’ offense, I said I wanted them to run it from the pistol.

So what can the Eagles do if they can’t get the under center running game going? What if Jalen Hurts isn’t fully comfortable from under center? Enter the pistol formation. If you don’t know what the pistol is, it’s where the quarterback lines up about four yards behind the center, and the running back is directly behind the quarterback. It’s a combination of under center and shotgun and it provides a lot of benefits for an offense. The Eagles need to get this outside zone running game from the pistol going because it will enable them to do many of the play-action rollouts. It won’t be as successful as running them from under center, but it’s a good compromise between the under center run game that Kellen Moore wants to run and the shotgun running game that the Eagles currently excel at.

This is just easy money. When you have a great running game, a top running back, and a quarterback who excels at rolling to his right, this is just an obvious play to run. This was awesome to see. I am sure Kellen Moore will be very happy when he goes back and looks at some of the plays he has introduced to the offense this week. There is a lot of promising stuff for this offense to build on.

I have seen online that this is a very low-percentage play, but I don’t view this call as just a 50/50 jump ball. This isn’t just a static throw outside the numbers. This is a proper play call designed to get the ball to your elite receiver. A slot fade against a team that plays a lot of single-high is a perfectly fine call in my book, and I enjoyed this play call. I want the Eagles’ offense to look like a Kellen Moore offense, but that doesn’t mean every deep shot has to vanish. Kellen Moore’s offenses were quite aggressive, especially with throws down the field. I know some people get annoyed at this offense being a bit too basic at times, but you don’t always need to out-scheme the opponent every single play when you have AJ Brown. He’s a superstar.

This offense doesn’t target the middle of the field very much. We all know. Does this simply mean Jalen Hurts can’t do it? I don’t buy it. Hurts prefers throwing outside the numbers because he is a more undersized quarterback. The easiest way to target the middle of the field is to run play-action (which the Eagles barely did in this game), so it’s hard to blame him too much. It may not be his favorite type of throw, but I have seen Hurts make plays when throwing to the middle of the field and I think the Eagles need to do more of it. Play-action is a fantastic tool, but the Eagles do not do it enough. You are missing out on easy yardage if you aren’t ever using play-action. These numbers will naturally make fans worry about whether this is Kellen Moore’s offense, but there are a lot of plays the Eagles run that are obviously influenced by Moore’s offense. It is quite clearly a blend of what Hurts wants, what Nick Sirianni wants, and what Kellen Moore wants. Regardless of this, I want to see more play-action.

This play drove me insane. This is 2023 all over again. I’m fed up with hearing people say that if Saquon Barkley picks up this blitz, then Hurts has an easy throw to DeVonta Smith in the middle of the field. Well, guess what, the whole point of the other team blitzing is to create pressure on the quarterback. You can’t just say ‘well if Barkley blocks him everything is fine’ because I care about the process and not just the results. With two timeouts and on 3^rd and 1, I wouldn’t say I like the process of running four verticals.

Now, as I’m sure a lot of you have seen online, this is a play that Jalen Hurts audibles to. Does this mean it’s purely his fault? No. For a start, the coaches have to give him the option to audible into this play call. Secondly, I imagine he audibled out of a run because the Browns stacked the box and had about 7 men on the line of the scrimmage. I can’t blame Hurts too much for audibling to this because I don’t know his options. If he had a run or pass play to choose from, then he chose the correct play. I do not think you must live in this aggressive world on 3^rd and 1. You can run a quick slant or use motion to create a short throw to pick up the first down and call a timeout. This play looks too much like the Eagles’ offense from last year, which is ironic, considering Nick Sirianni says that this is the play he called!

For example, the Eagles could have tried this on 3^rd and 1! This is another effective call with motion. As I’ve said, despite being frustrated with some of the calls from this game, there is a lot for the Eagles to be happy about.

I love this. We see Jahan Dotson in motion, but the Browns run with him this time, so the Eagles run it straight to where that defender has come from! I have been calling for more pistol runs, and here’s why… The Eagles ran the ball six times from under center or pistol for 46 yards, an 83% success rate, and 0.483 yards per attempt. That is absurd. Considering how bad the Eagles’ running game was this week, you don’t need to be a genius that the runs from the shotgun did not work at all. The Eagles have to build on this and cannot just return to being a shotgun running team next week, or I’ll lose it. They need to build on this success.

We’ve finished ten plays, and I have yet to speak about Jalen Hurts! I thought he was excellent. He struggled at the start when the Eagles were obsessed with going down the field, but after he settled it, he was excellent. He didn’t turn the ball over, and if the Eagles had made better decisions in specific situations, the offense could have had a big game. Seeing him play a clean game and not force any passes was really good. I am sure Hurts audible to this call pre-snap and made the right decision. Until a team can stop the Eagles from running Mesh, I would keep running it and expand on it! I find it pretty incredible that they didn’t run Mesh at all in week 4, considering how much success they had in week 3 against the Saints.

This has to be the most interesting call of the game. Running the option on 3^rd and 2 was not something I saw coming! Once again, it’s another successful running play from the pistol. This is fun!

It’s time to end with another controversial play call that involves a deep shot to AJ Brown! I don’t hate this play call, but I can understand why some people do not like it. If you are going to throw it on 2^nd down to AJ Brown in a very obvious one-on-one matchup, I can understand the rationale. Is it a call I would have made? Probably not. But I can understand the rationale because of how aggressive Jim Schwartz’s defenses are. I know we don’t even bother to talk about how good AJ Brown is now because we are used to it, but he is good. So good. This is so hard to do. Look how late he raises his hands to prevent the defensive back from batting it down. This is also a dime by Hurts. People can moan about these plays, but this offense will always take their shots to AJ Brown against single-high man coverage. Whether you like it or not!

That ended up as a fun watch. The Eagles should be able to build on a lot of good new stuff. It was frustrating to watch live, but the film is pretty good. I still think this offense will put it together and go on a good run. I’m cautiously optimistic after this week.

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.