Eagles-Giants Film Review: The offense finally committed to the run and it was beautiful

Well, those who have read me for a while know this was my dream game. There is nothing I like more than running the football. I have always said that running the football takes a repeated number of carries to work. It has to be your offensive identity. If a team continues to run it early and often, they can wear down a defense. The Eagles finally committed to the run this week and it was beautiful. Not every game will be like this, so I have to enjoy it. They wore down the Giants time and time again. Let’s get into why.

Offense

I have called for a lot more plays from under center and the pistol, and we finally saw it this week. The Eagles really did commit to it. The first play of the game was so simple but so effective. When you have a running back like Saquon Barkley and an offensive line that is this good, you should be able to have a lot of success with play action. We just haven’t seen the Eagles run it very much, though. This was a positive sign. Play action is always better from under center because it can be harder for the defense to see if the quarterback has the ball. It’s harder for the quarterback because he has to turn his back to the defense, but I’ve not seen Jalen Hurts struggle with this too much in the limited time I’ve seen him do it.

I’m still struggling with the Eagles’ drop-back passing game. This game is tough to judge because the Eagles didn’t need to do much due to the success of the defense and the running game. But there were quite a few plays that I didn’t like very much, especially on 3rd and long. The offense was just so basic on 3rd and long. I do understand the concern around Jalen Hurts and whether it is basic because of him, but either way I don’t like it! If you think he can’t handle more pure progressions and full field reads, then get him on the move on a rollout, try a deep shot to AJ Brown, run a weird screen pass or something. The Eagles took 3 sacks on 3rd and long back to back and nothing was open. That’s bad. Fred Johnson was good as a run defender but asking him to hold up one-on-one in pass protection is asking a lot of him.

The Eagles had three huge explosive runs in this game and all three runs were different. This is why the Eagles’ run game is so tough to stop. Every run had a cool feature about it which shows why it’s so tough to stop this team running the football. Each play was a different concept, run from a different formation, and attacked a different area of the defense. It was beautiful.

The first explosive run came on a pin pull concept that was executed perfectly. Cam Jurgens legitimately looks like Jason Kelce here, and he has the athleticism to get to the cornerback that AJ Brown leaves alone. AJ Brown blocks the safety and leaves the cornerback from Jurgens, which is risky but works perfectly here. Tyler Steen does a fantastic job climbing to the second level and getting to the linebacker, too. I will get to Tyler Steen a little bit later! This is an awesome run that stretches the defense horizontally and takes advantage of the athleticism of the offensive line. The backside screen and the threat of Hurts keeping it also gives you a numbers advantage. Although I wanted to see more under center and pistol, these runs are a reason why this team will always run a lot from the shotgun. It takes advantage of Hurts mobility.

I didn’t think Jalen Hurts saw the field particularly well, and the 3^rd down miss to DeVonta Smith was a clear error on his part. I’m less sure about the checkdown to Saquon Barkley on the goal line because I don’t know how he is being coached to read that out. It’s possible Barkley was his final read and he didn’t eliminate his initial reads quickly enough. It’s hard to feel great about Hurts, but he didn’t need to do a lot in this game. The threat he has as a ball carrier is important (more on that later), and he did a great job taking care of the football throughout the game. It clearly wasn’t his best game, but I’m not over-reacting to a few plays where he didn’t process things clearly. He has read Mesh very well this year, so hopefully this was just a blip rather than a processing issue with this concept.

It’s worth remembering that Hurts is also running pass protections for the first time ever in his career. He’s also playing for another offensive coordinator once again. The idea that Hurts would just come out this season and be perfect because he didn’t throw an interception in training camp for ages (what a pointless story) was probably realistic. I’m still hoping to see progress the second half of the season.

This throw on 4^th and 3 is an absolute dime. We take for granted how good Jalen Hurts is at these deep shots. I watch many quarterbacks around the league complete these throws but underthrow them slightly so the receiver has to slow down. I watched Brock Purdy do this twice against the Chiefs. On one play, Purdy had Jacob Cowing wide open deep and he underthrew him. Cowing caught the ball but had to fall down at the 10 yard line. This was when the score as 21-12 to the Chiefs. A few plays later, Purdy threw an interception on 3rd and goal.

This is why throwing deep and allowing your receiver to keep running is important. When Hurts throws deep to AJ Brown, he often throws it right in the bucket, which gives AJ Brown the chance to continue and score a touchdown rather than going down.

Once again, I just don’t like the design of this on 3rd and long. Having Jurgens block Dexter Lawrence is bad. The route concepts is basic. Hurts doesn’t have a chance here. If this coaching staff doesn’t think Hurts can do more, then they still need to come up with more answers. This can’t be all you have in your bag on 3rd and long.

I enjoyed this, a lot. Hurts can throw to the middle of the field when you give him a clear option. AJ Brown is excellent on dig and slant routes and this offense doens’t take advantage of it either. The offensive line does a great job of not getting down field despite the fact that Hurts is taking his time at the mesh point to allow the route to develop. I would like to see a lot more of this.

My favorite run play! The Eagles running game this week was so awesome. We saw inside zone, outside zone, split zone, QB counter bash, pin pull and a toss play. There was probably more runs too. This included runs from under center, pistol and the shotgun. Usually on QB Counter Bash Hurts ends up keeping it but on this one, Saquon Barkley keeps it. They ran this play twice and the same thing happened on both times. The threat of Jalen Hurts cannot be ignored in the run game. He matters. A lot!

Here was the second explosive run of the day. Jalen Hurts plays a huge role in this despite doing nothing! The Eagles run split zone here, but the TE who comes across the formation also releases to the flat, which suggests Hurts could have kept this. Either way, just look at the impact that Hurts has on the Giants linebacker. This results in a ridiculously big hole for Barkley to run right through. Mobile quarterbacks can help a running game so much. This play is very different from the first explosive run of the day, and it tests the defense in different ways. This is a great way of countering the RPO where Hurts throws it to the flat too. The Giants were not expecting Barkley to keep it.

Finally, this was the Eagles’ 3^rd explosive run of the day. This one is completely different from the first two. I have been watching the Eagles for a long time and I’ve barely seen them run this player. Iso lead with a fullback! Ben VanSumeren is the linebacker! What is happening?! This is old-school football. The Eagles are just physically running at the Giants and dominating them. This is so awesome. This game was a fantastic blend of what Kellen Moore wants to run (under center and pistol) and what Jeff Stoutland and Hurts have historically run (shotgun with Hurts as a rushing threat). The three explosive runs are all so different and they perfectly explain why the Eagles running game was so tough to stop.

I get the Hurts tweets this week. It wasn’t his cleanest game. But same of the reactions are still over the top. He played fine and missed a few throws. He still did a great job not turning the ball over and made a few excellent plays, such as this one below. I would highly recommend everyone just takes a deep breath and let this season play out. I still think Hurts is a very good NFL quarterback that you can build an outstanding offense around. He may have some limitations, but it’s a coaches job to coach around them and showcase his strengths. Plays like this one remind you he’s still a special athlete.

This wasn’t the prettiest film I’ve ever watched, but I loved it. The Eagles won’t be able to run this much every week, but I am all on board with this being the Eagles offensive identity. Barkley is playing at a ridiculously high level and he’s a joy to watch right now.

I’ll be flying from London to Cincinnati this weekend to watch the Birds, so I can watch the offense live! If you are going to the Bengals game, make sure you come up and say hi!

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.