Eagles Film Room: Concept of the Week – Dash Post Cross

A closer look at Philadelphia’s offense.

In addition to writing the All-22 offense and defense reviews after each Eagles game this year, I will also write this one called ‘Concept of the Week.’ I will break down a specific concept or play on offense and defense and explain the play in more detail. Hopefully, this will allow you to look out for that play in future weeks. This week, we will look at Jalen Hurts’ throw to AJ Brown on a rollout known as ‘Dash’.

Dash Post Cross

Shout-out to the legend, Coach Dan Casey, for making this week’s ‘Concept of the Week’ nice and easy! Dan was one of the inspirations for the series this season because he has a free email subscription service called ‘One Play a Day’, where he sends out a different concept every day. I highly recommend subscribing here if you want to learn more about offensive concepts. I have been a subscriber since day one and have now viewed over 400 concepts.

I clicked on his email a few days ago and saw that it was an Eagles play! Dan’s ‘One Play a Day’ this week was Jalen Hurts’ completion to AJ Brown on a concept known as ‘Dash’. Dash is simply a rollout without a play action. This allows you to run the rollout without being under center. Here is the play from Dan’s email.

Obviously, ‘Dash’ is not the entire concept. The Eagles ran a very standard concept known as ‘post-cross,’ which you will see every single team run throughout the season. Post-cross is a great concept as it stretches the defense vertically with the post route. The crossing route is excellent against man coverage and requires good route distribution if the defense is in zone coverage. The Eagles ask AJ Brown to run the crossing route, and Hurts finds him along the sideline. Here is the video! At the time, I wasn’t 100% sure if the rollout was deliberate, but I have obviously changed my mind since!

It’s a really simple play but an effective one. I don’t think the Eagles have done a good enough job over the past few years at getting Hurts on the move, so I hope we see some more ‘Dash’ concepts. Keep an eye out for this for the remainder of the season! If it worked so well this week, why not try to build on it moving forward?

Lastly, I am going to be doing the same segment on my podcast weekly, so if you want to check out a video explanation in addition to the article, you can do so here!