Eagles Film Room: Concept of the Week – Touchdown to DeVonta Smith

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’ touchdown to DeVonta Smith.

Touchdown!

I usually try to give you the name of the passing concept, but I’m not sure what to call this! The Eagles have a concept called ‘Crash’ where they run a short in route from the outside receiver and a deep out from the inside receiver, and this concept is a little bit similar to that. The genius that is MrHonestNFL refers to this concept as ‘Nascar’; you can see the diagram below. Personally, I don’t care what you call this concept; I love it because of the sequencing involved! We always assume that sequencing occurs within a game, but that’s not true. A lot of the time, sequencing should occur between weeks; good offenses will tweak plays week-to-week in order to catch defense down. Here is the drawing of the play.

I highlighted this play this week because it is based on the same concept as last week’s touchdown against the Panthers. However, the Eagles dress up the same concept in a different way. This is what great offenses do! It makes it easy for the quarterback, who reads the same concepts every week, but the offense doesn’t become too predictable.

The Eagles usually have Smith running the out route (as they did last week), but here they have him come inside after the motion. Here’s the play from last week! You can see it’s the same play design that is drawn up above, but the receiver’s roles are different both times. This play also has no motion, unlike in this week’s touchdown. Again, it’s the same play, dressed up differently.

Here is this week’s touchdown. The Steelers’ defense plays this pretty well (they Banjo the two receivers and pass them off well), but the spacing and design of the play are too good to stop. This is exceptionally well executed. The concept is identical, but it’s tweaked slightly to keep the defense honest.

I don’t think Hurts Hurts does a great job throwing around defensive linemen in general. We don’t see him use awkward arm angles like someone like Patrick Mahomes does. However, I think he does well with his ball placement here and throws it around Minkah Fitzpatrick. It’s not a side-arm, but it’s good to see this.

It’s a simple concept, but I enjoyed seeing the Eagles run the same play and score a touchdown two weeks in a row. Washington will undoubtedly be expecting this play this week, so I am looking forward to Kellen Moore tweaking it once again! Staying one step ahead of the defense is crucial to remaining a great offense. I would love it if the Eagles scored a touchdown on the concept this week.

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!

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