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.

Eagles Offense All22 vs. Giants. It’s pretty obvious that the lack of under center plays and play action has been a concern. So, why not do both on the 1st play of the game! Sometimes football is so simple isn’t it? 12 personnel to create single-high coverage. Play action to hold…

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.

2) Lots of thoughts about the drop back game & too much for 1 tweet. Hurts bails earlier than I’d like but he chooses to go to the side with DeVonta Smith & AJB but nothing is open. It’s a pretty poor concept. You could argue if Hurts could get all the way back to Dotson he has a…

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.

3) My god, this is sexy. RPO with bubble screen attached to a bunch. Hurts potential to keep it + the screen takes 5 Giants’ defenders out of the play. AJ Brown blocks the safety & leaves the CB to Jurgens (who is a FREAK). Tyler Steen makes a crucial block on th linebacker and…

I didn’t think Jalen Hurts saw the field particularly well, and the 3rd 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.

4) Lots of takes on this play. The standard comment of ‘Hurts isn’t seeing the field well’ is true but it’s not an issue of not eliminating what isn’t there quick enough. On the chalkboard, the wheel to the RB should be free vs. cover 1 man but the Giants’ LB does a great job on…

This throw on 4th 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 deep ball accuracy matters. Compare this to Jalen Hurts’ deep shot to AJ Brown this week where he could keep running and score. Three plays later on 3rd and goal, Purdy threw an interception. Deep accuracy matters!

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.

5) But then on the very next play, Hurts does this on 4th down. This must be one of the best throws of his career. He stands in the pocket and shifts slightly to his left to buy himself half a second extra. Then he delivers a dime. You couldn’t pass it any better to AJ Brown, who…

Once again, I just don’t like the design of this on 3rd and long. Having Jurgens block Dexter Lawrence….