Greg Cosell’s Week 2 Review: What’s wrong with the Eagles’ offense?
Nobody expected the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense to struggle like this.
The Eagles had 21 first-half yards against the Dallas Cowboys. They were shut out until the fourth quarter. Philadelphia finished with 7 net yards rushing.
The pass offense, with new addition Sam Bradford, struggled just like the running game, led by new addition DeMarco Murray. We can take a look at the film and diagnose what went wrong in Week 2. It’s just two games, and there’s time for Chip Kelly to fix at least some of these issues. But there are issues to fix.
PASS OFFENSE
There were too many snaps in which Bradford did not process the coverage quickly enough, and the Cowboys mixed things up to take away some of the Eagles’ staple routes.
A great example of Cowboys mixing coverage and taking away throws came with 12:35 left in the third quarter. Bradford read man coverage based on the pre-snap look and wanted Jordan Matthews from the slot on the wheel route, off the natural rub element by Nelson Agholor,. But the Cowboys played “Cover 2” zone. Cornerback Brandon Carr bailed at the snap, taking away Matthews’ wheel route. Bradford came back inside to a well-covered Agholor for another incompletion. He has to process that better.
The issues weren’t all on Bradford. Overall, the Eagles receivers were not able to get open against the Cowboys’ man coverage. But Bradford was not very decisive, and not consistently accurate. You did not get a sense of him reading coverage and making good throws … a lot of the same things Bradford showed when he was with the St. Louis Rams.
Here’s another example that was a big play in the game. In the third quarter, the Eagles ran a mesh concept over the middle and Josh Huff was wide open to Bradford’s read side. But Bradford did not process it. Instead he threw to a well-covered Zach Ertz and Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee picked him off.
It’s also worth noting that because the Cowboys were able to lock down the Eagles in man coverage, it allowed Dallas to always have an extra defender against the run. In Week 1, the Falcons played single high safety on every snap, predominantly in a zone coverage. That defense essentially put eight in the box. So teams are focusing more on stopping the Eagles’ run than the pass. And that has led to issues with Kelly’s run game.
RUN OFFENSE
Before we get to Murray, let’s start up front, because there were a lot of issues there against the Cowboys.
What immediately stood out with the Eagles run game was they could not get stacked linebackers Lee and Anthony Hitchens blocked. Those linebackers were getting clean to the point of attack. Up front, the Cowboys’ slanting was really hurting Philadelphia’s run game. The defensive line was quicker than the Eagles’ offensive line, so the slants worked. That consistently forced the runners to cut back into an unblocked defender.
Here’s an example of the Eagles’ line just getting beat. In the first half, center Jason Kelce was beaten twice by the power and leverage of Cowboys defensive tackle Terrell McClain. On this play in the second quarter, McClain was immediately in the point of attack, forcing Ryan Mathews to cut back into unblocked safety Barry Church (No. 42).
Offensive line issues aside, Murray hasn’t looked comfortable in the Eagles’ offense. He has 21 yards on 11 carries. One issue is that 18 of his 21 rushes have come out of the shotgun, after he had just 36 shotgun runs all last season with the Cowboys. He’s running in a different offense, and it doesn’t help that he’s a back who lacks great vision.
My sense Murray is thinking too much. He did not run much inside zone in Dallas last year. It was predominantly outside zone in Dallas — the stretch plays where he would cut back inside. He was very comfortable doing that. There’s different timing with each run and he doesn’t look comfortable with his new offense yet. And through two games the interior three of the Eagles offensive line has struggled, which makes it difficult to execute inside zone.
One issue feeds into another. The Eagles’ receivers aren’t getting open. Bradford isn’t processing coverages well. If teams can cover Philadelphia’s receivers man-to-man, an extra defender can concentrate on stopping the run. Then the offensive line has struggled, and it doesn’t help that Murray isn’t comfortable yet in a new scheme.
It’s just two weeks, so the Eagles have time to figure some of these things out. But right now, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
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NFL analyst and NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell watches as much NFL game film as anyone. Throughout the season, Cosell will join Shutdown Corner to share his observations on the teams, schemes and personnel from around the league.
