On Minshew Mania, defensive “adjustments,” and more.

A win is a win! Even against the Jets! There was some good stuff on tape in this one so lets get right into it.

OFFENSE

Right, I thought Gardner Minshew had a very good game for a backup quarterback and did exactly what you would want. There is no controversy after one game and I won’t really go into detail on Minshew’s game this week, I would rather focus on other players and in particular the running game without Hurts. I am going to do what I did last week and post all the passing plays then the running plays. Let me know if you prefer it that way or not!

Dallas Goedert was an absolute stud in the first half. He made so many good plays and was vital as a run blocker too. First touchdown of the game almost looks too easy for him. He really is developing into a complete tight end and is already one of the best at his position, in my opinion.

Nick Sirianni had some pretty good designs in the pass game this week to take advantage of a Jets defense that was far too predictable. One thing Minshew clearly does well is eliminate what is not there quickly and get to his checkdown. This showed up as a real strength of his. He did this well all day which is why his completion percentage was so high. This is a great example.

This is what I mean by predictable coverage. This is so easy for the Eagles. Still, credit to Sirianni for the call and the players for executing. The Jets show man coverage and do not disguise it. Both defenders on the right of the screen are pressing right up at the line of scrimmage which makes it so easy to create a legal pick. Normally defenses will have one defender pressing and the other defender a few yards back to avoid the pick from happening, so I am not sure what the Jets are doing but oh well! As I said, like taking candy from a baby… perfect play call.

Sirianni had a great game as a play caller. I love this design. This is also a perfect example of good scouting of the opposition and then taking advantage of it with personnel and schemep. I am assuming Sirianni knows that the Jets play man coverage on the lone receiver (with trips on the other side) and will not move their linebackers out wide to cover the running back. Therefore, by putting Smith in the backfield, Sirianni is getting him lined up on a linebacker and he is just too good for this. Once again, perfect play call!

Minshew showed me exactly what I wanted to see as a backup quarterback. He is really quick to make decisions and eliminate what is not there. He knows the scheme well and he has good accuracy and decision making. He is an elite backup / low-end starter in my opinion and I watched quite a lot of him with the Jags. His arm lacks a bit of juice, and he isn’t an elite athlete so he won’t be a top 10 quarterback any time soon, but he is a about as good as a backup quarterback as you can have.

On another note, the Eagles pass protection this game was insanely good. I know I say it each week, but this offensive line is playing at an extremely high level. This must be a great offense to run as a quarterback right now.

Now, let’s have some fun and get to the running game. I thought Miles Sanders had one of his best games as an Eagles. He made some tough runs and didn’t try to create too much and bounce everything out wide this game. It was a professional performance that I expect from a good starting caliber running back. This play highlights just how explosive he can be.

This is a beauty. I have always been underwhelmed with Sanders’ vision, but he didn’t hesitate this game and was normally very quick to burst through a hole and did a good job getting up field quickly and following his blockers.

If you drew up power on the drawing board against this front – this is how you do it. What more can you say? This play is literally perfectly blocked. I bet the offensive line LOVED watching this one back this week.

Eagles ran a few plays this week with 2 double teams up front. I don’t think it is actually DUO (which isn’t just a play with 2 double teams) but it is something I haven’t seen much this season. I am assuming this is called a split zone RPO with 2 double teams upfront by the Eagles. The offensive line are simply so well coached and they seem to be able to run anything that the Eagles coaches throw at them.

Finally, the best run of the game. Another great job by the offensive line but this is awesome by Sanders. When he gets in space he is as fast as they get. As long as he doesn’t hesitate and doesn’t try to bounce everything outside, Sanders has the tools to be a good running back. Hopefully, this is the start of a good end of the season for him (if his injury doesn’t slow him down…)

DEFENSE

This was a weird game on defense. They gave up 3 straight touchdowns (remember the first one was a very short field) but after that they were really good. Both the coaches and players adjusted well, and I came away happy with the defense but I think the limitations (especially in the middle of the field) were highlighted pretty badly in this one. The Jets do have some talent on offense (if Wilson can throw the ball accurately) and they showed this early on.

One thing that has been a constant theme the past few weeks has been the amount of safety rotation the Eagles now do. This continued this week, and the Eagles frequently disguised their coverage and attempted to confuse a young quarterback, with some success.

Not a scheme point, and I don’t even think he is great to be honest with you, but my goodness Genard Avery has one or two plays a game where he looks like an elite athlete. I hope the Eagles keep him in this position for another season and see if he can continue to improve slightly because there is a talent there.

Another elite athlete at this position… a 30-year-old Fletcher Cox! How many 30-year-old defensive tackles can do this?

So, I know the question we all want answered. What the hell happened on the first few drives? Basically, this looked like the Eagles of the past few years. The Jets run a Shanahan style offense and used motion/misdirection to absolutely destroy the Eagles. Both TJ Edwards and Singleton struggled to read plays and they were caught out far too often. Singleton in particular was picked on early on, especially in man coverage. This led to the defense playing passive and not trusting their eyes and they were then slow to diagnose short throws and screen passes. The Jets won early on.

The Eagles got confused by misdirection and then started making mistakes which we haven’t seen that much regularly. I don’t know what happened here exactly, but I do know that someone is supposed to carry the tight end. My personal guess is that Harris is at fault here and Singleton plays this correctly as it would make more sense. I think Harris gets caught out quite a lot in coverage and it has become quite evident this season that the areas the Eagles defense needs to improve immediately are safety (Harris) and linebacker (Singleton and Edwards – although Edwards has had a decent season).

This is another example of the Jets specifically targeting the Eagles linebackers with misdirection and motion. Here I almost feel sorry for Singleton because he reads it but just isn’t athletic enough to keep up with the Jets tight end.

The good news was that the Eagles adjusted well. Fair play to the players and the coaches because they got it together after the first few drives. They played too much soft zone early on and started playing a bit more press man, like on this 3rd down.

The defense started to trust their eyes again as the game went on. They clearly realized they were getting killed by screen passes early on and made sure that this did not continue in the second half. There were some great plays against screen passes in the second half and the Jets struggled to consistently get yardage.

This is one of my favorite disguises of coverage by the Eagles that I have seen this year. It is easy to see this as an overthrow by Wilson but I seriously wonder if he realizes he has made a mistake and throws it over the receivers head as he doesn’t think there is a safety in the middle of the field. Who knows. But this is a cool design and a great way of confusing a young quarterback. Epps is a versatile defender who can play several different roles which helps with disguising coverages too.

That is all this week folks, please let me know any thoughts/questions as always in the comments. The Eagles are on a bye next week but I will not be and I will have something film related up still!