Eagles Offense All-22 Film Review: Jalen Hurts’ performance against the Giants

Here we are. One final Eagles all22 offense piece before the playoffs. Working full-time and doing these weekly is not too easy, so I appreciate all the views and comments or I wouldn’t be able to do this! So thank you!

I’ll be honest, this will be shorter than normal because I’m not reading too much into this game for obvious reasons. But let’s get into it.

Passing Game

It was pretty clear the plan was to get the ball out of Jalen Hurts’ hands quickly and not get him hit very often. This was a very heavy RPO game. While I get the comments about the Eagles not running enough, Hurts was throwing a lot of RPOs because the Giants were stacking the box so it wasn’t totally just on the coaches. But I wouldn’t have minded a few more traditional runs to help Hurts out a little bit more.

I feel like Hurts has gotten away with some criticism this week because we were all just happy to see him out there. But he didn’t play well. He didn’t see the field well and left quite a few throws on the field. This is not like him this year so I am hoping he was told to get out of the pocket early and not take hits, rather than him bail because he was concerned about his shoulder. Either way, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned at all, but I’m not reading too much into one game. Here, the Eagles run the ‘Drive’ concept (shallow cross with a deep in, creating a Hi-Lo read) and he should stay in the pocket because he has Goedert coming open in the middle of the field but he bails too early.

This was my favorite play of the day because it sums up the 2022 Eagles. Late safety rotation to MOFC = throw it to your superstar wide receiver! AJ Brown has been a beast at the catch point all season long. This may be a low % throw but it feels like Hurts and AJ Brown have been really effective together on this exact throw and catch.

This is another slightly concerning play. This is just simple dagger (a vertical route and a deep in route – known as the dagger) and DeVonta Smith is wide open. He just has to stay in the pocket and hit him. This is probably a combination of rust and being a little afraid of sitting in the pocket but still, you would like him to make that throw.

Another slight concern was the ease that the Giants managed to get a free rusher at Hurts. Early on in the game, they kept sending 6 rushers against 5 man protection so there was always going to be a free rusher. But later on, they started dropping men into coverage but still creating overloads. A lot of the designs were really good from the Giants (Wink Martindale is an expert) but I would have hoped to see a little bit more success against these blitzes from the Eagles. Hurts inability to run certainly didn’t help.

The Eagles’ offense didn’t seem to have a lot of answers against the Giants’ pressure looks later on, but it is possible the Eagles’ offense didn’t want to reveal too much either, considering they were easily winning and they may have to play the Giants in the playoffs. Either way, some of the snaps against the blitz were not pretty.

Last one of the negatives, but this is not great for week 18. Again, it doesn’t really matter, but I would have just liked to have seen a more clean performance from the offense.

Of course, it wasn’t all bad, and Hurts had some fantastic throws. This was one of my favorites because it’s the kind of throw he’s made all season long. His timing and ball placement on these out routes has been outstanding.

Running Game

The Eagles’ run game was fun in this game. They ran a lot of gap scheme runs and the lineman just dominated up front. As someone who just really likes watching an offensive line move in unison, this was a fun watch. This is just classic power from 12 personnel and I thought Goedert and Still were really good as run blockers in this game.

It wasn’t just gap scheme, we saw some lovely inside and outside zone with all offensive linemen perfectly in sync in the run game. This is just great inside zone starting with two great double teams upfront (some may call this DUO but I don’t think it is – but who really cares…).

I am convinced that rookie year Sanders bounces this outside the tackle. The Eagles don’t run a great deal of outside zone and I think it’s because their running backs aren’t that good at it. But Sanders shows good patience here and waits for his blocks to develop well.

This is the best rep of the game from the offensive line as a whole. The timing from everyone is perfect and they create a huge hole. I was really glad to see more of Jack Stoll because he hasn’t played much of late and I would be happy to see more 12 personnel if it means less 11 personnel and Quez Watkins.

Overall, I’m not reading too much into this game but it wasn’t the cleanest performance I have seen. I just hope Hurts’ injury doesn’t impact his confidence. One thing is for certain though, no matter how much it may hurt, the Eagles are going to use him as a runner in the playoffs. The offense is not the same without that element.