Thread by @EaglesXsandOs

Eagles Pass Game Breakdown vs. Rams

First dropback of the game they motion the RB out wide into Empty for the man/zone indicator. The Rams show their cards with the pressure, and Hurts hit the speed out on time.

3rd and 4. Empty again. Hurts takes a deep drop but looks to be reading the Mesh, which is an odd marriage of the footwork to that concept. The crosser comes WIDE OPEN, but Hurts opts to scramble.

2nd and 12, Rams show pressure again and Eagles are ready to respond with the quick out once again. Looks like Hurts is targeting Smith, but Dotson's out route is spaced way too closely and the pass falls incomplete. Detail in route spacing is an area for improvement

3rd and 12, and the Eagles don't give up on this one. Devonta roasts Emmanuel Forbes on a slant, but Granson gets jammed so badly that the DB covering him can help on the tackle before the sticks.

2nd drive and the Eagles seem to be looking for a deep over the ball route to AJ but the spacing between him and Goedert seems to be off, the Rams squeeze the space and Hurts is forced to be bail. The receivers do a poor job trying to work back to ball or get open the scramble drill & he throws it away.

A truly bizarre play, where AJ seems to be indicating he doesn't know what to do, and then doesn't run a route at all.

Goedert and Cooper comically run to the exact same spot on the field ( perhaps a blown assigment), ruining any chance of completing a pass, while the Rams bring a delay blitz & sack hurts.

Eagles run an under center play action Yankee concept (Post + Crosser), but the Rams match it perfectly and drive on the crosser for the pass breakup.

3rd and 8.

The Eagles run a Mesh variant, likely thinking they are getting a man blitz, but it's Fire Zone blitz. Saquon tries to help on Pryor who was getting beat like a drum and leaves the Safety unblocked to annihilate Hurts.

Eagles likely needed a secondary quick-developing option if they got a zone blitz (which they did)

3rd and 7.

Eagles run Sail (clearout + sail + flat), but Goedert is too slow to flat after chipping to hold the flat defender and he's able to sink under the Sail route & the ball floats.

AJ was isolated & seems to have stacked his CB.

Lane Johnson being out hurt this concept.

1st and 10 and Eagles run an under-center play-action HB screen. The execution is slightly off and the play takes an extra second to develop and Barkley runs out of room before he can get momentum.

1st and 10.

Eagles motion in 3x1 with a nub TE. The Rams run a sim pressure droping an EDGE to take away Goedert & change the numbers game on the weak side. With the 3 over 3 look the Rams showed to the passing strength, I would've preferred if that side was read first.

2nd and 7. The Eagles are looking to attack deep with a clearout/seam paired with a backside crosser from TE. Rams match it nicely and Pryor gets beat like a drum for the sack-fumble before play can fully develop.

Fred Johnson comes in & its the start of a new ballgame. Rams show soft zone and Eagles attack with a speed out on-time.

Soft zone look and the Eagles dial up the Sluggo to AJ, who predictably wins and makes a spectacular one-handed catch. Terrific ball placement by Hurts.

1st and 10 and it looks like the Rams run Invert Cover 2, which is a strange call when you're up multiple TDs.

Eagles run the perfect play to counter with a variation of 4 verticals where the seams bend inside and they beat them for an easy TD.

3rd and 10, the Eagles backed up and down two scores.

Motion into 3x1 bunch, the Eagles run Mesh but with a deep in breaker from Devonta. He runs the 2nd half of this route with unbelievable acceleration and comes open just in time for Hurts to hit him for a big gain.

1st and 10. Eagles motion into 4 strong and run shallow cross, looking for Goedert, but with nobody to hold the hook defenders they sink under his route. Hurts is a tad late to get it to Dotson, but he's so open they get a decent gain anyway.

Eagles run play action Yankee again, but this time from Shotgun with a better run action fake, and Hurts makes a nice checkdown throw for 8 yards to Dotson.

2nd and 10, Eagles in Empty and run a Juke route to AJ for a moderate gain to make the 3rd down more manageable. This is simple football.

3rd and 4, and Rams run a rare Sim pressure where they have the CB jam and then blitz from over 10 yards away.

It takes an extra second for the ball to get out to a wide open Devonta who

2nd and 9. The Rams show Cover 0 but drop 2 and run an overload blitz to Fred Johnson's side.

Perfect back shoulder throw to AJ, who gives a slight push off (but doesn't extend arm) and CB Williams tries to sell the call to no avail.

3rd and 4, Eagles down 5 in the 4th Q.

Eagles just completed a speed out vs. a pressure look the play before & go back to it. There's a window to throw it but the pocket gets condensed & Hurts may feel like he can't drive the throw to the sideline, he tries to keep play alive but gets sacked.

4th and 7, aggresive call from midfield. Rams showing a Cover 0 look.

Eagles running a bunch of deep developing routes, which is a bold move vs. the max pressure look.

Despite what it looked like on the broadcast replay, Goedert was not open.

Wow, a play I literally called for in the game preview!

The Eagles make it look like they will run China (in + corner), but they run Pirate and get a good look but Devonta is unable to hold onto to the low throw through contact.

3rd and 10, and the Eagles are desperate for a conversion.

Hurts floats a deep curl to AJ who snatches the ball out of the air and throws CB Williams to the ground.

AJ looked like a man possessed in the 2nd half and was very explosive on film.

3rd and 3.

Eagles run a similar Hank variant that they used vs. Cowboys. It works nicely and Devonta climbs the ladder to snag the high pass and move the chains.

Under 6 minutes left in the game now.

3rd and 10, and the Eagles are in dire straits.

Rams run another delayed pressure from depth, and the Eagles answer with another deep curl to AJ, who once again tosses the CB aside and runs for another 10 yards.

The Eagles should employ 3x1 with AJ isolated more often.

2nd and Goal from the 9.

Eagles run Ohio (clearout + slot out), but there's not much room and Hurts works back very quickly to Saquon in the flats for a crucial 5 yard gain.

3rd and goal from the 4.

The Rams blitz the corner over AJ and he easily outleverages the safety working to towards the pylon, but for some reason, Hurts waits to pull the trigger and then throws a dangerous errant pass.

Hard to explain what went wrong here.

4th and goal with the game on the line. Unlike many other QBs in these moments, Hurts doesn't get rattled.

Eagles in Empty but run an almost identical concept as the play before to AJ, this time to Smith. Masterful execution on the route, throw, and catch.

2-point conversion attempt to go up 3. Rams blitz the slot corner AGAIN but the safety reads it nicely. Devonta runs his route too upfield instead of flatter to the goaline and gives the safety a chance to disrupt at the catch point.

Overall, the first half looked ugly due to 3 main factors:
1. Lane Johnson getting hurt, causing compounding issues with protection
2. Route detail, several times running to the exact same part of the field or having poor spacing
3. Lack of a run game, that allowed the Rams to key on pass in long yardage situations

The 2nd half looked great because of 3 main factors:
1. The Eagles started to spread out the field & got AJ Brown several 1-on-1s, which he dominated
2. Fred Johnson was much less of a liability and the Eagles pass protection was much better
3. Hurts was confidently delivering passes on time without worrying about throwing an INT, since they were down 19

Bonus factor: The Rams' defense started to play soft or run simulated pressures from ridiculous depth, which helped the Eagles a lot.