So what happened to the offense in the 4th quarter? One of the more annoying dialogues from the commentators was accusing the Eagles of not being able to play at a slower pace. I mean, they even referenced what the Eagles did to the Packers last week, but then continued on with the dialog that the Eagles can't run a slower paced offense. I call bull pucky.

Instead, the offense couldn't get it going in the 4th and as a result, the Redskins made a game out of it.

The Eagles had an opportunity to do that again in the 4th quarter against the Redskins. As much as it was nice to see the defense pull one out in the end, I much prefer watching the offense smashing the ball down the opponents throat to ice the game.

One week ago, my colleague and I lamented about that final, clock-eating drive against the Packers here and here . There's nothing better than watching that.

Quite simply, the Eagles didn't execute. The Redskins made some plays as well. Simple as that. Let's have a look at a few key plays on the final 2 drives. The key is to get positive yards and to set up manageable 3rd down situations. Hard to do, if we are losing yards.

Check out this outside zone read. Eagles have good blocking up front, but despite Jason Peters clearing the hole on the outside James Casey is helping on a double team. You'll see the defender highlighted in red who has no one to block him. Have to believe this was a miscommunication and that guy was the responsibility of Casey or Peters:

That unblocked defender makes the tackle for a loss in what was a sizeable running lane:

This one looks like a missed opportunity for Foles:

Foles is going to go to the top for his progession where Desean is one-on-one with deep safety help. Sure looks to be open here and Foles getting ready to unload:

But he pulls the ball down and gets sacked.

***

The biggest culprit on both drives in the 4th was our inability to win in short yardage. We went for it twice on 4th down and failed both times. Ryan Kerrigan was a big reason for that, but maybe Chip ought to consider playing an extra lineman on some short yardage plays in the future. Here's the first one. Johnson is going to downblock and Celek gets single man blocking on Kerrigan. The OLB is the read on this inside zone read:

Celek loses bad, turnover on downs:

Here's the other. This time we have Mathis pulling across the formation to take the OLB. Johnson on the downblock, but once again the success of this play requires James Casey to block Ryan Kerrigan:

Kerrigan shoots the gap, Casey gets back into the backfield which disrupts the play:

And Fletcher cleans up in the hole.

Last one, and this gets back to the first point. The key to eating the clock is gaining positive yardage to set up manageable downs and distances. McCoy and Brown did an exceptional job against the Packers last week of taking what they were given. McCoy reverts on this one though.

This is a cross block on a power play where Lane Johnson pulls into the hole:

As the play develops, you'll see one defender in the hole and Johnson is lined up to block him:

You'd like to see McCoy ride behind his big lead blocker, but instead, despite getting at least an easy couple of yards on first down, McCoy tries to cut back:

and ends up getting tackled 9 yards behind the LOS:

Perhaps this is the type of things these 3 guys were arguing about: