Kelce’s first block in the alley is almost a pancake, and he goes back for some more on a follow up block on the backside LB. The point here is the Falcon’s tremendous speed is at times best against zone blocking schemes where lineman often only aim to get a piece of defenders while moving. No one has said it better than the guy’s at Ourlads.com who described ATL middle linebacker Deion Jones as someone who “gets through traffic like a jackrabbit through a mine field.” PHI must use man schemes to close the point of attack, slow the lateral movement, and get 282 lb lineman like Kelce on 222 lb Jones as fast as possible. The Dolphins and Jay Ajayi achieved a similar goal early back in Week 6, although they ran mostly inside zone for big chunks of yardage as the first quarter ended. That later opened up holes for outside zone and power, and really served as a wake up call at that point in the season for the interior line who looked like they were absolutely asleep against the Dolphins guards and center.

In the Air

So the passing game has obviously been the focus for fans and media alike since QB Wentz went down with the knee injury. It has been a mixed bag for back up Nick Foles, really almost a pre-season type series of one good game (Week 15 against the Giants) and then one gad game (Week 16 vs. the Raiders), and then a weird one quarter game against the Cowboys to end the season. This leaves a weird subset to investigate film wise. Schematically, the film shows a QB who is used to the playbook, understands his reads well, and has strong poise in the pocket to deliver tough throws. Tactically there is a certain level of deliberateness to his game, that makes poor decisions seem like a non factor because he is so careful. On the flip side of that, that deliberateness can easily lead deadly hesitation on throws and disrupt the timing of a route scheme effectively closing the window for receptions and opening the door for turnovers. Lets start with that bad news first.

The intermediate routes are where the Eagles will miss Wentz the most. His arm strength was always there, but this year he took his game to the next level by throwing to receivers in routes where they were just becoming open so that by the time the ball gets there the timing is nearly impossible to stop. And look, most back ups can not come in and be the starter. But this offense stretches the field not through deep fades and isolation routes but by combinations sometimes 15–20 yards down the field. Pulling an example from the red zone in Week 15 against the Giants, here on first down PHI comes out with 12 personnel and TE Zach Ertz spread out in the slot: