Nick is never going to be mistaken for a blazer. I think we can all agree on that. But I think it's time people start to widespread acknowledge that Nick is not some statue like Byron Leftwich, Dan Marino, or Drew Bledsoe. For his size, Nick is plenty athletic and dangerous enough to hurt teams with his legs. This stood out once again in a complete performance against the Packers.

While Nick did not have a HOF-worthy performance on Sunday, he was still very, very good. Again, I think Nick once again showed that he is doing some of the small things that really stand out.

I've been highlighting for weeks how it sure seems like Chip loves to "plant" plays into the minds of defenses early. He'll show some look, and he will come back to it several times throughout the game with multiple options. I think there is definitely some psychology to it and I think Chip loves to mix mind games in with the tempo he runs at.

Let's check out the 3rd play from scrimmage and it's a 3rd and short play. I absolutely love the play design here. First, I love running the traditional inside zone read option play on short yardage. It really puts the defense in a bind, even with Nick Foles as a threat to run. The really nice thing on this play however is the double stack formation:

We get 6 in the box and 4 defenders our very wide to cover the double stack formation. This is a standard inside zone read and we target the Packers best defensive play, Clay Matthews. He is the read on this play and he is left unblocked. On 3rd and short he crashes aggressively down the line after McCoy. It's also worth noting the LB highlighted by the red arrow at the 2nd level. We've talked about the scrape exchange, and you have to believe any DC facing a short yardage situation who crashes his OLB down is going to have the ILB guarding for the QB keeper. However look how the LB bites on the fake. You'll now see, thanks to the space vacated by Matthews that Nick has room to run. However more notable is the design of the formation. Because we have the double stack out wide, Nick has even more room to run making this a high percentage play in short yardage.

The result is an easy 1st down. However, more importantly, on the 3rd play from scrimmage Kelly has signalled to Capers that he is not afraid to run Foles on that keeper and if the Pack don't account for Nick, he will burn him. Stay tuned for the weekly EXTRA! EXTRA read all about it column where I show the creases the Eagles were able to create thanks to this foundational play.

And as I showed yesterday, to come full circle, what does Chip run on the final play of the game after smashing the ball down the Packers' throats all game long with the inside zone read with Brown and McCoy? You guessed it:

And once again, the OLB and ILB bite hard on the running back. Easy 1st down to ice the game.

The pundits were right. Nick Foles can't run the read-option!