The Eagles’ run game troubles continued against San Francisco on Sunday as LeSean McCoy was held to just 17 yards on 10 carries. After reviewing the game film, the biggest problem that stood out to me was that on almost every running play, someone lost a one on one blocking battle which resulted in either the hole collapsing or, even worse, a defender getting into the backfield. In this week’s All-22 review, I’ll break down eight of McCoy’s 10 carries from Sunday and show what went wrong.

This first play was probably the one run from Sunday in which I thought the blockers actually did a good job, and McCoy might have made the wrong choice by bouncing this run to the outside as opposed to running north-south and hitting the hole hard.



This next play is an inside run. The Niners have six men in the box to match up with the Eagles’ six blockers. So the Eagles have the proper numbers on this play to make for a successful run. Left guard Matt Tobin is going to pull to the right to lead the way for McCoy, but the play breaks down as center David Molk and right guard Dennis Kelly fail to create a surge on their blocks. Tight end Brent Celek also fails to get good leverage and positioning on this block as his man gets inside to make the tackle.



This next play is an outside zone run to the right. The Niners have seven men in the box, but Foles can freeze the unblocked defender on the left, so once again the Eagles will have six blockers matched up against six defenders. Molk and Kelly are going to start off with a combo block on defensive end Ray McDonald, and then Kelly is supposed to get off the block and get to the second level to block linebacker Michael Wilhoite. However, Kelly trips and falls on his way there leaving Wilhoite unblocked. This forces McCoy to have to bounce this run to the outside for no gain.

On this play, once again the Eagles and Niners have even numbers in the box. The offensive line does their job and opens up a nice hole for McCoy, but safety Antoine Bethea comes down to fill the hole and McCoy is unable to shake him. Credit has to be given to Bethea as well as he does an excellent job of wrapping up McCoy and bringing him down. Thanks to Bethea’s play, what could have been an extra yardage play for the Birds turned into a five yard gain. It should be noted that Bethea had a great game on Sunday and was around the ball at all times. McCoy had a few one on one opportunities with him but was unable to make him miss, which is uncommon to see.



On the following play, it looks like there was some miscommunication between Jason Peters and Matt Tobin as they allow Justin Smith to get into the backfield untouched. This forces McCoy to have to abandon the play and try to cut back across the field to get back to the line of scrimmage.

This next off-tackle run was set up nicely and looked like it had a chance to go for big yardage. Justin Smith crashes inside and takes himself out of the play which plays perfectly into the Eagles’ hands. Dennis Kelly is able to get to the second level to block linebacker Patrick Willis, and it looks like the Eagles are going to be able to spring McCoy to the second level untouched. However, Zach Ertz is unable to hold his block against linebacker Dan Skuta, as Skuta throws Ertz down to the ground and makes the tackle on McCoy. Once again, this play goes for five yards but had a chance for so much more if Ertz had been able to win his one on one battle with Skuta.



The Niners stack the box on this run, and there are multiple problems with it from the start. As you can see before the play, Bethea is calling out the direction of the run, so right from the start the defense is ready for this play. Matt Tobin then allows defensive end Demarcus Dobbs to get by him and bring down McCoy in the backfield for a four yard loss. Even if Tobin would have made his block, this run still wouldn’t have been successful because there were other breakdowns in the play. Once again, Ertz can’t hold his block against Skuta as Skuta sends him to the ground. Also, Patrick Willis shoots the gap on this play, which prevents Kelly from being able to get to the second level to block him. So Willis and Skuta would have been waiting in the hole for McCoy regardless. An audible may have been a good idea on this one as the Niners knew what play was coming.



McCoy gains five yards on this run, but it should have had a chance for more. Once again the Eagles have six blockers to six defenders. Kelly is going to pull to his left and then lead the way for McCoy downfield. However, when he goes to block Willis, he doesn’t get great positioning on him. I think McCoy was expecting Kelly to hit Willis square on, but Kelly ends up being on the side of him which forces McCoy to have to make a jump cut to the outside. Had Kelly gotten in front of Willis, he would have been able to seal off the hole and McCoy would have had a one on one opportunity with Bethea for a chance at a big gain.



That does it for this week’s All-22 review. The Eagles will look to get their ground game going this Sunday as they host the 1-2 Saint Louis Rams. Lane Johnson is back from his four-game suspension which will bode well for the depleted offensive line and allow Todd Herramans to move back to right guard. I’d look for head coach Chip Kelly to use a good amount of unbalanced line formations with Johnson lined up next to Peters to try to get something going on the ground.

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