Eagles OL Review: Identifying the Issues Vs. Tampa

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Below is a player-by-player review of how the Eagles’ offensive line performed in Sunday’s 23-21 win over the Bucs after having re-watched the game.

King Dunlap – A very up-and-down performance from the left tackle. He could not get to Michael Bennett on an early stretch play that lost 4 yards. Dunlap hit Ronde Barber, but barely moved him on an early Bryce Brown run that was stopped for no gain. He was beaten badly off the edge on a first-quarter sack and later had trouble with the defensive end, who rushed off the edge and forced Nick Foles out of the pocket. Daniel Te’o-Nesheim went right past him and sacked Foles in the second. Dunlap was pushed deep into the backfield on a Brown run that lost 7 yards in the second. He and Dennis Kelly both were beaten on a second-quarter play where Foles stepped up and found Jason Avant deep downfield. The good: Dunlap did a nice job on Brown’s 11-yard run in the second. He put a good block on the defensive back on the screen to Jeremy Maclin that picked up 24. And he did a nice job one-on-one in pass protection, giving Foles time to find Jeremy Maclin for 22 yards on 3rd-and-10 in the fourth.

Evan Mathis – This very well could be the best stretch of football we’ve seen out of Mathis. With the pieces around him all struggling on Sunday, Mathis again delivered a strong effort. He drove Te’o-Nesheim to the ground on Foles’ 14-yard pass to Damaris Johnson in the second. Great effort finishing the play on Foles’ 14-yard scramble in the third. Often times, when a QB takes off to run, offensive linemen will just stop. Mathis not only picked up Gerald McCoy on a stunt, but drove him downfield until the whistle blew. Later, Mathis did an excellent job on the defensive back on the Maclin screen that picked up 24. It’s possible I missed one, but I didn’t notice a single breakdown in protection from him.

Dallas Reynolds – Not a good showing. Reynolds couldn’t hold his block on McCoy on an early stunt that resulted in a sack. It didn’t look like Reynolds was trying to pass the DT off to Mathis either (to be fair, Foles had more than three seconds to get rid of the ball on the play). Later, he got pushed into the backfield by Te’o-Nesheim on a Brown run that was stopped for no gain. Reynolds stayed with the double-team and failed to pick up linebacker Lavonte David, who was coming on a blitz and hit Foles. It’s possible Reynolds thought Brown was picking up David on the play. He and Jake Scott did a poor job handling a stunt in the first as Foles was sacked. Defensive tackle Gary Gibson got past him and pressured Foles into throwing the ball away in the red zone in the second. Reynolds later let Gibson through again, but Foles stepped up and found Avant in the third. McCoy went right past him and dragged Dion Lewis down for a loss of 4 in the fourth. One of the few bright spots came when Reynolds switched off to the blitzer on Foles’ 11-yard completion to Clay Harbor late in the first half.

Jake Scott – He had been playing well, but struggled in this one. Scott was a little slow to pick up Da’Quan Bowers on a stunt on the early 6-yard completion to Johnson. McCoy went around him on third down in the first quarter. Scott did a poor job of handling a first-quarter stunt as Bennett sacked Foles. He got abused one-on-one against McCoy, giving up a sack in the third, and got pushed back by Te’o-Nesheim on the two-point try, allowing a hit on Foles. Scott had a nice block on the defensive back on the screen to Avant that picked up 10 in the third.

Dennis Kelly – Yikes. Perhaps a year from now, Kelly will remember this as a learning moment. But he struggled big-time on Sunday. Poor job on Bennett on a stretch play that lost 4 yards in the first. He couldn’t get in front of McCoy on a Brown run that picked up 1 yard in the first. Kelly did a poor job with his block on a Brown run in the second that was stopped for no gain. He was beaten badly on Brown’s red-zone run that lost a yard in the second. And Kelly was beaten off the edge on the play where Foles stepped up and found Avant deep downfield. He had trouble with Bennett in the third, but McCoy sacked Foles first. Kelly got pushed into the backfield by Bennett on Brown’s third-quarter run that lost a yard. He was beaten badly on third down in the third, forcing Foles to move out of the pocket and throw incomplete. Kelly missed his block on the WR screen to Maclin in the fourth that picked up 4 yards. On the very next play, he gave up a sack to Bennett. And he had trouble with Bennett on the play after that, but Foles stepped up and hit Maclin for a first down. Much to improve on after this outing for Kelly.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.

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