Through the first three weeks of the season, Sam Bradford was third-to-last in yards per attempt (5.8 yards), only ahead of Ryan Mallett and Jimmy Clausen, and he had only attempted to throw deep—a pass attempt of 20 yards or more—on 6 percent of his passes (39th out of 41 passers). *

Week 4 against Washington was different; Bradford threw deep on 28 percent of his attempts while completing four out of eight of those deep passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns.

In addition to the adjustments that were made to the Eagles’ vertical passing approach against Washington, the Eagles made other changes to their offense that ran play action with Sam Bradford on 11.7 percent of their drop backs (ranks 32nd out of 37 for quarterbacks that took 25 percent of their team’s snaps)* in the first three weeks. Last Sunday, the Eagles nearly doubled that output and ran play action on 20.6 percent of drop backs and found it to be the impetus for success in our first play breakdown this week.

(Eagles: 0 – Washington: 13) 2 nd and 5 – 4:49 in the 2nd

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Eagles line up in 11 personnel (one running back and one tight end) with Nelson Agholor lined up in a reduced split (inside the numbers), while Washington falls back into Cover 3 with (from top to bottom) Dashon Goldson, Trenton Robinso, and Chris Culliver.

Nelson Agholor runs the post route to perfection, while he uses a “dino stem” to create additional separation against the defensive back that has outside leverage toward on the closed side of the formation.

What seals the deal on this play, beyond the nice reception made by Agholor, is the play action that draws Trenton Robinson toward the line of scrimmage. Robinson is currently graded out as Pro Football Focus’ worst safety and is the 78th rated safety (out of the 82 safeties that have played 25 percent or more of their team’s snaps) in pass coverage through the first four weeks of 2015; in this particular instance, he simply over-pursues the run, Bradford catches him flat-footed, and he cannot recover fast enough.

(Eagles: 0 – Washington: 13) 2 nd and 20 – 12:10 in the 3rd

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On 2 nd and 20, Washington rolls from a two deep look into Cover 3.

and 20, Washington rolls from a two deep look into Cover 3. The post by Riley Cooper and the deep dig by Zach Ertz combine to make a perfect example of the Mills Concept in action. The idea behind the Mills Concept is to make the safety—in this case Trenton Robinson—choose between the dig and the post. Robinson (he really isn’t having a good game) doesn’t get enough depth on his drop to get a downward angle at Riley Cooper after Chris Culliver funnels him toward the middle of the field (which is what Culliver is supposed to do).

As the middle third of the Cover 3, Robinson may be caught up here because of the deep dig in front of him, but it looks like the defense was designed, because it is 2nd and 20 mind you, to have the linebacker drop deep enough to cover Ertz on the dig route without free safety help and allow underneath routes.

(Eagles: 6 – Washington: 13) 2 nd and 11 – 9:16 in the 3rd

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This may be Bradford’s nicest pass of the day.

Washington falls back into Cover 2, and the Eagles have a play designed to take advantage of the coverage with Jordan Matthews headed up the middle of the field on a seam route.

In a Cover 2, one of the linebackers (typically the middle linebacker)—in this case Keenan Robinson—is assigned to get a deep drop with any inside vertical route, while the two safeties are held responsible for the two deep halves of the field.

To his effort, Keenan Robinson stays tight in coverage against Jordan Matthews, but Bradford makes an exceptional throw down the middle of the field into one of the soft spots of the defense.

(Eagles: 13 – Washington: 16) 1 st and 10 – 14:54 in the 4th

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Washington lines up in Cover 1, with Chris Culliver in off-man protection against Miles Austin at the top of the screen and Bashaud Breeland in press coverage at the bottom of the screen.

In off-man, Culliver lines up 7-8 yards from his man. This allows him to break in on any intermediate routes, while also allowing him to cover any deep routes once his man breaks his cushion.

Austin starts his route with an inside stem that allows his to break outside slightly and turn Culliver’s hips. Once Bradford sees this, he pulls the trigger and finds Austin in the end zone.

Since the prevalence of the down-the-field passing game seems to have re-energized a dormant Eagles offense, one is left to wonder what took the Eagles so long to try and stretch the field deep. However, we must keep in mind that this windfall of production comes against a Washington defense that is currently ranked 21st in pass defense DVOA. The Eagles play the Saints (32nd in pass defense DVOA) in Week 5 and should have ample opportunities to stretch the field vertically against a team that allowed 112 yards* on deep passes to Brandon Weeden and a depleted Cowboys receiving corps on Sunday Night Football.

*Deep passing and play action data is provided by ProFootballFocus.com.