All-22: Inside Bryce Brown’s Big Day

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Bryce Brown was involved in pretty much every significant offensive play the Eagles had in their 30-22 loss to the Panthers Monday night.

That included 19 runs for a franchise rookie record 178 yards. But it also included two fumbles.

Here’s a look at Brown’s big night, using the All-22 tape.

Play 1: The Eagles went to the direct snap to Brown four times. This was the most successful attempt. The first shot shows the blocking.



The three players highlighted are King Dunlap, Brent Celek and Riley Cooper – all of whom do good jobs to create space for Brown to turn the corner. I wrote last week about the general lack of blocking from Eagles wide receivers, so Cooper definitely deserves credit here.

As for Brown, the only player he’s got to beat to get outside is defensive tackle Dwan Edwards.



That doesn’t prove to be much of a problem.

The next part is perhaps the most encouraging. Brown stays in bounds as safety Charles Godfrey goes for the tackle.



Looks like he has him there, right?

Wrong. Brown shows good lower-body strength, runs out of the tackle and is finally pushed out of bounds after a 19-yard gain.

Play 2: I remember before one of the preseason games, a reporter reminded Brown that running backs coach Ted Williams said he had an extra gear. But we hadn’t really seen it – until this 65-yard touchdown.

Again, start with the blocking.



The yellow arrow points to right tackle Dennis Kelly. I’m not sure about Dallas Reynolds’ technique. I guess Howard Mudd is teaching the “boxing out” method? But he gets the job done. And another example of the importance of wide receivers blocking – Damaris Johnson on the outside.

From there, Brown shows us the special gear and flies down the sideline. Godfrey is the only guy who has a chance at him.



Not trying to pick on the guy. He did hustle on the play, but…



Play 3: Here, Brown is one-on-one with rookie Luke Kuechly, who is already one of the better linebackers in the game.



You can see by the way that Kuechly’s positioned that he wants to force Brown back inside even if he doesn’t make the tackle. But Brown juked him and got around the corner.



Not only that, but when Kuechly caught up with him, Brown broke the tackle.

Of course, this was the play where he eventually fumbled. I didn’t notice it live, but Sione Fua did a great job hustling to cause the turnover. He was the second defender tackling Brown, but came all the way from left defensive tackle to knock the ball loose.

Play 4: Again, to me, the eye-popping part of Brown’s performance was his ability to turn the corner and outrun defenders. We saw that with both touchdowns. On the second one, he’s even with cornerback Josh Thomas.



But Brown has no problem beating him to the end zone.

Play 5: He’s probably not ready to make his Twitter handle CutOnDime34, but Brown looked a little LeSean McCoy-esque here. The running lane seems pretty defined at first.



But Brown cuts back, loses the two defenders who were moving to their right and picks up 24.



It’s worth noting that Nick Foles did a good job checking to a run on this play.

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

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