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Ever since Chip Kelly became head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles we have been constantly reminded how Kelly has transformed the offence into a beast never before seen in the NFL.
Despite the doubters voicing their many concerns prior to the start of the 2013 season, Kelly has been largely successful in implementing his high-powered offence in Philadelphia.
That is why it is so surprising that it is the offence that is preventing Philadelphia from elevating from good to great.
This statement may sound even more confusing when you consider the fact that the Eagles have scored 30 or more points in eight of their 13 games. But these matches were against average defences at best.
The Eagles should be putting 45 points on the Panthers, they should be scoring 43 against Tennessee and they shouldn’t be proud of scoring 37 points against Washington and only winning by three points.
When you dig down further, however, you find that when the Eagles have faced the best defences in the league they’ve struggled. They haven’t passed 21 points in their four matches against the NFC West trio of Seattle, Arizona and San Francisco or Green Bay – the Eagles four losses.
The problems are many, but are based around two key areas.
Firstly, starting quarterback Nick Foles has regressed back to a level of play that reflects his talent. Secondly, Mark Sanchez, who has replaced the injured Foles, just isn’t that good.
While Sanchez’s flaws were highlighted against the Seahawks, this was not the narrative heading into the match. There were many who believed that the Eagles were actually better off with Sanchez behind centre and some numbers supported this – his completion percentage is higher than Foles and his yards per attempt are higher.
However, this was against some poor secondaries, including Tennessee and Carolina and Sanchez also picked up a large number of garbage time yards in the blowout loss to the Packers.
Thankfully for the Eagles, the issues associated with the offensive line that plagued the team early in the season have settled down. This is because after using five different units in the first five weeks, line has experienced some continuity recently. Additionally, LeSean McCoy’s improvement has also coincided with the stronger play of the offensive line but even he struggled against the Seahawks.
The Seahawks showed the league that if you have a dominant secondary that doesn’t give the Eagles receivers any space, the highflying offence can be grounded. Sanchez looked flummoxed at times, he had nowhere to throw and didn’t know what to do. It doesn’t help when Sanchez is missing the receivers who are open and the ones he does hit are dropping passes. To be frank, it’s a miracle Sanchez only threw one intercept, although it makes it easier when you only attempt 20 passes.
The Eagles will receive some respite over the final three weeks of the regular season, as they are facing three weaker secondaries in Dallas, Washington and New York. However they will have to come up with some solutions prior to the start of the playoffs, if they get there, which is no certainty.
Philly could start by getting Foles back from injury. He is still two to four weeks away from returning and it could be incredibly risky to throw him into a sudden death playoff game after six weeks off. Best case scenario for the Eagles is that Foles returns in two weeks against New York with the Eagles having already sealed their playoff seed and he is able to prepare himself for playoff football.
A second solution the Eagles could utilise is to use a tactic the Peyton Manning-led offence regularly uses. A predominantly short passing game in which they get the ball out of Sanchez’s hands as quickly as possible to receivers who have other receivers blocking in front of them or have benefited from semi-legal pick or rub plays.
This allows Sanchez to make safe throws to explosive receivers, such as Jeremy Maclin and Riley Cooper, as well as running back Darren Sproles, who is lethal in the screen and short passing offence. Surprisingly, Sproles has been sparingly used in the passing game since he exploded for 152 yards on seven catches in week two against the Colts.
This was actually used by Sanchez in his first couple of games as a starter but they went away from it against Seattle. A return to this style of play is a must if they hope to defeat Seattle, Arizona, Green Bay or whomever it is they may come up against in the playoffs.
Finally, the Eagles need to have a word with the NFL about the referees slowing down the offence. The Eagles shouldn’t lose their speed and efficiency advantages just because the referees are too slow to get set. This happened numerous times against Seattle and has been a recurring theme throughout the Chip Kelly era. This greatly disadvantages the Eagles and gives the defence time to get organised.
The NFL rulebook states that all officials must have had a reasonable amount of time to get into position. This is far too ambiguous. What is a reasonable amount of time? Who determines whether the reasonable amount of time has elapsed? What happens if one ref has suffered an injury and is slow to get into position?
Obviously, the Eagles can’t snap the ball while the referees are in a conference, but the refs should still be hustling into position. They can do it in the final two minutes of each half, why can’t they do it all game long?
The Philadelphia Eagles are not a bad football team; they are actually a very good team. Their special teams unit is the best in the league and their defence is also right up there with the best in the NFL.
However, their offense is just average, ranked only 16th in the league in offensive efficiency. Philadelphia has to improve on offence if they are to make a deep run in the playoffs. This improvement must come from quarterback Mark Sanchez and his group of receivers.
Twitter: @fromthesheds
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