Adrian Fedkiw
For the first time all season, I finally saw the Philadelphia Eagles look like the Kansas City Chiefs of last year when they closed the regular season with 10 straight wins.
Head coach Doug Pederson was the offensive coordinator at the time and called plays during the second half from the Pittsburgh Steelers game on, the start of that 10-game winning streak.
The Eagles dominated the time of possession 38:10-21:50 against the Atlanta Falcons en route to a 24-15 win on Sunday. They had a pair of drives that went six-plus minutes, one going 6:44 and another for 7:14. The Eagles ran for 208 yards in all, with Ryan Mathews leading the way with 19 carries for 109 yards and two touchdowns. Wendell Smallwood added 70 yards on 13 totes.
The offensive line played exceptionally well, especially along the left side of the line. Jason Peters, Stefen Wisniewski and Jason Kelce, when he wasn’t committing a penalty, were outstanding.
Let’s take a look.
The Eagles established their running game on their opening drive, with Mathews carrying the ball seven times for 34 yards. He finished off the 12-play, 81-yard march with consecutive runs of six, eight and four yards.
Isaac Seumalo, who did a great job in Matt Tobin’s role of providing the Eagles an extra offensive lineman on some plays, combined with Peters to create an alley for Mathews to run through on the left side for his 6-yard scamper. Kelce pulled and took out Deion Jones in the hole.
Kelce sealed off Grady Jarrett on the second run and Wisniewski located Jones on the second level. Peters chipped Courtney Upshaw, causing him to fall down. Brandon Brooks pulled to trap block him.
Kelce sealed off Jarrett again on the touchdown, taking him completely out of the play. Brooks and Halapoulivaati Vaitai double teamed Tyson Jackson to pave the way for Mathews.
Smallwood picks up seven yards off the left side on Philly’s second series, showcasing his balance and strength by fighting through a Jarrett arm tackle and maintaining his balance on his spin to pick up an extra yard or two. Jarrett beat Kelce with a quick inside move, but penetrated too far up the field, while Peters and Seumalo doubled Jackson to open up the hole.
The Eagles went three-and-out on their third sequence, but Mathews had a 21-yard burst up the middle on the fourth drive when LaRoy Reynolds and De’Vondre Campbell overpursued the play. Kelce and Brooks double-teamed Jackson and Wisniewski and Peters doubled Cliff Matthews to open up the crease for Mathews. Zach Ertz whiffed on his trap block, doing a belly flop in the process.
The Eagles went on another slow and methodical drive to start the third quarter, taking up the first 6:44 off the clock before settling for a Caleb Sturgis 29-yard field goal. Philadelphia got a big 11-yard run up the middle from Sproles and Smallwood scampered for 19 and 12 yards off the left side of the line later in the drive.
On the Sproles’ run, Kelce sealed off Jonathan Babineaux beautifully and Wisniewski picked up linebacker Deion Jones on the second level. Defensive tackle Adrian Clayborn fell down following a chip from Peters and the pulling Brooks didn’t need to do anything on his trap block.
We see Kelce at his best on the 19-yard run, pulling along the left boundary and pushing back Keanu Neal before Peters came along to help him create a wall and a huge alley for Smallwood.
The third clip is again the run to the outside with Ertz motioning to the left and trap blocking. Peters and Wisniewski sealed the edge on the double team.
Mathews was very decisive on Sunday, not only with his cuts but his bounces to the outside, like his 20-yard run on the first clip.
Brooks easily sealed off Beasley and Peters clipped Clayborn just enough to spring Mathews for a nice gain off right guard. Wisniewski also does a great job of initially helping Kelce on a double team before disengaging and locating a target on the second level.
I hated everything about the 3rd-and-goal play from the 1-yard line. I don’t believe in running laterally on 3rd-and-short to begin with, but the Eagles had been effectively pounding the rock up the middle all afternoon. This has been a tendency of Pederson, even going back to last season when he was the offensive coordinator with the Kansas City Chiefs. He likes to call runs to the outside and get cute. The play Sunday had too many moving parts where you need to time everything for the play to work. Wisniewski got hung up in the backfield on his pull and the play was a disaster.
The Eagles ran the ball once for three yards on their eighth drive, but got the ground game established once more on their ninth series with Kelce providing some more key blocks.
Kelce pulled and picked up Campbell along the left boundary on the delayed handoff to Sproles, which picked up eight yards. He was back at it again on the touchdown, when he and Brooks pulled. Kelce picked up Neal and Brooks took out Paul Worrilow. Vaitai did a nice job of clearing out Jackson on the fill.
The offensive line has gotten progressively better since Lane Johnson was suspended and Vaitai had to fill in at right tackle. Atlanta is right in the middle of the pack in yards per carry allowed, surrendering 4.2 yards per tote, which is 17th.
Maybe this is a sign of things to come.
The tests don’t get much stiffer than the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. We’ll see how the offensive line fares.