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Eagles Analysis: What’s wrong with the passing game?

By Jonathan Page

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The Philadelphia Eagles offense has been awful so far this year. They haven’t been able to run the ball at all and except for the second half of the Falcons game, they haven’t thrown it well either. The lack of a rushing attack doesn’t mean that you can’t throw the ball successfully, as shown against the Falcons. Obviously it helps a lot if you can run consistently but you can still throw the ball well without a good running game.

The Eagles offensive line has been awful at run blocking but pretty good in pass protection. When looking at the all-22 you see a number of examples of good pass protection like the one below:

So if the pass protection isn’t a big problem, why was the Eagles passing game so bad on Sunday? Is Sam Bradford the main problem? The all22 shows two major issues with the Eagles passing game currently. The first one is the biggest problem:

The wide receivers are playing bad

The Eagles wide receivers right now are simply not very good. Jordan Matthews is a good receiver but he’ll never be a top receiver as he struggles to beat man coverage. Nelson Agholor was drafted to help replace Jeremy Maclin but he’s struggled so far. Riley Cooper and Miles Austin just can’t get open at all.

The media were in love with Josh Huff throughout training camp but he’s done very little this season or throughout his short career. The only two players on the Eagles roster that can beat man coverage consistently at the moment are Zach Ertz and Darren Sproles. Look at this example below where Bradford has no where to go with the ball because everyone is covered:

The Cowboys played man coverage with a single high safety on almost every third down and the Eagles had no answer. When players do get open they seem to drop more balls than they catch, it’s just not very good at the moment. Chip Kelly is going to have scheme receivers open against man coverage against the Jets on Sunday because there is no way the Eagles receivers will beat the Jets cornerbacks in 1 on 1 situations. Here’s the other problem with the passing offense:

Sam Bradford cannot extend plays

This becomes really obvious when watching the all22, there are so many times that Bradford could run and pick up a few yards but he is not comfortable in doing so. Also, he rarely ever leaves the pocket whilst keeping his eyes downfield and makes a throw on the run. Look at the example below, Bradford only needs to make 1 yard to pick up the first down and he instead throws it to a covered Jordan Matthews and the Eagles have to punt:

When the Cowboys were in man coverage with a safety deep, there was frequently a lot of room for Bradford to run into. If he picks up first downs with his feet occasionally, he could force the defense to do something different or be careful not to leave gaps when rushing him. By moving around in the pocket he could also give the receivers extra time to get open. The below example shows perfectly how Bradford doesn’t keep his eyes downfield when moving, Sproles is wide open the second Bradford takes off:

The Eagles could have a had a huge gain on this play but instead Bradford picked up 9 yards. I’m glad Bradford left the pocket here but if he kept his eyes downfield Sproles could have a had a huge gain. When Bradford did leave the pocket and looked downfield, he ended up panicking and sliding behind the line of scrimmage rather than throwing the ball away. This showed how uncomfortable he is when moving outside the pocket.

I like the fact Bradford gets rid of the ball quickly and stays in the pocket. He sometimes gets rid of the ball far too quickly though and doesn’t let a play develop. I would like to see him extend plays or pick up yards with his legs when the defense presents the opportunity. Hopefully the Eagles will sort out the passing game quickly because they will be relying on it this season if the run blocking doesn’t dramatically improve.

Next: Eagles offensive line suffering from lack of draft picks

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