Doug Pederson cannot forget about the run game again
Why does Doug Pederson forget about the run game all the time?
Sometimes, we feel like a broken record saying this now that we are in Doug Pederson’s third season. But somebody has to say it. Why are the Philadelphia Eagles so uncommitted to running the football, even when it’s working?
Last week, Jay Ajayi took on 15 carries for 70 yards. He was averaging 4.7-yards-per-carry, which doesn’t look too bad in comparison to some other big-named backs around the league. In the ground game, Ajayi had some similar numbers to Los Angeles’ Todd Gurley. You know, a guy who is considered to be a top-five back in the league?
Okay, so maybe the Eagles feared that Ajayi would get hurt taking on more than 15 carries due to his back injury. Well, Wendell Smallwood still exists. And once again, Smallwood was highly impressive on the ground with his five carries that he took for 39 yards. Yet, the Eagles still didn’t want to commit to the run game.
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What’s the excuse? Heading into the week four matchup, the Titans were statistically ranked in the 20’s range for rushing yards allowed. On average, Tennesee was giving up over 115-yards-per-game to-other teams. But not to the Eagles, of course. No. Doug Pederson preferred to throw the ball 50 times with his quarterback who couldn’t buy protection in the pocket.
It’s almost like Pederson calls running plays as throwaway’s so that he can hit a certain number of carries-per-game. And every single time the run game starts to heat up, he completely shy’s away from it and the Eagles end up losing momentum with incomplete passes, sacks, or even worse, a turnover. Something’s wrong with this picture, and it needs to be fixed.
Stick to the Ground Game
This week, the Eagles will host the Minnesota Vikings at home. While the Vikings are a tougher match up than the Titans defensivley, their rushing defense is-not that intimidating. Right now, they are allowing 3.9 yards-per-attempt, which ties for 10th in the league. As far as yards-per-game goes, they are ranked at 13th. Again, Minnsesota’s rushing defense is not that scary, and the Eagles could and should take advantage of that. But they have to be willing to.
We had this issue with Pederson over the last two years where he relied too heavily on Carson Wentz to throw. Meanwhile, he’s got a workhorse running back who has proven to be more than willing to take as many as 30 carries-a-game. That’s not to say that Ajayi should get 30 carries, but at least give him more opportunities throughout the day.
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There are three ways the offense would improve with moving the ball often. One, it would enhance the Eagles time-of-possession and keep the struggling defense off the field. Two, it would prevent Carson Wentz taking more unnecessary hits and/or making mistakes. And three, it could build-up some much-needed momentum, similar to how the offense looked on their final drive in overtime last week.