How the Eagles Picked Apart the Giants Defense
The Eagles did just about whatever they wanted against the Giants in Week 14. They controlled the line of scrimmage and rushed for a whopping 253 yards on 31 carries (8.2 yards per rush!). They were efficient in the passing game but were also able to generate two explosive plays of 30+ yards that both resulted in touchdowns. While the talent gap between these two teams was clearly a factor, it wasn’t the only reason for Philly’s dominance. In fact, the key play of the game that all but sealed the win midway through the second quarter came as a result of the Eagles setting up and then breaking their own tendencies.
Let’s start with Philly’s second drive of the game. On multiple occasions, they ran a play featuring a deep over route from a tight-slot position that nearly hit against the Giants’ Cover-1 look (1 deep safety, man coverage underneath):
Fast forward to the first play of the Eagles’ third drive, with Philly already leading 14-0. The Eagles were set up with great field position at the Giants’ 33-yard line after a disastrous illegal kick by the punter. Immediately, they went for the jugular.
Initially, it looked like the Eagles had another deep-over route called from a tight-slot position, this time with A.J. Brown running it:
From deep safety Jason Pinnock’s perspective, this route looked the same as one of those previous over routes midway through the play:
The Eagles would also run a post to the side of the over, another ploy to help guide Pinnock toward that side of the field:
But Brown would not be running a deep over. Instead, he broke his route back to the outside:
Brown left his man in his tracks. And with Pollock as the only deep safety, Brown would end up wide open for the killshot:
I don’t know if the Eagles game-planned this during the week or if they saw how Pinnock was reacting to the previous over routes and figured it was time to attack. Either way, this was a great job by offensive coordinator Shane Steichen of setting up tendencies and then breaking them.