Going into the Monday Night football game versus the Minnesota Vikings, the Philadelphia Eagles knew that there was a lot of pressure on their quarterback Jalen Hurts to prove himself. It was also up to offensive coordinator Shane Steichen to provide him with the tools for success.
Hurts ended up completing 17 out of 20 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown through the air. On the ground, he rushed for 50 yards and two touchdowns. Hurts ended with an 83% completion percentage and a QBR of 108.7.
We can confidently say that it was one of his most complete games as an Eagle.
Let’s go into the film and break down how Hurts was able to slice through the Vikings defense to come out with a dominating win under the lights!
Putting the Dagger in.
The Eagles’ receivers have two clear skill sets: Route running and toughness. DeVonta Smith is a player that prides himself on beating his defender either with his speed or with his route running, and most of the time, it’s both.
On the very first play of the game, the Vikings came out with two safeties over the top with a cornerback covering the outside receiver.
In order to see what responsibility the safety has over the top, the Eagles run the ‘dagger’ concept.
Will the safety play a blanket defense and remain in the deep half of the field, or will he step up and help underneath?
He steps up.
Just to be sure of this, on the very next snap the Eagles run the exact same play and the safety once again, steps up.
Looking at the passing chart, Hurts took advantage of the underneath a lot, and allowed his receivers to make plays after the catch.
Per Sports Info Solutions, the Vikings played some form of two-high coverage on 17 of Hurts’ attempts in this game, allowing 13 completions in 14 attempts for 186 yards, Hurts’ touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 131.0. There was more Cover-4 and Cover-6 than Cover-2 or 2-Man, but as much as Minnesota defensive coordinator Ed Donatell called shell coverage, it didn’t tend to work for him.
As it stands right now, according to NBC Sports, the Eagles are eighth in the league in yards after the catch (289).
Seeing how easy the completion was with the ‘dagger’, the Eagles put that play in their back pocket and decide to pull it out with two-minutes left in the first quarter on a third-and-5, when they needed a first down.
This play and drive pretty much sets up the entire game for the Eagles offense. With the safety still stepping up to help the underneath, this left only one safety on the other side of the field against a dangerous trips bunch. This is where it starts to get interesting.
Attacking two-deep coverage.
There are several ways to attack a cover 2/4 defense. You can put pressure on one of the safeties (which we will get to later on), or the easiest concept may be the hardest throw for a quarterback, which is attacking in between the zones.
This is difficult because of the anticipation it takes and the tight window that the quarterback has. What made this a great game for Hurts was how he was just so automatic when attacking it.
These throws are not easy ones to make. The window is closing as the defenders are crashing down, so this throw and the timing has to be absolutely perfect.
On another play, Hurts shows this once again when attacking the middle of the field underneath the safeties.
Hurts could have gone for the easier throw, to AJ Brown on the left side, but instead he wanted to ensure the first down by putting the ball beyond the sticks.
Going up two touchdowns.
Now getting back to the ‘dagger’ concept and how the safety was stepping up to help underneath…
The Eagles did a great job recognizing and then exposing this at the right time, which ended up putting them up by two touchdowns.
It was nearing the end of the first quarter and the Eagles came out in a 3×1 formation. On the single side, they had Brown attack his safety over the middle of the field.
Just as expected, he steps up to prevent any yards after the catch.
As the Eagles continued to throw it to the underneath receivers and the Vikings safeties continued to step up. A few plays later, the Eagles run a similar concept to the ‘Dagger’, but this time an ‘Ohio’ concept.
On second-and-eight the offense comes out in another 3×1 formation. The outside receiver runs the same route as he has been all game. As expected, the safety steps up once again and gets pays for it.
After the game, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell indicated that safety Camryn Bynum should have stayed deep with Watkins, but instead covered the breaking route by tight-end Dallas Goedert.
Goedert was already 2-for-2 at that point in the game where he was attacking the left-intermediate part of the field.
This is why it’s important for the Eagles to remain patient. They continued to attack the underneath and middle of the field which created tendencies by the safeties over the top.
Taking the safety stepping up into consideration, once you put the fastest guy on the field (Quez Watkins) on a go-route, it was a destined to work.
This is what happens when you take what the defense gives you.
