Post by Purple Pain on Aug 1, 2018 9:00:23 GMT -6
How the Philadelphia Eagles Outplayed and Outschemed the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game by Nick Olson
Rest at the link:
vikingsterritory.com/2018/analysis/how-the-philadelphia-eagles-outplayed-and-outschemed-the-minnesota-vikings-in-the-nfc-championship-game
Make no mistake, Mike Zimmer is a good coach. Zimmer has the fourth-best win percentage among qualified coaches in the NFL, despite being without his starting quarterback and starting running back for about 75% of the games he’s coached.
Pat Shurmur is a good coach, too. Last year, Shurmur turned a career journeyman into the #1 quarterback in the NFL by DVOA en route to earning AP Assistant Coach of the Year and winning a head coaching gig.
But there is zero question as to who was the best coach on the field in the 2017 NFC Championship Game. Doug Pederson and the Philadelphia Eagles outplayed, outschemed and outcoached the Vikings en route to an embarrasing 38-7 shellacking.
What happened?
The Eagles’ Offense Thoroughly Outplayed the Vikings’ Defense
Nick Foles entered the NFC Championship coming off three straight awful games against the Raiders, Falcons and Cowboys. His PFF grade entering the game was 49.3, which ranked 39th at the time, right between DeShone Kizer (50.8) and Brock Osweiler (47.7).
He finished the game with the third-best single-game grade of any quarterback from the entire season.
When a quarterback is playing as well as Foles did, there’s almost nothing a defense can do. Take the 41-yard flea flicker touchdown:
Yes, this is a great call from Doug Pederson that punished a defense that overplayed the run once they saw the handoff. Yes, Torrey Smith absolutely burns Trae Waynes here. But there is one Vikings player here who isn’t fooled by the handoff and does his job: Harrison Smith keeps his eyes on the QB, never bites on the handoff, breaks out of his backpedal to help out on the deep ball… But Foles just throws an absolutely perfect backshoulder throw, and there’s just nothing Harrison Smith can do.
Hear it from Xavier Rhodes:
Foles was making great throws; they were making great catches. Like one play, a toss-back play, Foles threw it in the end zone, and they caught it backside shoulder. It was a great throw and catch. Situations like that, we can’t do anything about.
And it wasn’t just Foles, either. Every Eagles receiver was consistently beating the Vikings’ defensive backs. Zach Ertz and Torrey Smith had their highest-graded games of the season. Conversely, Harrison Smith and Trae Waynes had their lowest-graded games of the season, and Xavier Rhodes and Terence Newman had their second-lowest-graded games of the season. On this 53-yard touchdown pass, Alshon Jeffrey just destroys Terence Newman with a post-go double move:
Newman leans into Jeffrey at the break of the post route, and Jeffrey makes him pay by using Newman’ body to redirect upfield for a wide open touchdown.
This next play comes on third-and-six. Foles feels the blitz coming and checks down to Clement in the flat. Barr has him dead-to-rights for the third-down stop, but he overpursues, can’t make the tackle, and Clement has the first down:
That third-down conversion set up the long touchdown to Jeffrey above.
One thing in common with the plays above? The Vikings defensive line fails to get home. Part of that was the Eagles offensive line playing well, buying Foles time for these deep passes. But an even bigger part of it was Foles evading rushers in the pocket and getting rid of the ball at the last split second:
The Vikings were actually getting a good amount of pressure throughout the game, but Foles just had eyes in the back of his head. There simply wasn’t anything the Vikings could do: good pocket presence beats good pressure, and a good throw beats good coverage.
Mike Zimmer Was Smart, but Doug Pederson Was Smarter
The Eagles got the ball at the end of the first half with less than 30 seconds to drive 80 yards downfield. Mike Zimmer and Harrison Smith knew the time on the clock, so they were aggressively playing the boundaries. Doug Pederson and Zach Ertz knew that Zimmer knew this, so Pederson called up a play designed to punish exactly that:
99 times out of 100, this play is a quick out designed to move the ball 10 yards while only costing a couple seconds.
But Doug Pederson is a 1-in-a-100 coach.
Pederson has Ertz run an out-and-up double move—a route most coaches would consider too risky and time-consuming for this situation. Harrison Smith knows the down and distance, knows his team is down in the playoffs, knows that this is very likely a quick out, and he undercuts the route, gambling for a pick. Pederson knew that that might happen, and next thing you know, the Eagles are kicking a field goal to end the half with even more points on the board.
That’s the story of Zimmer versus Pederson in a nutshell. Zimmer came in with a great game plan and was making the right tactical adjustments. But Pederson was just two-steps ahead of him every time.
Pat Shurmur is a good coach, too. Last year, Shurmur turned a career journeyman into the #1 quarterback in the NFL by DVOA en route to earning AP Assistant Coach of the Year and winning a head coaching gig.
But there is zero question as to who was the best coach on the field in the 2017 NFC Championship Game. Doug Pederson and the Philadelphia Eagles outplayed, outschemed and outcoached the Vikings en route to an embarrasing 38-7 shellacking.
What happened?
The Eagles’ Offense Thoroughly Outplayed the Vikings’ Defense
Nick Foles entered the NFC Championship coming off three straight awful games against the Raiders, Falcons and Cowboys. His PFF grade entering the game was 49.3, which ranked 39th at the time, right between DeShone Kizer (50.8) and Brock Osweiler (47.7).
He finished the game with the third-best single-game grade of any quarterback from the entire season.
When a quarterback is playing as well as Foles did, there’s almost nothing a defense can do. Take the 41-yard flea flicker touchdown:
Yes, this is a great call from Doug Pederson that punished a defense that overplayed the run once they saw the handoff. Yes, Torrey Smith absolutely burns Trae Waynes here. But there is one Vikings player here who isn’t fooled by the handoff and does his job: Harrison Smith keeps his eyes on the QB, never bites on the handoff, breaks out of his backpedal to help out on the deep ball… But Foles just throws an absolutely perfect backshoulder throw, and there’s just nothing Harrison Smith can do.
Hear it from Xavier Rhodes:
Foles was making great throws; they were making great catches. Like one play, a toss-back play, Foles threw it in the end zone, and they caught it backside shoulder. It was a great throw and catch. Situations like that, we can’t do anything about.
And it wasn’t just Foles, either. Every Eagles receiver was consistently beating the Vikings’ defensive backs. Zach Ertz and Torrey Smith had their highest-graded games of the season. Conversely, Harrison Smith and Trae Waynes had their lowest-graded games of the season, and Xavier Rhodes and Terence Newman had their second-lowest-graded games of the season. On this 53-yard touchdown pass, Alshon Jeffrey just destroys Terence Newman with a post-go double move:
Newman leans into Jeffrey at the break of the post route, and Jeffrey makes him pay by using Newman’ body to redirect upfield for a wide open touchdown.
This next play comes on third-and-six. Foles feels the blitz coming and checks down to Clement in the flat. Barr has him dead-to-rights for the third-down stop, but he overpursues, can’t make the tackle, and Clement has the first down:
That third-down conversion set up the long touchdown to Jeffrey above.
One thing in common with the plays above? The Vikings defensive line fails to get home. Part of that was the Eagles offensive line playing well, buying Foles time for these deep passes. But an even bigger part of it was Foles evading rushers in the pocket and getting rid of the ball at the last split second:
The Vikings were actually getting a good amount of pressure throughout the game, but Foles just had eyes in the back of his head. There simply wasn’t anything the Vikings could do: good pocket presence beats good pressure, and a good throw beats good coverage.
Mike Zimmer Was Smart, but Doug Pederson Was Smarter
The Eagles got the ball at the end of the first half with less than 30 seconds to drive 80 yards downfield. Mike Zimmer and Harrison Smith knew the time on the clock, so they were aggressively playing the boundaries. Doug Pederson and Zach Ertz knew that Zimmer knew this, so Pederson called up a play designed to punish exactly that:
99 times out of 100, this play is a quick out designed to move the ball 10 yards while only costing a couple seconds.
But Doug Pederson is a 1-in-a-100 coach.
Pederson has Ertz run an out-and-up double move—a route most coaches would consider too risky and time-consuming for this situation. Harrison Smith knows the down and distance, knows his team is down in the playoffs, knows that this is very likely a quick out, and he undercuts the route, gambling for a pick. Pederson knew that that might happen, and next thing you know, the Eagles are kicking a field goal to end the half with even more points on the board.
That’s the story of Zimmer versus Pederson in a nutshell. Zimmer came in with a great game plan and was making the right tactical adjustments. But Pederson was just two-steps ahead of him every time.
Rest at the link:
vikingsterritory.com/2018/analysis/how-the-philadelphia-eagles-outplayed-and-outschemed-the-minnesota-vikings-in-the-nfc-championship-game
... and neither is this Chris guy.