Eagles’ Run Game Dominant Against Cowboys

The Eagles ran this concept a couple of times. They’re more of a zone-based team, but between this scheme and some of their designed quarterback runs, they do go man or gap blocking occasionally as well. I know it doesn’t go for a huge gain here, but that’s because of the running back—this is well blocked. It’s a simple enough play; everyone on the front side blocks down to their inside gap and they pull the backside of the offensive line to kick the edge and lead into the hole.

No one throws a devastating block here, but everyone blocks their guy. Isaac Seumalo at right guard does a good job of swallowing the edge defender (Dorance Armstrong, 92) and keeping him from collapsing the hole. Right tackle Jordan Mailata gets to the second level and gets a good piece of the middle linebacker (Leighton Vander Esch, 55). I think there are more yards here if the back takes it inside that block, but he decides to bounce it. The blocking is still there to pick up 7 if the runner doesn’t get knocked backwards by the corner.

This is the Eagles’ bread-and-butter concept. It’s just inside zone and all 32 teams run it, but Philly runs it as well as anyone. Once again, I want to highlight Seumalo (56) at right guard. He steps inside on his track, and once he feels no immediate threat, he gets vertical to climb to the next level and plays through the shoulder of the defensive tackle. Notice how square his shoulders are the whole time; he blows the defensive tackle’s shoulder open but he never turns into that block, he stays squared so he can continue to track the linebacker at the second level. That’s exactly how it’s supposed to look.

Really everyone up front for Philadelphia is solid here though. You hear the cliche “hat on a hat” thrown around a lot by football announcers, but that’s exactly what this is. The Eagles cover everyone up and let the back pick his way all the way to the safety before he gets touched. Tremendous job by everyone up front.

The previous play was inside zone, and this is outside zone. Once again, the Eagles offensive line handles everyone up front and leaves the back free to the safety. There’s a lot to love on this play, so I’m just going to start at left tackle and work my way inside.

Mailata (68) starts by shoving the edge player fully onto the tight end’s block before climbing to the second level. Then look at that strength when he gets to the linebacker. Mailata looks a little off balance and all he can do is get a shove on the defender, but he’s so big and strong that a shove is enough to launch the linebacker off balance and about 5 yards outside. Then the left tackle is so big that the safety seems to lose the running back behind him.

Inside of that, left guard Landon Dickerson (69) and center Jason Kelce (62) both do a great job of reaching their men. A reach block is where you get to the defender’s play-side shoulder and seal him off inside. Both Dickerson and Kelce do this extremely quickly to make the back’s read very easy.

And the back side of the play is just as good as the front side. Right guard Seumalo (56) gets up to the linebacker. Right tackle Lane Johnson (65) uses a picture-perfect rip technique to cutoff the backside 3-technique. This used to be a block where you’d always see the offensive line cut, but with cut rules changing so much over the years you have seen a lot of guys go to this rip technique. The goal is to get your far arm across the defender’s body and rip through his inside armpit. Great block by Johnson.

The pass-blocking was really solid too. They gave up some pressures for sure, but for the most part they gave Jalen Hurts enough time to make some plays. Even on some of the sacks the Eagles did a decent job up front and Hurts ran himself into a bit of trouble.

This is an extremely difficult stunt to pass off with the protection that the Eagles have on, but they almost pull it off. This is a half-slide protection where the left side of Philly’s line is in man protection and the right side is sliding. Trying to pass off a stunt from the man side to the zone side is difficult.

Dickerson actually does a great job here. Look at him flatten his man (Armstrong, 92) all the way across the snap point while keeping his shoulders square enough to come back on the looper. That’s really great. Where the protection breaks down is that Seumalo doesn’t quite get enough depth initially, so he gets picked by the nose tackle (Quinton Bohanna, 98) rather than bumping Kelce off the block and overtaking it.

Still, even though the defender gets free eventually, there is some real good stuff here from Dickerson and both tackles as well. Even on their bad plays, there’s something enjoyable to watch on this line.