Chipwagon Shows Us Top 25 Plays Run By Chip Kelly

[musicman]

interesting stuff, check it out

03/01/2014

#25-Bubble Screens and Welcome Back Mac!

Starting off the offseason series, I should mention that when I say top 25 "plays" what I might mean is a collection of plays. Sometimes I will focus on one single play, other times, I will focus on a collection of plays that were a key component of the 2013 Chip Kelly offense. Today, we will talk about the bubble screen and towards the end of the post we will show how newly signed Jeremy Maclin might just be the ideal missing piece from the 2013 offense with this play in mind.


The bubble screen is an interesting component of the offense that Chip certainly carried over from his time at Oregon. As you will see, it really is a play that stretches the field horizontally and can lead to explosive RAC on the outside, to a deep shot downfield, but also to open up the running game.
Let's start witha play from Nick's big game against the Raiders. The concept is very simple in this instance the Eagles line up with 3 WRs on the bottom of the screen. The pre-snap look is simple numbers. The Raiders have 3 defenders but a LB on the bottom of the screen who hasn't committed to coverage yet. The call is a read-option where Nick reads the LB on the bottom of the screen. If he commits to the coverage, Nick has a light box to hand off to or keep. If he commits to the run, Eagles have a 3-2 matchup on the bottom:

Sure enough, post-snap, the LB commits to the run. Eagles have the 3-2 and 2 lead blockers for Riley (Note this is a great example of big people beat up little people. That's Brent Celek and Zach Ertz lead blocking for Cooper):

The result is an explosive play down the sidelines:

The next one is out of a tighter, bizarre looking formation with Desean Jackson as the recipient against the Cardinals. 3 lined up at the bottom. Again, that's Ertz and Celek with him. Cards only have 2 defenders there and a deep safety over the top:

Easy read for Foles:

As Ertz and Celek form the sidewalk:

From the same game, here is a great example of the pressure some of these packaged bubble screens put on a defense. Here's the pre-snap look. Cards have a 7 man box, but with the Eagles motioning 3 WRs to the bottom of the screen, something has to give:

One defender comes down to even the match-up on the bubble screen. The edge blitzer is also key. He's coming off the edge and you can see Nick reading him at the mesh point. You see the bubble forming below, but the edge rusher is coming wide and focusing on Nick.

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The result is 2 defenders pulled out of that box, unblocked, and a huge hole for McCoy to run through. This is what we mean when we talk about how these screens spread the field horizontally:

Finally, one of the other brilliant things about the bubble screen is that it can be used as a perfect constraint play; a concept that is brilliantly outlined by the great Chris Brown here. This is one of those plays that we run so much that it can lull the defense to sleep, and if you do it with success defense start to get really pissed off and get over-aggressive like this one:

But then, as Chip loved to do in Oregon, this happens. 3 WRs low and only 2 Chiefs defenders. They bring another defender down:

Looks normal, right?

Wrong. Instead of block, Jason Avant goes deep and even as one of the slowest WRs in the NFL, blast by his man towards the end zone:

The result is a TD:

***
Final point. Welcome back Jeremy Maclin! Here's betting watching the 2013 offense was one of the major reasons Maclin decided to take a one year deal from the Eagles instead of testing the open market. Anyone who paid attention to Jeremy Maclin in college knows he played in the spread offense and those bubble screens were one of his specialities. After getting drafted by Andy Reid and the Eagles he had to learn to play in the west coast offense which was more about longer-developing timing routes.
However, before Andy Reid left Philadelphia for good, he gave us these two gems to look forward to the 2014 season:
and the constraint play:

[musicman]

#24- The QB Power Sweep

Next on the list we need to go all the way back to week 4 against the New York Giants. One of the most refreshing things about the regime change to Chip Kelly is that we may have made one of the most extreme head coaching changes from an offensive football philosophy. Gone are the days of pass-first, deep drop, finesse football. Chip and Pat have certainly installed some west coast offense concepts, but the mentality on offense is more simplified and of course Chip is not afraid to play smashmouth football.
Here are 2 great examples of a QB Power Sweep. Back in early October, Michael Vick was still the QB and we were using his mobility to break off big gains with the read option. This play however, was an old school power football play.
Here's the first one. Pre-snap the Eagles have a 6 man line with 3 WRs on the top of the screen and the Giants have 7 in the box:



Vick is going to motion Bryce Brown to the top of the screen to create an empty set. The Giants LB follows Brown signifying man coverage by the Giants. With the LB leaving the box, the Eagles now have 4 WRs at the top and 6 blockers for 6 defenders on the bottom:
The Eagles are now going to run a design QB sweep play. Celek and Peters are going to down block as Mathis and Kelce come out pulling. It just so happens the Giants have the worst call for this play as they blitz the LB through the B gap effectively taking him out of the play:

Peters ends up picking up the blitzer and Kelce and Mathis are free on their pull. Notice Celek with a great block on JPP:

Mathis completely unloads on the DB:

and Kelce takes out his man 10 yards beyond the LOS:

Vick turns the corner and gets the 1st down.
***
Later in the 2nd quarter, the Eagles go back to essentially the same play but to the opposite side of the field. The Eagles are again with a 6 man line and the Giants initially show 7 in the box.

Vick motions to an empty set sending McCoy off and #52 follows him once again setting up 6 on 6. The time Kelce and Herremans are going to pull to the outside:

Unfortunately, Celek does not execute his block as well this time as Kiwanuka gets the better of him off the snap. Kelce is taken on the back-side blitzer and there is enough of a scrum for Vick to get outside of the pocket:

[musicman]

The rest is up to Herremans who unloads on the safety:

Pancake!

And Vick nearly scores:

It's a very interesting play which is a similar concept to the QB Keep Counter Trey that OSU run with Braxton Miller and the Aggies run with Johnny Manziel although the blocking is different. The QB counter trey usually has misdirection blocking up front and involves only one pulling OL as the RB serves as the additional lead blocker.
However, Chip essentially provides the misdirection through the formation with 3 WRs on one side and motioning a 4th (the RB) to create an empty set.
No matter what you call it, this is smash mouth football!
Posted by Ryan AKA ChipWagoneer at 08:58 AM in Bryce Brown

[musicman]

#23- Love Ertz

If you ask me the player I am most excited to see in 2014, the answer is Zach Ertz, by a long shot. Zach flashed some really nice potential in his first year and looked to improve each and every week. He earns #23 on the Chipwagon top 25 plays of 2013:




Posted by Ryan AKA ChipWagoneer at 09:13 AM in Zach Ertz | Permalink | Comments (1)

[NoDakIggle]

Agree about Ertz. I made a post during the year that I think he is going to be a star in the league. I hope to see that start to come through this year

[musicman]

#22


Eagles Film Review: Sproles on Wheels

By ChipWagoneer on Mar 23 2014, 1:58p 15


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The Chip Wagon is breaking down the Top 25 offensive plays of the inaugural Chip Kelly season all offseason long. #22 re-visits a concept the Eagles went back to time and time again throughout the season and a concept that is likely here to stay with the addition of Darren Sproles.
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#22 on the Chip Wagon Top 25 comes from the 2nd Redskins game where the Eagles re-visited a concept they had been running several times leading up to this game. It's a wheel route out of the backfield with a mesh concept underneath. Remember this one? (Mouse over to play GIF)

We saw all year how well the mesh concepts worked to free up receivers underneath in the open field often times due to crowding in the defensive backfield or via natural picks. This play highlights a combination route to take further advantage of the confusion underneath and to create a favorable matchup down the sideline. Here, Chip combines the mesh concepts underneath with Celek and Jackson running shallow crossing patterns with McCoy running the wheel route down the sidelines:

The scary thing for the Redskins is on this play, Ryan Kerrigan read it pretty well and managed to not get caught up in the junk underneath, yet McCoy smokes him down the field:

Great anticipation from Foles:

and McCoy is wide open for a catch and run down the field:

Through the course of the season we tried this collection of concepts with a variety of personnel out of the backfield. On this play, we ran the same concept, except with Desean Jackson running the wheel route out of the backfield matched up against Patrick Peterson (you'll see later that we also ran this with Bryce Brown and Chris Polk). (Mouse over to play GIF)

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You can see it broken down here:

The first time I recall the Eagles running the wheel route was the first game against the Cowboys after surely seeing how the Broncos and Chargers exploited the Cowboys linebackers in coverage on the wheel route. We ended up trying to exploit the Cowboys on this in that awful game, and while the play was there each time, the Eagles just couldn't convert. As you can see from that link, earlier in the season we weren't running that play with the mesh concept and were instead using Riley Cooper to essentially take out a defender on a "natural" pick.
Looking ahead to the 2014 season, Chip Kelly has one more toy to employ on this wheel route and it just so happens to be one of the best receiving running backs in the NFL, Darren Sproles. As a teaser, check out this play. It's almost the exact same play we ran against the Cowboys repeatedly in that game with Jimmy Graham playing the role of Riley Cooper to run the natural pick:

Even without contact you can see the safety is out of position to make a play on Sproles:

Sproles releases wide-open down the sidelines for an easy pitch and catch for an explosive play:

Welcome to Philadelphia Mr. Sproles!

[musicman]

#21 Jason Peters and the outside zone read


#21-Jason Peters and the Outside Zone Read

While the inside zone read was Chip Kelly's go-to-work play in 2013 (and we'll cover it extensively later in the countdown), the counter play he used a lot in Oregon was the outside zone read. I could spend some time describing this play, but it is covered exceptionally well here by Fishduck.com


The outside zone read is essentially a zone stretch play but Kelly often runs it with a read-option component. Here's what it looks like. I want you to focus first on the RDE who is left unblocked and frozen by Vick. By leaving this player unblocked they gain an extra blocker on the play side which enables initial double teams on both the LDT and the LDE.


Jason Peters is one of the guys to focus on as he is lined up as the tight end on the strong side in an unbalanced line. First let's take a shot at the mesh point. You can see Vick reading the LDE #91 and completely freezing him as the unblocked defender. You can also see the 2 initial double teams off the line with Peters and Johnson taking out the LDE (he has no chance) and Herremans and Kelce on the LDT. You can also see Herremans peeling off his block to get to #56 at the second level:

The MLB #52 reads the play pretty well and this is a tough block for Celek to make when he makes the right read. However, following the initial double team, watch Jason Peters peel off that block and take out the MLB sealing the edge and opening up the corner for McCoy to turn and run:


And here's another one:

You can see the initial kick-step left from the OL that is customary of the outside zone read. And of course the read-option component as Vick effectively blocks Justin Tuck. As you can see, by gaining that extra blocker on the play side, the Eagles have accounted for every Giants defender in the box:

Johnson delivers a nice cut block. However the key is finding McCoy a crease. On the above play, Peters sealed the edge and McCoy had room on the outside. This time Peters takes Kiwanuka for a ride on skates:

and drives him to the sidelines for a huge hole for McCoy:

[musicman]

#20- Riley Goes Deep

One of the two most surpring outcomes of the 2013 season were:
a) Riley Cooper's emergence as a legitimate deep threat. He ranked #3 in the NFL in YPC in 2013 (17.8 out of receivers with over 30+ catches. He posted TDs of 47, 63, 45 and 32. He posted 13 plays of 20+ yards and 6 plays of 40+ yards.
b) Nick Foles' deep ball production. By far the biggest concern about Nick Foles heading into the 2013 season (especially from this writer) was his questionable ability to get the ball downfield. The argument against Foles was that he had a noodle arm and would allow teams to play their safeties in the box and dare him to beat them downfield. Well, one year later:

• Nick Foles led all starting NFL QBs with a ridiculous YPA of 9.12
• Foles's accuracy on deep balls of 20+ yards was 7th among starters at 45.5%
• He finished 2nd in the NFL with 14 TDs of 20+ yards
• He tied for 3rd with 13 plays of 40+ yards

So for #20 on the Chip Wagon Top 25, we look back at one of the plays Nick and Riley connected on and we'll also dive deeper in to some of the other big connections to understand why and how they happened. Special attention will be paid to the "Desean Jackson effect". Obviously the Eagles offense had huge success getting the ball down the field in 2013. Desean Jackson was a big part of that in both direct and indirect ways.

#20 on the Chip Wagon Top 25 was a play that looked rather awkward at first, second, and third viewing. Essentially, it appeared to be one of the ugliest TDs you'll ever see where Nick Foles provided the doubters evidence of his noodle arm.
The other thing to pay attention to on this play, is the aforementioned Desean Jackson effect. This is a key point to highlight for those that argue that Desean wasn't double-teamed because teams played one deep safety to defend against the run. While half of that is true, it also should be noted that sometimes when teams played one deep safety it DID NOT mean they were leaving Jackson alone in one-on-one coverage. This play is a good example. The Packers load 8 in the box and play only one deep safety. However, that safety is shaded to Desean's side and you will see he offers help on this play and that "help" has a big impact on the end result.
What this means, is likely one-on-one coverage for Riley Cooper downfield:

Just as Jackson cuts to the middle of the field, you see him drawing the attention of the deep safety who steps up. Nick does a great job of staring down Jackson:

As the safety adjust, Riley is going to sneak behind the safety help. As Nick is ready to launch the ball, you can see the deep safety awkwardly turning his hips in coverage. He's dead in the water:

What you'd expect is for Nick to throw the ball right where the red X is to left of the goalpost in the back of the end zone. However, that would be a deep ball over 60 yards in the air. Also, if he puts it in that location, it's going to be a much more contested play. Instead, look where the ball is in the air. It is nowhere close where you'd expect that throw to be. Nick claimed after the game that he dramatically underthrew the ball on purpose. Reporters couldn't tell if he was joking or not. Taking a look at this play from Nick's vantage point and from the shot below you can see that Nick put this ball in a place where only Riley Cooper (a former outfielder) could track in the air and come back for it:

Cooper tracks the ball well, and scoops it in for a TD:

So either it was an absolutely horrific throw from a noodle-armed Foles, or a brilliant throw illustrating great chemistry between Foles and Cooper. Either way, it makes #20 on our list.
***
Speaking of that chemistry, that comes out a few more times in the 2013 season. Here are the Raiders with 8 in the box and again, only one deep safety. They are playing man coverage on the outside.

Check out the action on the deep safety. This time he is offering no help to either outside receiver. He's focused on McCoy getting ball even against a crowded line of scrimmage:

Basically Foles has one-on-one coverage on both sides of the field with Desean on the bottom and Riley on the top. Jackson isn't running much of a route at the bottom and Foles quickly moves up to Riley. As you can see, Cooper is facing press man coverage and isn't open:

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No matter, Nick trusts his big WR anyway. At this point, Riley is looking back for the ball and Nick is launching it to a "Spot":

Cooper tracks the ball and chases it down for a wide-open TD.
You can see Cooper doing a nice job with a subtle push off...and he simply does a much better job of tracking the ball than the defender:



Here's another one deep safety look with man coverage on the outside. Desean on the top, Riley on the bottom:

Ertz runs down the seam drawing the attention of the deep safety leaving both Riley Cooper and Desean Jackson streaking downfield in one-on-one coverage:

Foles has two options. Deep down the sideline to one of the best deep threats in the NFL. Or deep down the middle of the field to Riley Cooper. In blustery, wintery conditions, he choose Cooper. Cooper beats his man downfield and makes an incredible over the shoulder catch. This was a huge play in the game that sparked the turnaround where the Eagles couldn't get anything going on offense:

Let's take a look at a couple of 2 deep safety looks. This one againt the Bucs:

Check out the attention McCoy draws on the fake from the 2 deep safeties:

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The result is again, one-on-one coverage downfield for both Jackson and Cooper and Foles has a choice. Again, Cooper is not open, but Foles is going to throw that way anyway:

Riley and the defender battle the whole way downfield and the refs let them battle:

Riley wins another:


Another 2 deep safety look:

The safety on Riley's side comes up to cover Lesean in the flats:

Celek runs down the seam drawing the attention of the other deep safety. This next shot is a great illustration of the beauty of a spread offense. The field is stretched horizontally with McCoy at the top and Avant on a bubble at the bottom. Celek draws the deep safety in on the seam route. Again, Foles has 2 one-on-one options on the outside. Desean on the bottom, Riley at the top. Again, Foles chooses Cooper who beats his man (who falls down in chase) and scores another long TD:

Last one against 2 deep safeties and some great route running and chemstry from Riley Cooper:

Desean is going to get bracket coverage from over the top occupying one safety. Riley is in the slot, but his man is going to leave Riley in zone coverage with his safety help over the top as he covers Lesean in the flat (So basically, Jackson draws a safety and a CB, while Cooper gets a safety):

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Riley is going to do a great job on selling the slant to the inside. I've been trying to decide whether this was an option route where based on coverage Cooper makes a decision on the fly. Based on the routes Desean and Maehl are running, I'm guessing it was a designed route to Cooper in the vacant area. Cooper is one on one against the safety and digs his foot in the ground to turn back to the corner. Check out the separation he gets on this route as the safety slips:



An easy TD for Cooper.
Some some potential take-homes from this post:
1) As Jason Kelce suggested on twitter to a fan (which he later removed), Jackson was not necessarily the exclusive difference maker to how defenses defended us. Teams didn't just happily play 2 safeties super deep against us like they did back in the end of the AR era. Defenses respected Chip Kelly's willingness to run, and of course our All-Pro running back Lesean McCoy. As a result, we saw a lot of one deep safety looks with an extra man in the box for run support. However, that does not mean Desean Jackson was not doubled. The first illustration shows a pretty common look we saw saw last year against the one deep safety defense. Often times, like it did in the first illustration, it opened up a big opportunity for Riley on the other side. In other words Desean MATTERED.
2) However, even in this small subset of offensive plays, you'll see Desean gets lots of opportunities in one-on-one coverage. Yes, his speed needs to be respected, but we need to move on from the ridiculous notion that defenses exclusively double-teamed Desean Jackson on every play.
3) It will be good for our soul to also move past the notion that everytime Desean Jackson got one-on-one coverage he ate it up by blowing past CBs, because his speed is unmatched by any defender. I'm not seeing great separation on any of these one-on-one opps.
4) We've seen several occasions where play design allowed for both receivers on the outside to get one-on-one coverage. However, on several of these occassions, it sure appears that Nick Foles preference on a downfield throw (unless Desean is wide open) is to throw the ball up for grabs to Riley Cooper. This makes sense considering Cooper is 6'3 and Desean is 5'10. Not to mention, as shown in some of these plays, Cooper plays big. As good as Desean was as an Eagle...he did not play big. He was very weak on challengable balls in the air. Cooper is excellent at it.
and most importantly
5) Cooper is not going to replace Desean Jackson's production. That will take a group effort with the help of Jeremy Maclin, Darren Sproles, Zach Ertz, and hopefully a rookie from the 2014 draft. This offense got worse with the departure of Desean Jackson both from a production standpoint and a scheme standpoint. We'll see what Chip has up his sleeve in 2014, but I think contrary to some people's belief, he's not left with complete dreck at the WR position. And as we move forward with Nick Foles as the franchise QB, we need to acknowledge just how important it is that we now, for the first time in over 10 years, have a QB who will throw the football to a spot when his receivers are covered. With that in mind, some of Riley Cooper's skills exhibited in this post become really important as we push ahead.
Yes, I would rather Foles throws the ball to a guy who consistenly gets wide open. But that doesn't happen on most plays in the NFL. So when it doesn't, you need guys who will challenge for the ball and make plays in competition.
It ain't speed, but it ain't nothin' either.
Posted by Ryan AKA ChipWagoneer at 11:08 AM in Nick Foles, Riley Cooper, Top 25 | Permalink

[ThoughtProcess]

Interesting take. Thanks for posting. Judging solely from the conclusion, I gather that the intent of the author was to attempt to ameliorate concerns over Jackson's departure while also acknowledging his impact of the opponent's defensive game plan.

[musicman]

Luv me some great blocking

#19- Big People Beat Up Little People

One of Chip Kelly's most quoted mantras. #19 is a short one today that doesn't require much explanation. Quite simply, "Big people beat up little people"
One area where that rings true, is in short yardage. As upset as I am about losing Desean Jackson, I continue to make myself feel better by thinking about our Offensive Tackles.
Enjoy Lane Johnson:

and Jason Peters: