NFL: Previewing the Eagles-Jaguars matchup

How should the Eagles offense attack the Jaguars defense?

So how can the Eagles attack that Sacksonville D that has shown some cracks? Well, first of all it is imperative for them to not give up on the run game. They need to eat away with easy rushes and stay ahead of schedule. Their offensive line was dominant last season and probably the biggest key to them winning the Super Bowl.

You don’t have to run wide zone and stretch against the Jags. Bring in an extra body and create numbers advantages to get someone onto their linebackers. They are super fast and can run ball-carriers down from sideline to sideline, but they don’t like to take on blockers and defend the power run game. To mix things up you can call counters and trap their defensive tackles if they get too far upfield.

Secondly, assuming you did all your film work, you know all the answers about the Jags coverage tendencies and principles. I have already mentioned some of them, but to sum it all up in a short version – when Tashaun Gipson is lined up over the tight-end they likely run cover one, if he’s in the box but on the opposite side he will probably drop into the flats in cover-three, when you run trips against them, they will likely play a combo-coverage where they man up the single-side receiver and play the deep two thirds away from him and the longer the yardage to gain is on third downs, the more likely is it that they play two high safeties and keep it safe with cover-four. Since we know that now, here are some of the ways I would attack them:

Versus 21 personnel the Jags usually move down one of their safeties and depending on where exactly that is you can strongly guess the coverage. This is a fast-flowing defense, so you want to use that aggressiveness against them by booting away from play-fakes and set up easy completions.

In this case you have Gipson in an outside linebacker spot away from the TE, so he will probably take the flats. What the Cowboys did here was they cleared out the boundary corner and then brought two crossers on different levels from the opposite side, putting the safety in a bind of which one he takes.

Another thing I would exploit is the space I have when I put Jacksonville into one of those combo-coverages with man on their single receiver. Their defense has a ton of speed, but if you run a post route with that solo receiver that also holds the free safety in the middle and pretty much gives you that entire side of the field to work with.

Once again you can bring deep crossers or such as, but what I like even more is the matchups you get with your guys out of the backfield. Corey Clement is one of the premier receiving backs in the game and if you let him break out to the sideline or run a wheel route, you can create big plays that way.

Overall I would look to use Zach Ertz in a multitude of ways. He is a top three tight-end in this league and more so than with any other guy at the position, the Philly runs primarily through him. They love to split him out wide anyway, so you can easily indicate coverages by seeing who follows him, send him down the seams with a slot receiver from the other side against single-high alignment and force that deep middle safety to commit either way and what I would love to run against the Jags are double-post concepts on one side with Ertz coming on a deep crosser from the opposite one. That’s the go-to route combination to beat the cover-three in my opinion.

And finally, I think you have to slow down Sacksonville’s pass rush. When you get behind the sticks and have to drop back constantly, these guys on their D-line can just tee off and get after Wentz. So you have to keep them off balance with the screen game. And I’m not talking about all those bubble and slip screens they throw anyway – actual delayed screen passes.

I still believe they have one of the better screen games in the NFL. Therefore I want them to use their backs and tight-ends on misdirection and throwback screens, which I have seen work beautifully.