There’s no good way to counter the Eagles’ offense.
The Eagles do a lot schematically on offense. They rely on two-tight end sets more than most offenses and often deploy Jalen Hurts in a creative run game; Philadelphia dials up effective run-pass options and can still burn opposing secondaries with passes deep down the sideline.
No specific personnel packages or play concepts define the Eagles offense, though. Coach Nick Sirianni’s philosophy is no more complicated than, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Every week, the overwhelming talent of the Eagles (7-0) allows for simple play-calling: Sirianni and staff find the one thing the defense cannot defend and spam it relentlessly.
Versus the Jaguars in Week 4, zone read was the play of choice. The Eagles called option runs with Hurts — primarily zone read — on 31 plays, according to Sports Info Solutions, endlessly picking on Jacksonville’s young defensive front.
The following week against the Cardinals, Sirianni repeatedly called run-pass options with routes into the flat, forcing the Arizona defenders to decide if they wanted to guard against the run or fly out to the sideline to prevent the quick throws that rack up yards after catch.
Sunday in a 35-13 win against the Steelers (2-6), the game plan followed a similar theme. Though featuring a solid defense overall, Pittsburgh is weak at cornerback, and the Eagles took advantage. Hurts’s first three touchdowns were all deep shots to A.J. Brown down the right side. The first score featured Brown lining up tighter to the formation before he expanded outside during his vertical route. The next two were nothing more than simple go balls thrown down the sideline.
As Hurts threw straight down the field to Brown, a speedster who can win balls through contact, Pittsburgh could not stop their connection without dedicating all of the defense’s schematic resources to it.
Going all in to stop one effective Eagles’ tactic is no answer, either. Philadelphia has the personnel to simply pivot to the quarterback run game, or the screen game, or RPOs, or whatever has opened up. The Eagles always have something, and they know how to find it every week, every drive, every play.
The Vikings don’t shoot themselves in the foot.
The Kirk Cousins-era Minnesota Vikings have toggled between two identities: a fine team that outperforms the eye test and data, or a fine team that looks worse than it is because its losses happen in inconceivable ways.
This year’s Vikings (6-1) fall into the former category.
All but one of the Vikings’ wins have been by 8 points or fewer, save for a 23-7 rout of the Packers in Week 1. We now know that Green Bay is not a very good team, and the quarterbacks Minnesota beat in those close wins include Jared Goff, Andy Dalton, pocket-throwing Justin Fields and a combination of Teddy Bridgewater and Skylar Thompson.
Minnesota’s offense has not been exceptional this season: Heading into Week 8, the Vikings rarely generated explosive plays, ranking 18th in Football Outsiders’ Defense-adjusted Value Over Average (D.V.O.A.), and sat near the bottom of the league in time of possession.
Teams that win close games are usually able to generate “luck” for themselves, though, and for the Vikings, the answer has been winning the turnover battle and relying on clean fundamentals.
Through the season’s first seven weeks, the Vikings defense created the 11th-highest number of turnovers per drive, and the offense turned the ball over the 11th-fewest times of any team in the league, according to Football Outsiders.
Minnesota doesn’t sabotage itself with penalties, either. The team had been assessed only 25 penalties before Sunday, the second-lowest total in the league. (The Vikings had a bye in Week 7, but adding on their weekly average would still have kept them inside the bottom-five of penalized teams.)
Sunday was the Vikings’ first bad day in the penalty department, committing 10 penalties for 86 yards against the Cardinals, but Minnesota won the turnover war again.
The Vikings’ defense snagged two interceptions of Kyler Murray and recovered a fumble that Cardinals punt returner Greg Dortch muffed.
Cousins coughed up a fumble of his own on a strip sack but didn’t throw any of the back-breaking interceptions he has been prone to in the past, and Minnesota came away with a 34-26 victory, with a three-to-one edge in turnovers.
Turnover luck rarely holds up, especially for teams that are not elite on either side of the ball, as is the case with the Vikings, whose record may return to a tally closer to preseason expectations (read: .500). But a 6-1 start should give them the cushion to waltz into an N.F.C. North title, while the rest of the division tries to string together two plays without calamity.
Around the N.F.L.
Patriots 22, Jets 17: Mac Jones got off to a horrific start, throwing an interception as the Patriots fell behind, 10-3, early. Zach Wilson got off to a hot start, throwing for over 100 yards and a touchdown through his first 12 attempts. But the game quickly turned with two minutes left in the first half. Wilson threw three interceptions from that point on while the Patriots capitalized on the field position and churned out 16 second-half points.
Falcons 37, Panthers 34: Nobody wants to win the N.F.C. South. With less than 30 seconds left in regulation, the Falcons surrendered a 6-point lead to the Falcons on P.J. Walker’s 62-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Moore. The extra point should have assured the Panthers win, but Moore took his helmet off on the touchdown play, resulting in a penalty enforced on the extra point attempt. Panthers kicker Eddy Pineiro then missed the attempt, sending the game to overtime. Pineiro missed a 32-yard potential game-winning field goal in overtime, and Atlanta converted on a 41-yard field goal drive to put everyone out of their misery. The 4-4 Falcons now lead the N.F.C. South.
Cowboys 49, Bears 29: This game got away from the Bears immediately. Dak Prescott layered passes all over the field, building 14-0 first quarter lead by rifling in deep seam throws to CeeDee Lamb just as easily as he found timely check downs to keep the sticks moving. Chicago showed some life in the second quarter to bring the game within two scores, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with a Cowboys offense that kept rolling out of the half.
Dolphins 31, Lions 27: The Lions tend to play one good half of football each week. This Sunday, it came in the first half, when Detroit jumped out to a 27-17 lead. The Dolphins offense ebbed and flowed depending on how open Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle were 20 yards down the field. Miami’s chaotic defense came alive in the second half, though, and goose-egged the Lions the rest of the way, giving Tua Tagovailoa the opportunity to throw the team back into a lead in the second half.
Vikings 34, Cardinals 26: Kliff Kingsbury can’t help but to put DeAndre Hopkins on the left side of the formation and pray for the best. Hopkins still earned his production (12 catches, 159 yards and a touchdown), but the lack of creativity and movement limited the rest of the offense in spite of A.J. Green’s return from injury. The Vikings escaped with another relatively close win, thanks to running back Dalvin Cook’s season-highs in rushing (111) and receiving yards (30).
Saints 24, Raiders 0: The Raiders join the Colts and Lions as the only teams to be shut out this season. Derek Carr and the passing game were horrendous. Not only did Davante Adams earn just three yards on one reception, but Hunter Renfrow only earned six yards on one reception as well. Carr was perpetually rattled by the Saints’ pass rush and there weren’t many receivers open down the field in the few instances he was able to hang in the pocket. Andy Dalton and the Saints, slowly carved up the Las Vegas defense with the occasional explosive play from Alvin Kamara (two receiving touchdowns, one rushing).
Eagles 35, Steelers 13: Steelers rookie Kenny Pickett played commendably, but there wasn’t much he could do to keep pace with Jalen Hurts and Philadelphia’s explosive offense. Receiver A.J. Brown caught all three of the Eagles’ first-half touchdowns on deep throws, two of them right up the sideline on simple go routes, to go ahead, 21-10. Philadelphia began the second half with another deep touchdown, faking a screen to the outside receiver while the slot receiver feigned a block before hitting the jets up the sideline.
Broncos 21, Jaguars 17: All it took was one miracle throw from Russell Wilson to close the game. After an up-and-down performance for most of the game, Wilson nailed KJ Hamler down the right sideline for a 47-yard gain with 3:49 left in the fourth quarter. The shot play immediately put the Broncos in scoring range, setting them up for the go-ahead touchdown six plays later. Trevor Lawrence got a chance to rally back with just under two minutes to go, but led an out-breaking route too far inside on the first throw of the drive and Broncos cornerback K’Waun Williams intercepted.