Zone Read: Eagles-Panthers, the Day After


CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN…

1. What happened to the Eagles’ run game?

LeSean McCoy carried 12 times for 19 yards, and as a team, the Eagles averaged 1.6 YPC on 23 attempts. They did not notch a run greater than 8 yards.

The run game is this team’s identity. So after Monday night’s win, Jason Kelce was less than pleased.

“It’s frustrating,” Kelce said. “I didn’t play my best game. I thought for the most part we did pretty good in pass protection. But clearly, the run game, we couldn’t really get anything going, and that’s frustrating.”

The Panthers had been primarily a zone team that played with two high safeties. But having given up 4.8 YPC before Monday night, coordinator Sean McDermott decided to focus on stopping the run. Carolina played a lot of man coverage with a single high safety, challenging Mark Sanchez to beat them. And he did.

2. How Brent Celek got going?

The veteran tight end had 14 catches for 90 yards through the first eight games. Against Carolina, he totaled 116 yards on five catches.

The Panthers don’t have great cover guys, and the Eagles exposed them, specifically in the middle of the field. The run game never got going, but Sanchez averaged 9.0 YPA, and the Eagles piled up 332 yards through the air.

“We felt like we could exploit some things inside,” Kelly said. “I think our tight ends, Celek and [Zach] Ertz, had a good day inside. We thought we matched up really well if they were going to play us in man. They played a ton of man early. So we felt those inside receivers had really good chances in the matchups.”

As for Celek, he’s done the dirty work all season long and has morphed into one of the best blocking tight ends in the league.

Was it nice to finally get some balls thrown his way?

“It feels good to get the win,” he said. “You know I don’t give a damn about catches. Just the fact that we won was huge.”

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THE NUMBER THAT MATTERS: 9

That’s how many non-offensive touchdowns the Eagles have this season. Let that sink in for a moment. That’s an average of one per game.

Against Carolina, Darren Sproles took a punt 65 yards to the house for a touchdown, and Bradley Fletcher returned an interception 34 yards to the end zone.

Sproles is the only player in the league who’s scored twice on punt returns. He’s averaging 17.0 yards per return, tops in the league and 2.2 yards better than the next best guy. If he were to somehow maintain this pace, Sproles would have the best yards-per-return average in the NFL since the start of the 2013 season.

A lot of the talk today will be about Sanchez, but perhaps the best sign for this Eagles team is that it can win games in a variety of ways.

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THE BEST OF 140

I didn’t get to watch the replay yet, but I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy the Jon Gruden smoothie segment.

That I did not know.

Admit it, you had no idea Webb was even on the Panthers (I’m raising my hand too).

I have nothing to add here.

Or here.

That really was a nice touch and a tradition that needs to remain for the entirety of Matthews’ career here.

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