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The Philadelphia Eagles had their way with the formidable defense of the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship en route to a dominant 38-7 victory. Part of the reason was quarterback Nick Foles' success with running run-pass options on offense.
Needless to say, the New England Patriots have an idea of what to look out for in Super Bowl LII. According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, safety Devin McCourty discussed some of the aspects of defending the Eagles offense:
Article Continues Below“You can’t free up and just go to the ball because you still have to cover your guy because he’s not blocking,” McCourty told reporters. “He’s running a route. So for you, it’s a pass play. For the six or seven guys in the box it might be a total run look, so you might not gain any help underneath because they’re playing the run. Individually, matchup-wise, if we’re in man-to-man or it’s a zone and a guy is in our zone we’ve got to be sound and be able to play what we’re getting. It’s a run-pass option, so it could be a run. But if you’re getting a pass play in coverage then you need to play the pass. When the pass comes up you’re ready to play, and the guys up front that play the run have to play the run.”
After the shaky play of Foles to close out the 2017 NFL regular season, head coach Doug Pederson made it clear he was going to make adjustments to better fit the backup's style. As a result, the Eagles have now relied on a bit of trickery to help open things up for Foles.
Needless to say, it worked out beautifully as he picked apart the Vikings defense for 352 yards and three touchdowns. However, New England will have a good amount of time to prepare for Philadelphia's scheme. Although there are always precautions a defense can take, the game will ultimately come down which team executes better.
