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Eagles defensive tackles Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter made two of the biggest plays Sunday in the Eagles’ 33-26 comeback win over the Rams, which is somewhat ironic given that both were both culprits in the porous run defense that enabled the Rams to have a 19-point lead in the second half.
The All-22 footage that we’ll look at shows that Davis and Carter were consistently moved by the Rams’ offensive line, which cleared the way for Kyren Williams and Blake Corum to combine for 147 rushing yards and average 5.25 yards per carry.
Surely, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will want that corrected by Sunday’s game in Tampa against the Bucs, who have struggled to run the ball effectively.
The Rams are a run-heavy team and didn’t use any trickery or guile to get their ground yards. Their bread and butter is running between the tackles, using double teams up front to execute simple inside zone schemes. Occasionally, they’ll pull a lineman or tight end – or both – in a Gap scheme run, but they basically stick to what they do best, and did against the Eagles.
Kyren Williams and Blake Corum are crafty runners who lack elite athleticism but have nifty jump-cuts and are known for getting downhill quickly and skinny through the run lanes. The Eagles prepared for the Rams’ run game all week.
Davis and Carter are frequently tasked with taking on double teams and either beating or stalemating them so that linebackers can flow downhill into the gaps to make tackles. Against the Rams, for the better part of three quarters, the two mammoth DTs were often moved.
The Rams logged 17 runs of five or more yards. Let’s take a look at some of them.
The first three are pretty basic – inside zone runs made possible by Davis and Carter getting swallowed up by double teams.
On this run, Davis and Carter were both defeated by double teams before both guards moved off their combo blocks and climbed to cover the linebackers, leaving a clear path for Williams to get five yards.
This run was another zone run that thrived on double teams up front, but Williams’ pathway was the right-side B gap (between the guard and tackle) made possible by Carter literally getting driven back about five yards, obstructing LB Jihaad Campbell’s path to Williams, who gained six.
The Rams picked their poison between LB Zack Baun and NB DeJean Cooper, and decided they’d take their chances running to the nickelback side, away from Baun. On that run, a 5-yard gain, their o-line reset the line of scrimmage with double teams on Davis and Carter, who got swallowed up and driven backward and into second-level defenders. Rams WR Jordan Whittington, who motioned from left to right, blocked DeJean while the RT sealed the edge.
Pressure up front made Williams jump-cut to his right, but Carter again got moved out of the gap that Williams cut into, and even worse, Reed Blankenship made a terrible lunging attempt while DeJean got pancaked by a wide receiver. Quinyon Mitchell also whiffed on a lunge as Williams got 11.
Here the Rams deviated from their standard inside zone and went outside. In outside zone, o-linemen block horizontally and try to spring the running back on the edge. DeJean came down to set the edge correctly but totally whiffed on the body tackle. Also, Campbell couldn’t get off the RT’s block in enough time and had to chase down Williams from behind.
Eventually, Fangio adjusted at times by putting an extra defender on the line of scrimmage (a “Bear” front). That way, if the Rams had six on the line (5 OL, 1 TE), they could only execute one double team unless they left a defender unblocked.
Campbell came down to play the edge here, kicking Jalyx Hunt inside over the RT’s inside shoulder and Carter directly over the center. But Carter still got driven back by a combo block by the center and left guard, then struggled to shed the guard’s block before Williams ran right past him to gain seven.
Of course, McVay, a run game whiz, always has some tricks up his sleeve.
This is an outside zone, but the play side is opposite the zone block side. All the Eagles’ big guys – Davis, Carter, and Campbell – were taken out altogether as Williams had a 3-on-2 blocking advantage once he took the handoff. He went untouched for about eight yards of the run. The Eagles’ backside edge on this play was Za’Darius Smith (52), who got stoned by TE89, allowing Williams to jump-cut for more yards.
To avoid being stale, McVay tossed in an occasional Gap scheme run, including this one inside the Eagles’ red zone.
On this run, the Rams pulled their right guard and tight end through the left-side A gap to set up a pathway for Corum. Every Rams blocker won his matchup, as the center and right tackle combo-blocked Carter, the pulling left guard sealed off Hunt at the edge, and the left guard took advantage of Davis “playing high” – losing his pad leverage – to drive him off the line.
The pulling tight end got just enough body on Campbell and the left tackle climbed to cover Zack Baun, giving Corum an alley. Williams wasn’t actually touched for the first eight yards of this 10-yard run.
On Sunday, the Eagles face a Bucs team that likes to run but has struggled to move the ball on the ground. Offensive line health issues have hurt Tampa Bay’s offense. But temperatures at Raymond James Stadium are expected to be close to 100 degrees, which can lead to cramping and fatigue that can result in loss of technique and fundamentals.
Three Bucs RBs combined to average 4.7 yards per carry in Tampa’s 33-16 win over the Eagles last year at the Pirate Ship. The Eagles will have to brave the elements and tighten up on run defense to avoid another letdown.
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Geoff Mosher
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