Eagles coach Doug Pederson along with offensive coordinator Frank Reich and quarterbacks coach John DeFlippo have done a terrific job of using RPO’s in the playoffs to get back-up quarterback Nick Foles into a rhythm. Foles played in the spread offense in college and for Chip Kelly in Philadelphia. He is adept at reading linebacker alignments and cornerback leverage and taking advantage of it.
Pederson along with offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland kept many of the RPO concepts that Kelly employed with the Eagles. Stoutland was Kelly’s offensive line coach with the Eagles so he knows the intricacies of Kelly’s spread offense.
Run, pass options are a great way to get a quarterback into rhythm because they don’t force the quarterback to hold the ball on a post snap progression. All of the work is done pre-snap. The quarterback makes a box count and then reads the alignment of the linebackers and safeties as well as the cornerback leverage. On the snap of the ball, the quarterback rides the running back and makes a read. If the linebacker takes their run read step and attempt to fill, the quarterback pulls the ball and throws a pre-determined built in route. It really is that simple.
The Eagles have used a variety of RPO’s throughout the season but they have primarily stuck with a stretch RPO and an inside zone RPO in the playoffs. Here are four examples of RPO’s that the Eagles have shown in the playoffs and three potential RPO’s they might show against the Patriots.
Diagram 1 (vs. Falcons): The Eagles are running a tight end lead play out of shotgun. Foles would do a box count to determine whether or not he should give the ball or pull it. Based on the fact that the Falcons were in a seven box pre-snap, Foles pulled the ball and hit Torrey Smith (R receiver) on a five yard out cut on the back side. Philadelphia does a great job of putting the Falcons in a bind from an alignment standpoint by compressing the receivers to the front side of the formation. Atlanta declared their defensive strength to the back side of the formation because of the tight end.
Diagram 2 (vs. Falcons): Foles is most comfortable running the stretch RPO play. It gives him time to ride, decide and pull the ball. Here the Eagles are in 12 personnel. They put Zach Ertz and Brent Celek to the left, forcing the Falcons to declare strength. Once they do that, Atlanta ends up in a one on one situation to back side of the formation. Foles reads the WILL linebacker. Once he commits laterally to the full flow read to the left, Foles pulls the ball and throws the back side in-cut to Alshon Jeffery.
Diagram 3 (vs. Falcons): The Eagles run the same concept here but this time they do it out of a doubles formation. On the back side, they run a simple hitch, seam concept to pull the WILL linebacker vertically. On the front side (quarterback’s strong side) they run the slant and the in-cut. Foles rides and reads the SAM linebacker on the back side. SAM runs to flow so Foles pulled it and hit the Z (Jeffery) on the in-cut.
Diagram 4 (vs. the Falcons): The Eagles ran a far amount of inside zone early and they did this to set up their RPO’s. They also did it to set up their play action passing game. On this play, Foles fakes the inside zone, pulls it and throws the out route to Zach Ertz who does a great job of breaking to the sideline and creating separation.
Other RPO Concepts the Eagles Could Use Against the Patriots
The Eagles will have other RPO wrinkles for the Patriots. Here three other RPO concepts they might use against New England.
Diagram 5: The Eagles like to move their Z receiver Nelson Agholar around and use him in a variety of ways. They use him on running plays and in their screen game. On this play, Agholar would line up in the backfield and motion out pre-snap. If the Patriots adjust with a linebacker or nickel corner, Foles will either give the ball or throw the back side slant. If they Patriots barely bump over or adjust the safety over the top, Foles will throw the bubble screen.
Diagram 6: If the defense adjusts by bumping the nickel corner out to motion, the Eagles adjustment is to run a hitch route with the Zach Ertz. Instead of blocking the third level safety, Ertz could now simply replace the adjustment player. Foles can pull it and hit him in the dead spot of the coverage.
Diagram 7: Ertz was effective on the tight end “Pop” RPO when he played for Kelly. The Eagles run pop off of their inside zone. Foles reads the SAM linebacker for a fill read. If he steps up to fill, Foles pulls the ball and throws the seam route. The nickel is occupied by the W receiver who steps off and runs a smoke screen. This allows the offense to isolate the SAM linebacker in the read.
The Patriots have probably spent a lot of time focusing on RPO’s this week at practice and you better believe that they will have a number of looks in place to cloud Foles reads. Conversely, the Eagles will run RPO’s they haven’t shown yet. Either way, this game will be a terrific chess match between two great staffs.