How Norv Turner and Cam Newton executed the perfect plan in the 4th quarter vs the Eagles

[Saca312]

Fran Duffy is a solid top tier analyst for the Eagles. And, well, he's definitely not making any excuses for the Eagles losing against the Panthers. In fact, he's arguing they played even more aggressive in the 4th quarter than the others. 

However, Norv Turner and Cam Newton smiled and built up a near perfect set of plays and executed well out of the no-huddle.

Here's his thoughts on how they did so.

https://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/eagle-eye-examining-the-fourth-quarter-defense

The Panthers moved the ball fairly well to open the fourth quarter, but it was an 11-play drive. If you’re the Eagles, holding a 17-0 lead, you’ll take that. The Panthers didn’t get a play of more than 10 yards until they reached the fringe area of the red zone at the 30-yard line. The Eagles made them work for it. There were eight passes on the drive, and the Eagles played four snaps of man and four snaps of zone. They mixed up coverages all game long and kept Cam on his toes with what he was seeing, and that continued on this drive.

The difference?

The Panthers made plays when they needed to, converting twice on third down, and then they made a great play call to get into the end zone. This was a play off of their Triple Option run game, something I wrote about last week. The entire Eagles defense was fooled by what the players thought they were seeing in the backfield on a play the Panthers did not show on film, and Carolina capitalized with a touchdown. On this drive, I don’t think there’s much you can point the finger at and say, "This was terrible by the Eagles' defense." They can execute better across the board, but this wasn’t the drive that lost the game.

The Panthers get on the board but miss the extra point. So they’re now down 17-6. They get the ball back and march down the field to score another touchdown. Here’s how.

This was a killer drive for the Eagles. The Panthers went 87 yards in seven plays. The first play went for 4 yards. After that, Carolina gained 14, 8, 8, 28, and 7 yards in succession before the 18-yard touchdown. I picked three of those plays to show along with the two-point conversion, and there was a little bit of everything.

The second play of the drive, the comeback route to wide receiver Torrey Smith for 14 yards, because it paints an excellent vision of something I’ve tried to show for a few weeks. A lot of people -- fans, media -- like to point to the Eagles’ off-zone coverage, particularly in Cover 3, as a slight on the cornerbacks when they give up a catch underneath. That is often not the cornerback’s fault, however. Look at this play. Before the snap, Bradham tries to get newly signed slot corner Dexter McDougle to buzz out underneath the No. 1 receiver (Smith) in the Eagles' zone coverage concept. McDougle doesn’t, and Mills has no help underneath. After the catch, Mills talks things through with McDougle. He has to be there to help Mills in that situation as the Curl/Flat defender in that coverage concept.

On the next play, Newton scrambles for 8 yards after Fletcher Cox misses him in the backfield. On second-and-2, Newton hits a receiver on the back side with a quick slant route right in front of Ronald Darby for an 8-yard gain.

Remember that play.

On first down, the Panthers attack the Eagles in Cover 2. Look, there are holes in every coverage concept. In Cover 2, there are voids are outside the numbers in the intermediate area, between the cornerback and the safety along the sideline (an area I refer to as the turkey hole). The other void is right down the middle of the field deep between the two safeties. That’s precisely where Carolina attacked here, sending Jarius Wright down the right seam. He sprinted past Jordan Hicks, who has a tight end crossing his face as well, in coverage. Mills had a receiver outside the numbers running right at him as well, so he has to honor both routes. That creates a void in the middle of the field for Newton to attack, and he hits his wideout in stride for 28 yards.

Two plays later, on second-and-3, the Panthers score. Remember that second-and-2 slant route right in front of Darby? Well, he thinks he’s seeing the same thing here, but instead of a slant he gets a slant-and-go route and falls to the ground on the double move, allowing the 18-yard touchdown to Devin Funchess. I understand what he was seeing. The Panthers ran a lot of slants his way in this game, but you can’t give up the big play ahead by two scores with just a couple of minutes left. He does, and the Panthers pull within five points.

On the ensuing two-point conversion, the Panthers run a slick play. Bringing Christian McCaffrey in late motion into the backfield, this looks like it could be a run or some kind of option play with Newton. The Eagles' defenders eyes are in the backfield. The mental Rolodex that I mentioned in that preview last week is spinning out of control. Off the run fake, Wright sticks his foot in the ground after pretending to block down, then breaks to the sideline for an easy conversion. The Panthers are now within three points.

I’ve seen a lot of chatter on social media about how the Eagles were in "prevent" defense late in the game. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The Eagles played the same kinds of coverage that they had played all game long. Here’s how I charted the Eagles and their 44 pass plays on defense from Sunday afternoon.

On what became the game-winning drive for the Panthers, the Eagles called four straight plays of press man coverage across the board. They were aggressive and forced three straight incompletions, one of which was nearly picked off by Darby along the sideline. On the fourth-down play, Mills fell down at the top of the route, and his man broke wide open. That’s obviously not what Mills or any of the players or coaches were hoping for, and Smith made them pay. He gained 30 yards to get the Panthers in scoring range.

I was asked to look closely at the coverage breakdowns, so I did a quick charting of the types of schemes the Eagles played on the back end. This is a rough breakdown, there are obviously more detailed variations of each of these coverages, but I sorted them into the following groups.

Table inside Article

Coverage	Description	All Game	Fourth Quarter
Cover 0	Man Coverage, All Out Blitz, No Safety	2	2
Cover 1	Man Coverage, One High Safety	20	12
Cover 2	Zone Coverage, Two High Safeties	8	3
Cover 3	Zone Coverage, One High Safety	12	6
Sticks	Zone Coverage, Deep Off Coverage Protecting The First-Down Marker	2	0

Most of the Eagles' snaps of man coverage happened in that fourth quarter as did the snaps of straight press coverage. This was not a "prevent defense gone wrong." On some plays, Eagles players got beat. On others, the Panthers' receivers made great plays. The Panthers attacked the right areas of zone coverage at the exact right time on others. The bottom line is that everyone needs to be better. It’s not as simple as saying, "They need to play more press," or "They need to play more man coverage," or "They need to play more zone." It doesn’t matter what coverage you’re playing if you don’t A) Get a good pass rush with four and B) Don’t execute your techniques in the secondary. These were issues late in the game.

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[JARROD]

very interesting read. I am sure Eagles fans skim over as most do when they or we lose, ignore it and then say "damn the coaches, damn the coaches to hell and you die" for playing prevent, playing not to lose, whatever.

For me, its great to see and hopefully good for the coaches to see, that we can and should play more aggressively early in games.  Our quarterback responds to aggressiveness and quickness in the play by being lights out, and it causes everyone to play better.  Cam is not the type of quarterback where you play passive or small ball as I have been calling it-- he doesnt play well being passive, throws bad, just doesnt play very well.

So feed the wolf that wins, not the one that loses.

[mav1234]

Now let's see Cam do it against a non-prevent defense!! ;)

But seriously, great break down by Fran Duffy.  Tons of respect to the Panthers offense in that post, too. 

[GRWatcher]

Good article! Thanks!

Key to the Samuel TD: 

Quote

fooled by what the players thought they were seeing in the backfield on a play the Panthers did not show on film

Another reason to not run all no-huddle in the beginning. Cam and Norv need to see the D's tendencies and their responses to certain plays. You can't fully trust film. So when they do run no-huddle and the D is stuck with certain personnel on the field you run plays they are not matched up for. And when you run a new play, you'll have a good idea of what their response will be. Of course, scoring some points in the meantime would be awfully nice too.

Good job of setting up Darby too.

[DFive]

My name is Duffy. 

[d-dave]

I love when people who really study the game can tell you EXACTLY what happened.

It also shows why we don't go No Huddle ALL game long.  We might do it more, but we don't want to give away too many secrets, and it seems like the No Huddle is our secret sauce for big plays in clutch moments.

[Snake]

Looking ahead the Ravens have their hands full with us. We simply can attack defenses in multiple ways if our WRs catch the damn ball.