How the Eagles Offense Was Able to Stress the 49ers

The Eagles may have scored 31 points against the NFL’s top ranked defense in the NFC Championship Game, but you couldn’t say this was a great performance by the offense. They averaged just 3.8 yards per play and benefitted heavily from what was happening on the other side of the ball. That said, there was one element of their offensive scheme that gave the 49ers problems and led to several successful plays on the ground.

The Eagles offense as a whole specializes in putting the defense into conflict, particularly with their assortment of RPOs and read-option plays. They’ll use formation and alignment to gain a numbers advantage or put their talented players in position to win 1-on-1’s. For the most part, whether it’s at the skill positions or in the trenches, the Eagles are going to win those individual matchups.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. That’s probably the best way to characterize what it’s like to defend Philadelphia’s offense.

Against the 49ers, their use of 4x1 formations specifically led to some critical big runs that started to break the game open.

The below play was a 1st-and-10 with the score tied just before the 2-minute warning in the first half. Notice the alignment. The Eagles were in a 3x1 set with the running back offset to the 3-receiver side:

From the 49ers’ perspective, this was a 4x1 formation. And given the trips-bunch look, they had to be concerned with both Jalen Hurts keeping the ball and some form of RPO bubble-screen to the right. As a result, they chose to push 6 defenders to that side of the field to account for all gaps and run/pass possibilities:

From the end zone angle, you can see how the 49ers were left with 3 defenders to account for 3 gaps to the weak side of the formation if Hurts did give the ball to the running back:

San Fran still likely felt good about their chances to that side. Unfortunately for them, so did the Eagles. Hurts gave the ball to running back Kenneth Gainwell on a zone run to the left. And while the 3 gaps to that side may have been accounted for on paper, that doesn’t really matter when center Jason Kelce is doing his usual routine of throwing defenders out of the club:

The displacement of the defensive tackle left linebacker Dre Greenlaw with two gaps to defend and Kelce coming at him with a full head of steam: