Late in the game, the Lions overcame the Rams with some bold play-calling. In addition, the Packers establish the tone early against the Cowboys and Todd Bowles thwarts the Tush Push.
Despite all of their flaws, the Philadelphia Eagles managed to qualify for the playoffs with a limp, but at least they still had the unstoppable “Tush Push” play, which might perhaps help them make another deep postseason run.
However, the questionable quarterback sneak ran into the 350-pound Vita Vea and the rest of the formidable defensive line of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After Bucs defensive play-caller Todd Bowles removed the “Tush Push,” the Eagles’ late-season collapse was finished on Monday night.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts was buried by Bowles and his many blitz calls, and Eagles coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson were unable to make any adjustments during the Buccaneers’ massive 32–9 victory that sent them to the NFC playoff divisional round. When a two-point conversion attempt in the second quarter was stopped short, Sirianni signaled for the “Tush Push.”
Now that the Bucs are scheduled to play the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Sirianni and Johnson may be kicking themselves for not providing Hurts with more coverage at the line of scrimmage as the offseason approaches. When the Eagles played in empty formation and Hurts handled Tampa Bay’s formidable defensive front, Peyton Manning almost lost it.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts was buried by Bowles and his many blitz calls, and Eagles coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson were unable to make any adjustments during the Buccaneers’ massive 32–9 victory that sent them to the NFC playoff divisional round. When a two-point conversion attempt in the second quarter was stopped short, Sirianni signaled for the “Tush Push.”
Now that the Bucs are scheduled to play the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Sirianni and Johnson may be kicking themselves for not providing Hurts with more coverage at the line of scrimmage as the offseason approaches. When the Eagles played in empty formation and Hurts handled Tampa Bay’s formidable defensive front, Peyton Manning almost lost it.
These are some more coaching choices from wild-card weekend that we thought were good and some that we thought weren’t so good.
Calls that we enjoyed
Rams should lose, Lions tell Goff.
It was so Dan Campbell, and it was dangerous and unpredictable. The aggressive coach of the Lions instructed Goff to throw the ball in a one-point game to defeat his previous team, the Los Angeles Rams, rather than running the ball to burn time off the clock.
With 1:57 remaining in regulation, Goff turned back to second-and-9 and hit Amon-Ra St. Brown for the first down that ensured the Lions would win their first postseason game in thirty-two years. Goff had earlier on the last drive completed an 11-yard pass to running back David Montgomery on a second-and-7 situation.
Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes have always said they believed in Goff ever since the Rams traded the 2016 No. 1 pick to Detroit. They backed those words by putting the ball in Goff’s hands in crunch time.
Packers set the tone from the opening coin toss
Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur elected to receive after winning the coin toss and never looked back, as quarterback Jordan Love carved up the Dallas Cowboys’ defense during the 48–32 victory to advance to the divisional round.
Aaron Jones ran for a three-yard touchdown to cap off a 12-play, 75-yard opening drive for the Packers. The Packers used up 7:52 of game time on their opening drive, during which Love completed his first big-time pass of the day, a 22-yard pass to Romeo Doubs on second-and-13.
On calls we questioned, the Rams’ expensive punt against the Lions
With 4:15 remaining in regulation and one timeout, coach Sean McVay acknowledged that he regretted punting on fourth and-14 from Detroit’s 44-yard line as the Rams lost 24–23 to the Lions.
Although McVay acknowledged that hindsight is 20/20, he felt that, given Campbell’s aggressive style and the offensive coordinator Ben Johnson’s decision to dial up passing plays for quarterback Josh Goff, he should have realized that he probably wasn’t going to recover the ball.
McVay has the option to make a safe play call on third down to gain a few yards and make it manageable before deciding to punt. Rather, Matthew Stafford attempted a downfield pass to Puka Nacua, a play that caused controversy as the officials declined to signal defensive pass interference. Two of McVay’s timeouts were also wasted early in the second half.
Additional errors made by the Eagles’ coaching staff
In addition to declining to provide more blockers for Hurts, the Eagles frequently abandoned the running game when playing the Buccaneers.
Hurts leads the Eagles in scoring when he plays with a well-rounded assault. It was more important for the Eagles to include running back D’Andre Swift in the flow of the offense in the absence of wide receiver A.J. Brown. On Monday night, he just had 10 carries for 34 yards.
In terms of defense, the Eagles missed a lot of tackles, which allowed Baker Mayfield and company to score long touchdowns. When Ray Lewis spoke on the ManningCast, he criticized the Eagles’ defense.
