Regardless of the preferred name for Philadelphia’s quarterback sneak play, the most accurate label for it is “unstoppable.”
Unless it isn’t.
On Wednesday, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said it’s “possible” to stop the play. Possible, but not easy.
“I think it’s pretty proven that it’s extremely hard, so you try to keep [quarterback Jalen Hurts] out of those situations,” Shanahan said.
You keep him out of those situations by avoiding short-yardage plays. If the Eagles get within two yards of the line to gain (or the goal line), they can automatically pick up the rest of the yards by lining up a wall of humanity and shoving.
That’s why the most important advantage coming from that play traces to the shortening of the stick from 10 yards to as little as eight.
The biggest problem for teams facing the Eagles’ unique brand of the quarterback sneak play comes from the inability of a given defense to prepare for it. When asked about practicing to defend the play on Wednesday, Shanahan opted for sarcasm.
“We’re going to do like 10 live reps of it today and see if we have anybody left after it,” Shanahan said, before turning bluntly serious. “No, you don’t practice it.”
You can’t practice it. The Eagles can’t, either. They get their practice by doing it in games, against other defenses. So what is a defense that hasn’t faced it supposed to do to stop it?
“You just coach it up, tell them where we want guys and stuff,” Shanahan said. “We’re not going to spend a lot of time on it, but we’re going to talk about it, show it, and do as good as we can.”
The mini-controversy arising from the manner in which Bills defensive lineman Jordan Phillips steamrolled Eagles offensive lineman Cam Jurgens after jumping offside on Sunday creates a potential strategy that some teams could opt to employ. If you watched or listened to Thursday’s PFT Live, you know what it is. If you didn’t, you’ll need to watch PFT Live on Peacock (or listen to the podcast) until I find the time to post an item here about one specific way defenses could (not should, but could) try to fight fire with fire.
