The Philadelphia Eagles entered the 2022 NFL season without an understanding of how to play the type of “complementary football” that makes old school coaches salivate.
The cliché popularized by Bill Belichick refers to the need for the offense, defense, and special teams to work in unison in a collective effort. Philadelphia failed miserably to play complementary football in a blowout loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card Round after the 2021 season.
They rebounded in 2022 with an outstanding and complete roster still in position to clinch the top seed in the NFC in the final week of the regular season. However, the Eagles have allowed the concept of complementary football to fall by the wayside in two of their three losses this season, and their opponents have utilized it to expose weaknesses.
Losses Against Saints, Commanders
The New Orleans Saints opened up the game at Lincoln Financial Field with a 15-play touchdown drive that ate 8:58 on the game clock. The length of the drive limited the chances the Eagles had on offense during the first half. An arsenal of dangerous weapons like A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Dallas Goedert became meaningless when they didn’t touch the field.
When Gardner Minshew and the offense finally got the ball, they couldn’t take pressure off their defense, which went right back to work after only three plays and a punt. The Saints ultimately dominated the time of possession share 37:04 to 22:56 on their way to a 20-10 victory.
The Washington Commanders set this blueprint in Week 10 on Monday Night Football at the Linc. They controlled the ball for an astounding 40:24 with scoring drives of 7:21, 6:30, 7:04, and 8:23 within their first six possessions. They upset the Eagles 32-21.
The time of possession share doesn’t always play a significant part in an NFL game, but it is far from an irrelevant stat. James Keane analyzed “situationally meaningful” time of possession with a clear conclusion: “Teams facing a stronger offensive opponent benefit from a ball-control strategy more than teams facing a lesser offensive opponent.”
In other words, ball-control strategy is a good way for an underdog team to neutralize an offense that looks unstoppable and pull off an upset. We’ve now seen two major upsets against the NFL’s third-ranked offense in DVOA using similar game plans, and the Eagles are vulnerable to an upset in the playoffs if they can’t counter.
Struggles on Special Teams
Special teams and field position play a key role in complementary football, and the Saints reminded you of that on Sunday.
Kyron Johnson committed a holding penalty on the opening kickoff of the second half. The penalty backed the Eagles up inside their own 10. They started their first four drives of the second half backed up inside their own 15. A team trailing by 13 that struggled to move the ball during the first half consistently faced longer fields that minimized their already small margin for error.
They began a fateful drive in the fourth quarter on their own nine. Minshew targeted Brown, who supposedly didn’t expect the ball, and the play turned into a backbreaking touchdown the other way.
New Orleans punter Blake Gillikin did an excellent job pinning the Eagles deep inside their own territory and putting his team’s defense in a better situation to succeed.
Eagles Careless With Turnovers
Turnovers make up the meat of the complementary football cliché. They alter the course of NFL games with incredible magnitude, and they’re usually a key factor in major upsets.
According to Zach Berman of The Athletic, the Eagles became the third team in NFL history to win the turnover battle in each of their first eight games. Their plus-15 differential led the NFL after Week 8. However, they’ve followed up the unlikely feat with some careless mistakes.
They have a minus-6 differential since, and untimely turnovers have sunk them in all three of their losses. Washington forced three critical turnovers in Philadelphia and padded the stats with a schoolyard-style fumble recovery on the last play of the game.
The Dallas Cowboys, who now own the best differential in the NFL at plus-11, forced four turnovers against the Eagles on Christmas Eve. Although each team turned the ball over once in Philadelphia on Sunday, Marshon Lattimore’s pick-six is the lasting image of the game for disappointed Eagles fans.
Are the Eagles Doomed?
It’s ultimately up to Nick Sirianni, Jonathan Gannon, and the Eagles coaching staff to make the adjustments against the formula that has taken them down in two upset losses. They have more than enough talent on the roster to do so.
Reinserting a star quarterback and an MVP candidate in Jalen Hurts over a struggling backup will help, regardless of when it ends up happening.
On defense, Gannon has the benefit of one of the most productive pass rushes in NFL history. The Eagles have six or more sacks in five consecutive games.
Each team had at least six sacks on Sunday, creating somewhat of a unique circumstance. However, sacks usually flip a field position game. A dominant pass rush could complement a struggling special teams unit before a team even has the opportunity to punt.
Backbreaking turnovers by the offense create opportunities for an opponent to dominate the time of possession. The Eagles must simply execute with their starting quarterback under center and eliminate the mistakes.
The Eagles will finish with the best regular-season record in franchise history if they take care of business as heavy favorites and defeat the New York Giants in Week 18. Thirteen wins didn’t happen by accident, and the path to Super Bowl LII felt awfully similar when the calendar flipped to 2018 before Nick Foles entered mythical status in Philadelphia sports history.
Photo by Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire
