How the Eagles failed on fourth down against the Cowboys
The pass didn't go past the first-down marker, and the Cowboys made a fine defensive play. What went into Nick Sirianni's decision?
The Eagles boast the league’s best fourth-down offense, bolstered by the Tush Push, converting on 71.4% of their attempts.
But on Sunday night in their 33-13 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, they failed to convert on fourth-and-8 from the Cowboys’ 30-yard line as they sought to narrow a two-touchdown deficit late in the third quarter. After the game, coach Nick Sirianni said he didn’t regret going for it as opposed to settling for a field goal.
“I thought in that particular point in the game, we were going to be down two possessions if I kicked the field goal and didn’t get it, so I thought that in that particular case, that was the right thing to do,” Sirianni said.
» READ MORE: Another embarrassing effort shows the Eagles need a shake-up. It’s on Nick Sirianni to provide it.
A confluence of factors, including the play call, the execution, and the Cowboys’ sound defense, prevented the Eagles from converting. The Eagles ran a mesh play in which receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown ran shallow crossing routes from either side of the formation, with Brown running over top and Smith underneath. Before the snap as Brown motioned into the slot, safety Israel Mukuamu followed him, tipping off that the Cowboys were in man-to-man coverage.
Sirianni said after the game that he typically feels “pretty good” about this particular play when going up against man-to-man defenses, but in this case, it didn’t work.
In part, the play failed because of the pressure that quarterback Jalen Hurts faced up front. The Cowboys ran a blitz that brought six defenders, and while the Eagles had six players in protection including running back Kenneth Gainwell, the pocket collapsed in a hurry and Hurts lacked time to make a play.
But mesh plays take time to develop. With Cowboys defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence in his face, Hurts managed to get the ball out to Smith on the underneath route. Given the circumstances regarding the pressure, it wasn’t a perfect ball — Hurts threw off of his back foot and the ball reached Smith’s knees, forcing the receiver to slow down to snare it.
The play depended on Smith being able to generate yards after the catch, which is risky given the ample yardage needed to convert on a shallow route. Smith corralled the ball roughly a yard away from the line of scrimmage. He tried to turn up field toward the sticks, but veteran cornerback Stephon Gilmore squashed the Eagles’ first-down dreams and tackled Smith on the spot.
“A lot of our situations in games, we’ve hit that and got a catch-and-run,” Sirianni said. “In this particular case, we didn’t give as many yards. They did a good job defending it.”
Hurts echoed a similar sentiment after the game, tipping his proverbial cap to the Cowboys defense.
“We came up short there,” Hurts said. “It was a great executed play by defense. They did a really good job.”
To give credit where credit was due, Gilmore made a great play, staying with Smith the whole way and refusing to give him an inch after the catch. But Sirianni and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson also appeared to bank on their talented young receiver’s ability to make something happen on the play, which was emblematic of the broader, unsuccessful offensive game plan against the Cowboys. While the Eagles’ receivers are certainly capable of winning their one-on-ones, Brown and Smith especially, this particular play design on fourth-and-8 did little to help increase their chances at a conversion.
This season, Hurts is trending toward the bottom of the pack against the blitz. He has a 87.6 passer rating according to Pro Football Focus, which ranks 18th among 27 qualifying quarterbacks. But he’s taking his time on his throws, averaging 2.87 seconds on his dropbacks when he faces a blitz, which ranks second longest in the league. He’s also trying to make fairly long completions in those pressure situations, with the depth of his targets averaging 9.6 yards (No. 4 in the NFL).
After the game, Hurts said that there were plenty of “missed opportunities” that led to the Eagles’ demise in their game against the Cowboys, including three fumbles lost. But on Sunday night, execution wasn’t the only problem that plagued the Eagles’ offense — schematically, Sirianni and Johnson did not put their players in the best positions to succeed, the fourth-and-8 attempt included.