To say the last minute of the Philadelphia Eagles' Week 5 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars went the way anyone in South Philly planned would be a massive understatement.
Near interceptions, poor clock management, poor tackling, and one of the most flabbergasting kick returns of all time to set up an early-morning dagger in North London let fans down bad, but one call in particular raised eyebrows throughout the greater Delaware Valley: throwing an out route to Makai Lemon on second down to stop the clock with 17 seconds left in regulation.
Why did the Eagles call a play where the clock would most likely stop when running down those final seconds should have been a top priority? In the opinion of Sean Mannion during his Tuesday media session, it came down to advancing the ball against cover zero, which only gave the Birds so many options in the play-calling department.
“Our focus there was really just to advance the ball,” Mannion declared. “They were in a cover zero look. With that comes some leverage issues where you’re inside. The primary focus there was [to] advance the ball to do our best to help the kick, and then get us into the best play possible to do so and avoid a negative play. So, that was the outcome we had there. Obviously, he was caught on the outbreak right by the sideline, kind of got pushed out, but our primary focus with the call and with the execution of it was to advance the ball. With the look, that’s what ended up happening. We’re in an outbreak, and he ends up getting pushed out.”
Asked again if even testing a throw to the outside was the right call in that particular situation, given the down, distance, and Philly's position on the field, Mannion noted again that he firmly believes the play call wasn't the problem, as the Eagles needed to pick up extra yards to make Jake Elliott's life easier.
Article Continues Below“Not to get too far into the weeds of the scheme, but in cover zero, league-wide, typically you’re going to be fighting a battle of inside leverage,” Mannion noted. “Sometimes, again, the most productive play to try to advance the ball means running away from that inside leverage. Now, different teams attack you different ways, but again, our primary focus in that moment was advancing the ball for the kick. When you’re fighting hard inside leverage, the best way to do that typically is an outbreaker. So, that’s kind of how that came to happen.”
If the Eagles hadn't picked up one more yard on that particular second down – or, for that matter, third down – Elliott would have been in line for about a 52-yard field goal, which is absolutely in his range. By advancing the ball to the 27, which ended up being the 30 after a negative three-yard run back to the middle of the field by Dameon Pierce, Elliott was set up for a 48-yarder, which is an easier make, but left that crucial eight seconds on the board for Jacksonville to operate with.