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Defending Eagles' up-tempo offense is all in the eyes
By Nick Wagoner
http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra...ending-eagles-uptempo-offense-all-in-the-eyes
EARTH CITY, Mo. -- St. Louis Rams safety T.J. McDonald knows all about a Chip Kelly offense. He found out the hard way.
As a USC senior in 2012, McDonald was a part of a Trojans' defense that was scorched by Kelly's high-octane offense to the tune of 62 points and 730 yards of total offense in a 62-51 Ducks' win. The Trojans edged Oregon in 2011, but McDonald's team was on the wrong end of a 53-32 loss in 2010 in which the Trojans surrendered 599 yards of total offense.
Those numbers are enough to cause McDonald some nightmares this week as the Rams prepare to face Kelly's Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. That preparation isn't easy and there are many layers, but McDonald says there is one thing that stands above the rest when getting ready for Kelly's fast break offense.
"I could give you 150 ways to prepare for it, but once you get into the game, it’s a different feeling," McDonald said. "The biggest thing is to have your eyes up. That’s the thing we are stressing all this week is making sure your eyes are right and they run a lot of similar plays to each other, so just don’t let your eyes fool you."
The Eagles' offense isn't necessarily revolutionizing football but it is bringing a new look to the NFL. With an emphasis on tempo -- Kelly prefers to run as many plays as possible in a game -- the Eagles intend to create a dizzying combination of confusion, tired legs and big plays.
In the Rams' locker room this week, all of those things have been discussed, but nothing has surpassed the importance of dotting the eyes.
Much of what the Eagles do is the same from play to play, though it comes out of different formations and personnel packages. On a given drive, Kelly and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur won't hesitate to call the same zone-read repeatedly knowing that the defense won't have enough time to correct a weakness in the middle of the series. Many of those runs are used to help set up something big down the field on play-action passes.
Retaining gap discipline is even more important against the Eagles' running game because of running back LeSean McCoy's knack for freelancing when holes close.
Middle linebacker James Laurinaitis offered the best explanation of the importance of eyes.
"It seems like they’re running the same stuff over and over, but they just do it really well," Laurinaitis said. "What they count on you doing is, they count on one play you getting your eyes out of sorts and then bam, there’s a big play. And they’re successful at it. ... And those are things that have hurt us in the first three games, quite frankly. There’s been great defense then six plays, seven plays where we have bad eyes and then boom, it’s a big play. So we’ve just been stressing, if you have great eyes your technique is going to follow that, you’re going to have great feet, you’re going to have great hands, everything will follow it, but let’s communicate, have great eyes and focus on what your job is. That’s really what we’ve been stressing all week, and they challenge you on that because they’ll find them, they’ll find the open guys."
In order to work on all of those things this week, the Rams' scout team is doing all it can to simulate the Eagles' tempo. It's one thing to have your head up and on a swivel early in the game, but after the Eagles run play after play, it can quickly catch up to teams in the second half. That is why the Eagles had some slow starts in their first three games, but went on to outscore opponents 74-24 in the second half of those victories.
The scout team offense has attempted to run an offensive play every 20 seconds in practice, forcing the defense to handle substitutions accordingly and Laurinaitis to ensure that his defensive teammates are lined up properly and ready to go at the snap without having their heads down searching for air.
Because of the tempo, the Eagles make it hard to get any sort of substitution pattern going for the defense. That means the onus falls on Laurinaitis and the defense to be aware and ready to go when they do want to make subs and to communicate flawlessly before every snap. If that doesn't happen, those big plays can come in bunches.
"They’re high-tempo from start to finish, complete- incomplete, run plays, penalties they’re going," coach Jeff Fisher said. "It’s about our ability on defense to communicate, to disguise looks, to stop the run, to challenge receivers. It’s a wide open offense, and I can appreciate the job Nick (Foles) has done in that offense. You can appreciate how this team in one year made the playoffs, so it’s quite a challenge for us.”
Whether a Rams defense that has struggled with less unique offenses so far this season is up to the challenge remains a question. On Sunday, seeing will be believing.
By Nick Wagoner
http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra...ending-eagles-uptempo-offense-all-in-the-eyes
EARTH CITY, Mo. -- St. Louis Rams safety T.J. McDonald knows all about a Chip Kelly offense. He found out the hard way.
As a USC senior in 2012, McDonald was a part of a Trojans' defense that was scorched by Kelly's high-octane offense to the tune of 62 points and 730 yards of total offense in a 62-51 Ducks' win. The Trojans edged Oregon in 2011, but McDonald's team was on the wrong end of a 53-32 loss in 2010 in which the Trojans surrendered 599 yards of total offense.
Those numbers are enough to cause McDonald some nightmares this week as the Rams prepare to face Kelly's Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. That preparation isn't easy and there are many layers, but McDonald says there is one thing that stands above the rest when getting ready for Kelly's fast break offense.
"I could give you 150 ways to prepare for it, but once you get into the game, it’s a different feeling," McDonald said. "The biggest thing is to have your eyes up. That’s the thing we are stressing all this week is making sure your eyes are right and they run a lot of similar plays to each other, so just don’t let your eyes fool you."
The Eagles' offense isn't necessarily revolutionizing football but it is bringing a new look to the NFL. With an emphasis on tempo -- Kelly prefers to run as many plays as possible in a game -- the Eagles intend to create a dizzying combination of confusion, tired legs and big plays.
In the Rams' locker room this week, all of those things have been discussed, but nothing has surpassed the importance of dotting the eyes.
Much of what the Eagles do is the same from play to play, though it comes out of different formations and personnel packages. On a given drive, Kelly and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur won't hesitate to call the same zone-read repeatedly knowing that the defense won't have enough time to correct a weakness in the middle of the series. Many of those runs are used to help set up something big down the field on play-action passes.
Retaining gap discipline is even more important against the Eagles' running game because of running back LeSean McCoy's knack for freelancing when holes close.
Middle linebacker James Laurinaitis offered the best explanation of the importance of eyes.
"It seems like they’re running the same stuff over and over, but they just do it really well," Laurinaitis said. "What they count on you doing is, they count on one play you getting your eyes out of sorts and then bam, there’s a big play. And they’re successful at it. ... And those are things that have hurt us in the first three games, quite frankly. There’s been great defense then six plays, seven plays where we have bad eyes and then boom, it’s a big play. So we’ve just been stressing, if you have great eyes your technique is going to follow that, you’re going to have great feet, you’re going to have great hands, everything will follow it, but let’s communicate, have great eyes and focus on what your job is. That’s really what we’ve been stressing all week, and they challenge you on that because they’ll find them, they’ll find the open guys."
In order to work on all of those things this week, the Rams' scout team is doing all it can to simulate the Eagles' tempo. It's one thing to have your head up and on a swivel early in the game, but after the Eagles run play after play, it can quickly catch up to teams in the second half. That is why the Eagles had some slow starts in their first three games, but went on to outscore opponents 74-24 in the second half of those victories.
The scout team offense has attempted to run an offensive play every 20 seconds in practice, forcing the defense to handle substitutions accordingly and Laurinaitis to ensure that his defensive teammates are lined up properly and ready to go at the snap without having their heads down searching for air.
Because of the tempo, the Eagles make it hard to get any sort of substitution pattern going for the defense. That means the onus falls on Laurinaitis and the defense to be aware and ready to go when they do want to make subs and to communicate flawlessly before every snap. If that doesn't happen, those big plays can come in bunches.
"They’re high-tempo from start to finish, complete- incomplete, run plays, penalties they’re going," coach Jeff Fisher said. "It’s about our ability on defense to communicate, to disguise looks, to stop the run, to challenge receivers. It’s a wide open offense, and I can appreciate the job Nick (Foles) has done in that offense. You can appreciate how this team in one year made the playoffs, so it’s quite a challenge for us.”
Whether a Rams defense that has struggled with less unique offenses so far this season is up to the challenge remains a question. On Sunday, seeing will be believing.