01-28-2023, 07:11 AM
Saw ESPN reporter Sal Paolantonio Friday night saying the Eagles are trying to protect Jalen Hurts' shoulder by having him turn away from contact to his right shoulder and sliding on his left side. This suggests Hurts was lucky to escape the Giants game without having an injury setback and the Eagles are afraid he will be hampered if his shoulder takes a big enough hit.
One thing that concerns me about the Shanahan offense is it doesn't build in hot receivers to all play designs and the receivers aren't seemingly taught to break off their routes when they see blitz. This was something quite evident against Kansas City this year. I just saw it demonstrated by Kurt Warner in last week's game too. Two different QBs, same problem with no hot routes to help the QB facing quick pressure. This is on Shanahan to fix.
Kurt Warner also pointed out how Purdy needs to do a better job counting defenders pre-snap, and eliminating one side of the field when the defense has the receivers outnumbered, particularly in the Red Zone when you don't have time to go through full field reads facing pressure. One thing that makes Hurts and the Eagles so effective is their offense is based on counting defenders, to a side of the field and in the box, and reacting to what defenders do. Makes playing QB easy. I hope Purdy learned this lesson about being more decisive to one side of the field from the Dallas game, but the odds are he didn't and the Red Zone struggled will continue.
Anyway, if the Niners focus on taking away the inside run to Sanders and Gainwell, knowing Hurts doesn't want to get hit as a ball carrier much, they can really bottle up the run, and turn Hurts into a pocket passer who has to decipher the Niners' very good zone defensive schemes to make plays, while facing pressure in the pocket. I don't think he can do this very well. He's just not able to look off defenders to create bigger throwing windows because that's not a skill the Eagles offense relies on. You don't need that with the RPOs and deep passing they do.
One thing that concerns me about the Shanahan offense is it doesn't build in hot receivers to all play designs and the receivers aren't seemingly taught to break off their routes when they see blitz. This was something quite evident against Kansas City this year. I just saw it demonstrated by Kurt Warner in last week's game too. Two different QBs, same problem with no hot routes to help the QB facing quick pressure. This is on Shanahan to fix.
Kurt Warner also pointed out how Purdy needs to do a better job counting defenders pre-snap, and eliminating one side of the field when the defense has the receivers outnumbered, particularly in the Red Zone when you don't have time to go through full field reads facing pressure. One thing that makes Hurts and the Eagles so effective is their offense is based on counting defenders, to a side of the field and in the box, and reacting to what defenders do. Makes playing QB easy. I hope Purdy learned this lesson about being more decisive to one side of the field from the Dallas game, but the odds are he didn't and the Red Zone struggled will continue.
Anyway, if the Niners focus on taking away the inside run to Sanders and Gainwell, knowing Hurts doesn't want to get hit as a ball carrier much, they can really bottle up the run, and turn Hurts into a pocket passer who has to decipher the Niners' very good zone defensive schemes to make plays, while facing pressure in the pocket. I don't think he can do this very well. He's just not able to look off defenders to create bigger throwing windows because that's not a skill the Eagles offense relies on. You don't need that with the RPOs and deep passing they do.