You’d be hard pressed to find many people outside the NovaCare Complex who can make sense of LeSean McCoy carrying the ball eight times Sunday against the Vikings.
But to offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, the game plan executed by Chip Kelly appears questionable only in the aftermath of a bad loss, a 48-30 defeat to a three-win team.
“We do what we have to do to win the game,” Shurmur said. “Sometimes you run it more than you throw it. Sometimes you throw it more than you run it. What happens is, everybody, after the game is over, looks at the numbers and says, ‘That's why you didn't win.’”
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McCoy, who entered the game as the NFL’s leading rusher, usually had success when given the opportunity. He averaged 4.8 yards per carry. But the eight carries for 38 yards represented the worst statistical game of his season. He hadn’t had fewer than eight carries since the 2010 season opener against Green Bay (see story).
Even harder to fathom, McCoy had rushed for a career-high 217 yards on 29 carries just seven days earlier, shredding the Lions' defense in a 34-20 win in a snowstorm.
Shurmur’s rationale for the lopsided run-pass ratio centered on the Vikings’ defensive alignment, a predominant single-safety high look that invited the Eagles’ passing attack, and the favorable conditions indoors on the Metrodome’s fast track against a Vikings defense that was missing several starters in the secondary.
Shurmur also noted the early double-digit deficit, although one could argue that the deficit could be blamed, in part, on Eagles coaches taking the ball out of the hands of their best playmaker.
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“Well, I think typically you do what you think you got to do to win the football game,” Shurmur said. “We were behind, as you know. We felt like we had favorable matchups throwing the football as well. They were down to their fourth and fifth corner. I think that plays into it.
“Then there were a couple times when we certainly might have handed him the ball where Nick [Foles] pulled it (on a keeper). A couple times runs were called where we threw [screens]. There's a lot going on there. When you just kind of look at it after the game on one piece of paper, there's also the rest of the story.”
Shurmur hinted that the game plan for Sunday’s game against the Bears, outdoors at the Linc against a better team, wouldn’t be a carbon copy of the blueprint against Minnesota.
“It's very important that we're efficient running the football. It's also very important that we're efficient and explosive throwing the football," he said. "We chose to throw the ball more than run it and there were reasons for it. I think that's not something you’ll see every week."