It was perhaps the biggest play of the game in the Eagles’ 40-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday Night Football.
If nothing else, it certainly appeared to be a turning point.
The Eagles were driving with under a minute to go in the first half with a chance to score a touchdown and go into the locker room tied at 17-17. Running back Ryan Mathews, however, was stuffed on the 4th-and-1 play and the Eagles turned the ball over on downs.
The Eagles elected to go with Mathews on the short-yardage play despite the fact that DeMarco Murray coming into Sunday was 12 for 12 on 3rd- and 4th-and-1 situations this season. Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said the team practiced the play (an outside zone run) all week with Mathews and felt confident because he’s their biggest back.
Before the play happened, the Eagles lined up and the Cardinals called a timeout.
There seems to be some confusion about whether or not the Eagles changed their play after the timeout. Right tackle Lane Johnson said they didn’t, while Kelly indicated they did.
"Our call was the same, but the defense changed," Johnson said.
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So, the defense anticipated it?
"I think so,” Johnson answered. “It was just a good play by them. We didn't execute the way we should have."
Here’s a look from the game broadcast of how the Eagles were lined up before Arizona called a timeout. You’ll see Riley Cooper is lined up on the far side of the field.
“Yeah, we were motioning to a different play,” Kelly said on Monday. “So what they saw us in the original formation, we were motioning, so I don't think they got a beat in terms of what we were doing. We knew they were going to be inside and we were trying to get the ball to the perimeter on the DBs.”
This is after the timeout. Cooper gets put in motion and lines up in the backfield, just behind the line. You can see everyone has their blocking assignments, but corner Jerraud Powers is about to come around the corner and make a play.
Everyone up front does their job, but the Eagles are out-manned when Powers starts to turn the corner.
Safety Deone Bucannon, who came from the other side of the formation, gets credit for the tackle, but it was really Powers who made the play happen.
It’s easy to play Monday morning quarterback when looking back at this play. Maybe the Eagles should have kicked the field goal — although Kelly said on WIP Monday morning that he didn’t even think about it. Maybe they should have brought Murray into the game to do what he’s actually done well this season. Maybe it was the perfect time to let 6-foot-4 quarterback Sam Bradford run a quarterback sneak.
Either way, this was a great opportunity to keep the Eagles in the game for a little longer and they blew it. The Cardinals went up 23-10 on an early third-quarter touchdown and the game was never close again.