Is Running The Ball Real Key To Eagles Success Under Pederson?
In the 46 games as Eagles Head Coach, Doug Pederson's Offense has displayed one consistent element in their wins over the last couple years: Running the ball. During the Pederson Era in Philadelphia, the Eagles have a 24-1 record when they have 27 or more Rush Attempts in the game. When the Eagles Offense has fewer than 27 Rush Attempts the team has struggled, posting a 3-18 record in those games. A balanced offense has been the key to the Eagles success over the last couple seasons and may be the wild card as they attempt to make the postseason this year.
Emory Hunt of The Athletic joined Josh Hennig and Nick Kosko on Thursday discussing the impact of the running game in today's NFL:
"People nowadays, because of all the analytics and the fantasy football and the stat gurus on social media, everyone wants to devalue the running game; but football guys know that the running game will always be prevalent because it’s a way to control the game. And there is no difference between a big run you break for a long touchdown and a deep pass, they both have the same probability to have success, it just takes one play to make it happen. So essentially you can run your way back into a ball game - We’ve seen it in college with option teams, we see it now with teams in the NFL that get back to basics and run the ball and find themselves back in a ball game....The Eagles used to do a great job of that with the short passes whether it be slants, or these speed outs, or these pop passes. That’s one way to loosen up the quote on quote box so that they can then start to run the football. You don’t have to run it 25-30 times to have success, it’s about when you run it and how you run it in order for the running game to have success."
Checkout what Hunt had to say about the differences between Carson Wentz and Nick Foles, perspective on Josh Gordon, NFL MVP Race, and more