Cool Play of the Week (Super Bowl): Philly Special Nick Foles 2yd TD
Here is the final Cool Play of the Week for 2018 and thanks for all those who read, gave advice, and contributed to awesome discussion. I really enjoyed making these and enjoy chatting with you all about strategy and different views of the game. I will still make content throughout the summer and hopefully it is something you will be interested in reading through the offseason. As always let me know your thoughts and what you would like to see. Congrats to Philly fans, well deserved and earned champions. Also Pats fans don’t be down, Football is a coin flip game and you played in 8 super bowls and have flipped heads right 5 times. Thank you for the amazing Super Bowls! (Also McDaniels had the best gameplan I’ve seen in years to stop a dominant pass rush, Screen, reverse, or hard play action every play)
**TL;DR**
* Motion and QB fake audible
* Direct snap to get defense on toes
* outside zone with opposite flow from TE’s
* QB pause to sneak out to receive pass from former tight end
* The sound of brass balls hitting the field turf is heard near Doug Pederson
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TV Copy
Sideline Copy
End Zone Copy
Bears Eagles Side by Side
Hi all back for the last Cool Play of the Week for the 2017-2018 NFL Season. I will be doing more full game analyses about how teams game-plan and how they execute or how they fail miserably. For now I will breakdown one of the coolest plays of the year in the biggest game of the year at the biggest moment of the year. We have all heard by now the story of the “Let’s run Philly Philly” and the play call of “Philly Special” but lets break down exactly how this play comes to be and is executed.
(Edit: Most people that read my posts know that I breakdown play calls and what they mean. This is a “Special” which is a trick play. These often are just 1 word that says Formation, Motion, Snap count, and Routes all in one….If this where a play call it would be something like Gun Bunch Left Q AudFake Fake 97 Zone Reverse Pass Right QB Release….Thats why its one world….)
Bears 2016 Philly Special
Here is the play Doug Pederson said he took the play from. In a meaningless game Chicago breaks out a pretty cool play. (It’s so funny to me that a play where neither team had a chance to go far in the playoff in a week 17 game had an impact so huge over a year later in the biggest game)
It is a goal line play that starts out in Empty. Motion back in and then have the qb act as if he is changing the play, then have a fake outside zone, with a reverse coming around the backside to have a delayed release by the QB into the flat, with the edge covered by a slip block by the Y. THIS IS DUMB JARGON. Doesnt make any sense when you say it out loud like that because there are so many moving pieces and things that can go wrong, why its called a “Special”.
Truth of the matter is what makes this play so great is it does a lot of things that are “Dangerous” to a defense. Defenses don’t like empty on the goal line, spreads them out too much. They don’t like bunch because there is a lot of room for pick plays. All this makes the defense become laser focused and forget about the QB, so many things they have to re go over in their head. Now lets get to the play that actually mattered
SOMETHING IS WEIRD
So here is a still image to start out. What is important about his image is that this formation should signal something screwy. The Eagles had run these bunch formations with the deep Y but the RB is directly behind the QB. The eagles don’t run a lot if any pistol (RB directly behind QB in shotgun, also QB is at 3.5-4 yards instead of 5.) So right here i started freaking out. When i saw them go here I go oh something is up. I thought maybe they would run trap with Clement, something they had done a lot of against Dallas. But no right when I saw this formation come up my atennas for a trick play was coming.
SL Presnap Gif
Now lets get to the presnap look. Foles signals to get Clement behind and then goes to act as if he is changing the play. 3 big things to note about him faking the audible. 1, at no point has he audibled like this on film or during this game. Huge tell out of place. 2, the defense isnt doing anything extraordinary on the right side. There is an extra overhang player but he doesn’t really matter, the RB could pick him up in a pass or the line would side to him. Lastly its not loud enough in a neutral site field to necessitate a audible like this. Having played in neutral site games its sometimes easier to hear than a home game going to the visitor side of the field. These fakes should not have worked on the defense but 4th and goal in the Superbowl will make any man flinch.
SL Mid Play and End Play Gif
Once the play is in action the most important aspect to see is that they are trying to freeze the backers with reverse flow from the Line in contrast to the F and the Y. Offensive line blocks as if it was outside zone and they are trying to get Clement to the near pylon. The foil to the stretch outside zone blocking is the Y slipping underneath and the F coming around the back. The LBS are frozen looking at the line and the opposite flow of the TEs. This freeze and eye candy is important to let Foles slip out behind them.
RB carries out the fake FULL SPEED. He knows hes not the star but he commits hard to bringing as many people with him.
On the Goal Line you will often get man and you have the X run a slant to clear out the endzone for Foles.
One thing really important is to see the Y flash in front of the WILL. The WILL is who they want to fake out and bringing the best offensive weapon in the redzone (Ertz the Y) into your face is important to not only protect the throw on the edge but to occupy the WILL.
EZ Pre-Snap Gif
Here is the endzone view. Another shot of what the Direct snap would look like. 4 down lineman from NE and in inside gaps. Something the MIKE is probably looking for is the RB taking the direct snap and going off the guard right. They get a hat for a hat and can try and stuff it up in there. This effects the eyes of the MIKE thinking hes the last resort for the Dive.
Look at the WILL. He’s in track stance. He wants to fire off the ball. He never even comes close to even looking at Foles. He is keying off the ball and is going to fire up field to try and mess shit up. DUDE THE GUY IS YELLING NONSENSE AT YOU AND YOU DONT EVEN LOOK AT HIM! JUST PEEP HOW WEIRD THIS IS! The play was won before it was even snapped thanks to the WILL. Moment got too big for him.
EZ End Play Gif
And now you gotta execute. Here you can see the reverse flow and how the line and back get the defense running one way and then they all react at the same time. Q just nonchalantly vacates the area and sneaks out the back.
Now something that I don’t talk about a lot and is actually the most important part of the game. This is another dumb quote from a football coach that is actually imperative, “Players win games”. A coach can draw up the perfect play, line it up perfectly and call it at the perfect time but the players have to block throw and CATCH it. I am impressed by Burton keeping the glove on (my team had a guy take the glove off, if the other team was looking it was a dead give away when the F looked like Michael Jackson with one glove on) and executing a throw he hasn’t done since Freshman year at Florida. And Foles making the catch when asked to. It’s not hard when you watch it but when you think of the stakes and the timing then its pretty hard. Big game Nick just plays big in big games.
So thanks again for reading along this season, I had a blast making these and look forward to producing more and hopefully making videos in the future.
Bonus Side by Side
Funniest part about this angle shows that both plays are illegal procedures. In the eagles play Alshon (X) is not on the line of scrimmage making it only 6 men on. In the Bears one QB is moving at the same time as the RB and the ball is snapped before each get set for 1 second.