It's incredible what an extra few days off can do for a struggling team like the Philadelphia Eagles.
They all got together after the mini bye week at the beginning of last week as an offensive unit and came up with a plan. The Eagles then went out against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 7 and executed that plan to near perfection as Philly took a 28-22 win over the Vikings.
Their subtle change wasn't anything mind-blowing or Earth-shattering, but it was enough to help the offense in ways it hadn't been successful all season. It was all about Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts lining up under center and executing the play.
How working under center was perfected by the Eagles
This became more noticeable throughout the game as the Eagles had called 20 plays from under center. Some attribute this to the fact that center Cam Jurgens got hurt and Brett Toth had to take over. With Toth struggling to block while focusing on getting the shotgun snap correct, the Eagles took the pressure off of him by going under center.
For Hurts and the Eagles, this was the secret identity they had all been alluding to all week.
"I kind of spoke towards it toward the beginning of the week when we had the time to catch up. Kind of wanted to establish ourselves in the run game ... ultimately, like coach Sirianni said, it's what we felt was the best thing to do this week."
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni spoke about this as well when the team returned to Philadelphia. He mentioned that going under center was something they noted during the mini-bye, and they wanted to use it as a way to improve their play action.
That strategy paid off as the Eagles threw the ball four times from under center (all four passes were play action calls). Hurts completed all four passes for 121 yards, including his early third quarter 79-yard touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith.
By the end of the game, Hurts had lined up under center 40.8% of the snaps. That's a career-high for the former Super Bowl MVP. It helped him with having a perfect passer rating of 158.3, throwing just four incompletions, chucking 326 yards, and three touchdowns in the win.
Credit does need to be given to Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who has taken a ton of criticism from everyone in the media. Patullo worked through the struggles and found a way to get his offense going in the best way. It's not perfect as the running game struggled, but he's got Hurts playing some of the best football he has played, and it's good progress.
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Philadelphia might want to be careful, as other NFL teams will start game planning for the Eagles to go under center more often, but they at least found the spark they had been looking for on offense.