Marty Mornhinweg explains Eagles' run/pass ratio
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Marty Mornhinweg explains Eagles' run/pass ratio
Zach Berman
The Eagles' offensive playcalling has come under scrutiny this week after there were only four called rushing plays in the first half of the Eagles' 27-6 loss to Arizona. Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg defended the play calling on Thursday, noting that the Eagles only had nine first-quarter plays, which limited the sample size. Then, in the second quarter, the Eagles called 11 passing plays in the two-minute offense, which is typical.
In the second half, when the Eagles ran the ball more, they were playing catch-up and could not dedicate themselves to the run.
"On paper, it looks really odd," Mornhinweg said. "But if you go through the situational part of it, it balances out a little bit.”
Mornhinweg said he's reviewed the play-calling several times and took responsibility for the offense's inability to score points. He also said he would call the game differently if they could play it again.
"In hindsight, I would have done it a little differently," Mornhinweg said. "I certainly thought going in we had a heck of a game plan.”
Still, don't expect many widespread changes. Mornhinweg emphasized the offense's philosophy to be aggressive. He said the way the Eagles called the game against Arizona was "not unusual for us," and that there were, in fact, opportunities down field. Those opportunities were hindered by communication and blocking issues.
The run/pass questions were present in past weeks, too. Mornhinweg defends it each week, and he said the Eagles are following their season script so far.
“We’re right to where I want to be overall; we’re 62 percent overall,” Mornhinweg said. “We’re somewhere around 50/50 on first down, run and pass.”
The statistics may be skewed each week, and the Eagles will run more if they're holding a lead and pass more when they're coming from behind. Plus, the game plans change depending on the defense. That's why Mornhinweg said he judges the season stats more than the game-by-game stats.
"Philosophically, I don’t care as much about balance in any particular game,” Mornhinweg said. “If we have to run the ball 50 times to win the game, that’s what we’ll do. If we have to pass the ball 50 times, that’s what we’ll do. Now, if you take the whole season, you’d rather somewhere around 60/40 – you’re usually going to be a little higher, 60 to 65 percent passing.”
“If we have to run the ball 50 times to win the game, that’s what we’ll do."
That's patently false. There have been many times that running the ball would have won the game, but they NEVER do. Sometimes, you need to go into the game expecting to win a low scoring game with running and defense, and you let your opponent make the mistakes. But they can't coach that type of game. All they know is how to jump out to a 10 or 14 point lead and manage that type of game. And when that plan fails and they get behind, they try even harder to hit the lottery with big pass plays.— guyblur
Great! Now we have two people accepting blame... but yet both are still employed. Everything's okay as long as someone says it was my fault ;-) What is it now? 13 years?- Zach,
The fault lies with (choose one:
A. Andy
B. Morning Wig
C. Vick
D. Mayor Nutter
E. Barack Obama— prudential2 - that game was so bad i was looking for a paper bag for my head— pr0f3ss0r
- OK, I'm now officially dumber for reading that. Brad Childress, wherever you are, you see what we're dealing with. Come back!— DJacobs55
- Marty is using the Andy excuse "I have to do a better job of that".— mwright252
- I am oppressed!!!— warreninrochester
- Marty will have next year to watch Skylar play at U of F. Bank on it. Marty must have had a terrible time with puzzles as a kid...."Mom it won't fit"..."Keep on trying honey. If at first you don't succeed try and try again even if it's the wrong piece dear."— glove69
- All I can say is wow! If I am the owner- I make a move NOW!— SportsmanshipMatters
- Everyone is down on Juan Castillo but at least he has an excuse---he had no business being a defensive coordinator and had never done it before. Marty has done this for years and learned NOTHING. Does he have any idea how it is to pass block for 50 or 60 plays or how easy he makes it for the defense to come after the QB when they know he will be holding the ball for up to 7 or 8 seconds on most plays?????— xatsmann
- " Marty Morhninweg says he was responsible for the offense's inability to score Sunday"
LOL. Man, Andy has him so scared that he's taking the blame for Vick and Reid all at once.
That's funny.— fmMD - This guy is a bigger dope than Fat Andy
— pflynn20 - Eagles are 65-11 under Reid when they run the ball 30 or more times...
— pflynn20 - It is not necessary to go past page one of the comments....they are real and they are spectacular and Marty and his buddy AR are completely over-matched and too stubborn to change......Hopefully Jeffery is finally watching and getting fed up with the AR MM JC circus.......— nuggett
- Just run the damn ball. Jesus! Worst play-call ever!— hallux
