Alshon Jeffery took most of the blame for the Philadelphia Eagles’ Divisional Round loss to the New Orleans Saints, but he shouldn’t have.
Sure, Jeffery’s drop resulted in the game-sealing interception, but he wasn’t the only Eagles player to make a costly error. Not by a long shot.
If you’re going to be pointing fingers, at least one of them should be in the direction of Fletcher Cox. Here’s why.
Trailing 14-0 in the second quarter and facing a 4th & 1 from their own 30-yard-line, the Saints called a fake punt and converted it thanks to a 4-yard run up the middle by Taysom Hill.
But the only reason the Saints attempted the fake punt in the first place was because they knew Fletcher Cox likely wouldn’t be giving much of an effort on the play. And they were right.
The Saints looked at game film from the Eagles’ Wild Card win against the Chicago Bears. During that game, they noticed that the Eagles were calling “defense stay,” which means they keep their regular defensive alignment in on punt formation to guard against a possible fake. But what the Saints also noticed was that on every occasion when the Eagles ran “defense stay,” Fletcher Cox took his time getting off the line and didn’t appear to be putting much effort into the play.
So when New Orleans lined up in punt formation on this specific 4th & 1, and when they saw that the Eagles had employed their “defense stay” formation, Taysom Hill knew that he could run the ball right at Cox and likely convert for the first down.
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Lo and behold, that’s exactly what happened.
Here’s a better look at how it all played out:
