Philadelphia Eagles Breakdown: Carson Wentz TD pass to Nelson Agholor

Here is a breakdown of Carson Wentz’s touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor in Week 12 of the Philadelphia Eagles season.

The Philadelphia Eagles rolled to an easy victory in Week 12 of the 2017 NFL season over the Chicago Bears by a score of 31-3. A large part of that success was the dominant play by their quarterback, Carson Wentz. The second-year player has leaped to becoming one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in just his second season. In the game, Wentz threw for three touchdowns, giving him a league-leading 28 touchdown passes.

If the season ended today, Wentz would be the league MVP. He has been amazing all season and has his team sitting atop the NFL with their 10-1 record. However, with success comes a lot of critiques, and Wentz has a lot of haters. A big part of his haters come from the fact he is the starter for the Eagles, so people feel like they have to try and knock him.

Another large part comes from the NFL Draft “experts” that said Wentz would not be good, and now they do not want to admit they are wrong. It is what it is, but I’ve said it while he was at North Dakota State University: Wentz is the real deal.

In the Week 12 game against the Bears, Wentz threw a screen pass to wide receiver Nelson Agholor that went for a touchdown. Wentz’s haters smiled when that happened because they got to use that as a crutch to say “it was just a screen pass.” Well, those people are wrong because it wasn’t just any screen pass.

Let’s breakdown the play that Wentz “just threw a screen pass.” Here is the play in question below:

If you watch the play once, you see that Agholor makes a play after the catch. The former B-U-S-T in Philly is ballin’ in 2017. He has found his groove in the NFL and playing in the slot as saved his career.

Now, ignore Agholor on the play and pause it before the ball is snapped. You see Alshon Jeffery (who is also ballin’ for the Eagles) split out wide and Agholor in the slot at the bottom of the screen. The Bears cover the Eagles two-man surface with three defenders, so Wentz’s pre-snap read is obviously not ideal to throw a screen to Agholor. Luckily for the Eagles, this play is an RPO (Run-Pass Option). These RPOs have become a big part of the Eagles offense, and that is because Wentz has the brains and arm to do it. And Doug Pederson has been calling them at the perfect times.

So, back to the play. Wentz, see’s the Bears have the three to their two, which means he will just hand the ball off to running back Corey Clement. However, the concept of the RPO is to read a defender, so Wentz is reading the defender that is on Agholor because that is where the RPO is called to.

Okay, hit play and then pause at the 0:02 mark. What you now see is that the defender that was on Agholor is actually coming on a blitz to stop the run. What is excellent about the RPOs is that you have two plays in one, so this defender believes he is about to make a big run stop, but in reality, the Eagles are looking at him like he is a donkey with a lollipop in his mouth because now the pass is open on their RPO.

Hit play again and then pause again at 0:03. Wentz reads him and processes that information quickly and snaps the ball to Agholor in the slot. What the Eagles and Wentz are saying is that we trust our two against your two, and they should. You see that the high safety reads screen the whole way and is now one-on-one with Agholor. You also see that Jeffery is breaking down on the outside to make a block.

Resume the play, and you see that Agholor makes the Bears defender over the top of the play look silly. He doesn’t even get his hands on him and then Jeffery does just enough on his block to allow Agholor to get into the end zone.

Next: NFL 2017: 20 Bold predictions for Week 13

So, it may look like just a screen pass, but Wentz made this play go. He read that defender, ripped the ball, and then trusted Agholor and Jeffery to make the plays they needed to make. This Eagles team trusts each other more than any other team out there, and it shows. They are truly a team, and if Wentz can keep playing at a high level, Philadelphia is the favorite to win the Super Bowl.