During the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game, the offense came alive and stole the headlines with 21 points in the final 11 minutes – but the show on the other side of the ball may have been just as good.
Coming back from three scores back, in the fourth quarter – to win – on the road – against the defending champs; that’s the first time we’ve ever seen such a deficit overcome in the Rivera-Newton era. The Cam-led attack wasn’t the only part of the Panthers game plan to come alive in the final frame; the offensive ineptitude through three quarters disguised what had been a fairly strong defensive effort, especially given the complete lack of production for the offense. The defense was stout on third down all game, allowing only three of 12 conversions, a stat that gets overshadowed by the Eagles going for and converting their first three fourth down conversions, even though two of the three were converted on a drive where the Eagles ultimately did not score.
Philadelphia’s 17 points on Sunday was also their lowest scoring output of the season.
When the fourth quarter started, the Panthers had zero points and the Eagles had just finished a 94-yard touchdown drive that ate up over nine minutes of the third quarter; the Panthers offense responded with their best drive of the day and first score, going 80 yards in less than five minutes. If something was going to happen – and bear in mind, it didn’t look like it was – it had to happen now.
In his pregame discussion with the Fox broadcast crew, Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz acknowledged the Panthers linebacking corps as one of the best in the league, but also said you can’t “overworry” and sometimes it’s better to go right at them. The Eagles coaching staff, however, built a gameplan filled with pre-snap motion, play action and misdirection that seemed to be intended to target the Panthers speedy linebackers, trying to cause hesitation and doubt, specifically aiming to minimize Luke Kuechly and his pre-snap alignment of the defense.
By changing the formation at the last second and snapping the ball, it becomes more difficult for Kuechly to convey any defensive shifts to best stop the new formation; through the better part of three quarters, the Eagles had been able to use these methods to cobble together enough of a running and short passing game and to keep the Panthers defense on the field for extended stretches.
The Eagles primary motion man was wide receiver Nelson Agholor – in the first quarter, the Eagles faked the jet sweep to him before throwing him a screen. On their next drive, the Eagles sent a man in motion from the left, brought Agholor back across the formation for a potential reverse and then through a screen back to the right. The Eagles also used a fake screen to the right to set up a backside screen to tight end Dallas Goedert, all the misdirection and motion designed – smartly – to try to mitigate the Kuechly Factor.
But with the Panthers backs against the wall, the stalwart in the middle had a quarter for the ages.
On first-and-10 just inside Panthers territory, the Eagles were up 11 points with less than nine minutes remaining. On first down, looking to run some clock, the Eagles ran a jet sweep to Agholor which Kuechly, with help from Donte Jackson, promptly strung out for a one-yard loss as Kuechly came from the opposite side of the field to track down Agholor, who ran a 4.42 40-yard dash coming out of college and weighs 50 pounds less than the linebacker. On the very next play, Luke watched the play-action fake, saw the running back turn to block and exploded to quarterback, sacking Wentz for a seven yard loss, forcing a third-and-18 and ultimately a punt that would set up the Panthers second touchdown drive.
“If I was Luke, I would have done the same thing,” said Mario Addison, who leads the team with 4.5 sacks on the season. “He made that decision and it was smart. For me, I think he saw the opportunity to go get a sack and he went and got it.”
With the game now 17-14 Eagles, the defense again strode onto the field. By this point, despite still leading, the Eagles had largely given up on the run, after gaining just seven yards on their six previous run plays late in the third. On first down, Luke is again in on the play, as Eric Reid makes the stop on a short gain for Agholor. Now facing second-and-8, the Eagles called back to much of the misdirection they ran early in the game. Wentz sends Agholor in motion from left to right, with Wentz faking handoff to Agholor as he ran by, followed by another play-action fake to Smallwood up the middle, who leaks out to the left, with three offensive linemen in front, but this time, the defense didn’t flow. Luke and Captain Munnerlyn stay home and instantly bottle up Smallwood for a two-yard loss, forcing another third-and-long and again, a punt. Had Luke or Munnerlyn been fooled on the play, there is little doubt that the Eagles would have been able to convert the first down.
The Panthers finally took the lead with less than 90 seconds left and Luke’s work was not done. The Eagles quickly got themselves into scoring range, but on third-and-2 from the 12, Kuechly got enough depth in his zone coverage to help Mike Adams disrupt Alshon Jeffrey on a potential game-winning touchdown; the next play, Julius Peppers and Kyle Love sealed the deal.
In the fourth quarter alone, Luke Kuechly had three plays for negative yards – the first time he’s ever had three in the fourth – two critical stops on jet sweep motion plays, a sack and a pass defended to close out the game – overall, he’d lead the team in tackles with 14 and he already this season has the second-most sacks of his career.
Sometimes, it’s difficult to quantify how much Kuechly brings to this team and with the offense’s fourth quarter performance, some of his prowess has again been overshadowed, but we’re watching one of the bests to ever do it and Sunday was one of the best fourth quarters we’ve ever seen him play.
Mario Addison says it better.
“Luke, man,” said Addison after watching tape of the game in Philadelphia. “I expect that from him – it’s not a surprise for me; I’ve been playing with him since the end of 2012 so I know what Luke can do. Luke works his ass off – he studies all day. He’s the quarterback of the defense, so he knows where the play’s going to be, Luke does a good job of putting himself in the right position to make plays and put other around him too, because he’s got to call the play, line everybody up at the same time [and] that’s a lot of pressure on him, you know what I’m saying?”
“For him to do all that and still be the playmaker that he is, that shows his character and shows how hard he really works. I’m not surprised – that guy, he’s a freak.”
