Turns Out The Eagles Defense Knew Exactly What The Packers Crucial 4th Down Run Play Was Before The Ball Was Snapped And It's The Perfect Microcosm Of What This Stale, Predictable Offense Has Turned Into Under Matt LaFleur

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It's the day after the Packers MNF loss to the Eagles and things are somehow even uglier than the immediate aftermath. The biggest eye sore? That came on a 4th and 1 nearing mid-field with under 2 minutes to go. Love rushed the team to the line of scrimmage in hurry up after a 9 yard completion to Luke Musgrave. Thinking they caught Philly in a compromised situation, LaFleur dialed up an inside zone run out of SHOTGUN. The Eagles sniffed it out immediately, so much to the point that Eagles DT Moro Ojomo yelled the play out loud before the ball was snapped. The result? Josh Jacobs having zero chance. 

There's so much wrong here. 

For starters, Jordan Love has to recognize what's going on with Philly clearly aware of what's about to happen. Either audible of out this or call a timeout. He had Wicks with plenty of separation at the bottom of the screen. Throw a quick out there and convert the first. It wasn't like there was 1 second left on the play clock. Love snaps the ball with 27 seconds to spare. Change the play and adjust or just call a fucking timeout and gather yourself. Anything but run the play that the defense absolutely knows is coming. 

While Love is at fault here, Matt LaFleur shoulders most of the blame. Why? Because this is what his offense has turned into. Josh Jacobs said that they had called that exact play four times in the game earlier. He knew this was dead from the jump. 

Ben Solak went back and found multiple instances of LaFleur turning to these shotgun, inside zone runs for short yardage out of no huddle.

It's so fucking easy to tell what they're doing. Keep in mind, this offensive line does not run block well at all! How is this your go-to play? This has become a predictable, stale offense that has nothing special to it.   

That 4th down play call was a microcosm of what has happened to this team —the offense is broken. LaFleur doesn't trust Love, even though it's obvious the offense is at its best when he has the ball in his hands. 

And again, Love was not good last night. He was late on his reads, multiple times chose the wrong WR, and had a costly fumble late in the first half that took points off the board for the Packers. He hasn't been good over these last two games. They also has a multitude of injuries to their WR core that includes Tucker Kraft, Matthew Golden, and Jayden Reed. You have an o-line that has failed you as well. The Aaron Banks signing has been a disaster. Jordan Morgan is terrible. They've got big issues when it comes to protection, don't get me wrong. But LaFleur is the team's biggest issue by far. He wants to coach an offense that he doesn't have, and until he realizes that they are going nowhere but down. 

The result of all this is wasting away a Super Bowl caliber defense. They were great last night stopping Philly and it was all for nothing. 

I honestly don't know if this team is capable of returning to a threat in the NFC this year without someone like Tucker Kraft or even Elgton Jenkins, who fractured his ankle last night. But they won't even make the playoffs if the play-calling continues the way it's been. Put the ball in Jordan Love's hands and let your handsomely paid QB decide where this team goes. It's almost too obvious to see what's wrong, yet LaFleur insists on trying to establish the run with a team that isn't built for that. As I said last night, if this continues and they miss the playoffs MLF will be gone.