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How Can Pats Stop Eagles’ Run-Pass Option?

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By now you’ve probably seen some mention of the Eagles and their vaunted Run-Pass Option, also known as a packaged play. It’s one of the latest trends in football and Philly has used it to excellent effect this season, starting with Carson Wentz and continuing with backup Nick Foles.

Here’s a quick look at what they look like:

As you can see it’s tough to defend for a similar reason to why the Patriots offense is tough to defend in general — both adjust post-snap to what the defense does and exploits where they’re weakest.

Here’s the Patriots getting burned by the Jags and their own RPO.

#Jags vs. #Patriots. RPO. 7-Man box. Throw the bubble.

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And here are the Pats getting burned by the run version of it.

#Jags vs. #Patriots. RPO. 6-Man box. Hand-off on the Zone run.

A post shared by Matt Bowen (@mattbowen41) on

Of course now we’re all wondering, how do the Patriots stop the RPO? Can the Eagles ride the RPO to a Lombardi Trophy? Could a legendary coach like Bill Belichick really lose a Super Bowl because of the latest offensive trend? We saw his defense get lit up by the fad Wildcat in 2008, but that was a surprise that was sprung on them. Everyone knows the Eagles and the RPO is coming.

So I went digging and here’s what I found on stopping the RPO…

  1. Defensive Stunts to Change the QB Read:An RPO team relies on precise reads by the QB. When an RPO team plays up-tempo, a defense is forced to line up and simplify things. As stated earlier, simple can mean predictability, and in football, predictability gets you beat.Using gap-exchange, post-snap, can cause hesitation in the QB. Hesitation in football means mistakes. Look at any top team in the country and they probably have a plus turnover-margin. Mistakes by an offense lead to turnovers.Creating doubt in a QB’s mind can derail any explosive offense. Whether you implement simple line movements, or exotic stunts, it doesn’t matter. As long as a defense can simply change the read, and the gaps post-snap, an RPO offense will struggle.
  2. Play Man to Man Defense – This takes the guesswork out of it for most of the defense. Especially when playing press at the line of scrimmage, it doesn’t allow the receiver who is the pass option a clean release off the line. That helps muddy the quarterback’s read as well as disrupt the timing.
  3. PreSnap Disguise – Patrick Chung could be a very effective player because he’s so versatile and spends so much time in the box. Expect him to be on high alert for plays like the one above that are targeting Alshon Jeffrey. Simply put by USA Football: Rotate a safety in the box to free up the weakside linebacker with only one responsibility.

Based on everything I was able to read about defending the RPO, the Patriots should be in better shape than most teams because their defense is so used to being fluid from week to week. Their front can and does morph into different gap assignments and responsibilities and that’s a good advantage because the key to the RPO is to cause hesitation and confusion for the quarterback. You want to muddy his reads and force the play into the strength of the defense, which in the Patriots’ case is up the gut.

The Patriots are also able to play man defense which is a big help to slowing down the receiver portion of the packaged play.


Yes, the Jags might’ve gotten the Pats on the above RPO, but this wasn’t a major part of the gameplan for the Patriots. This week it certainly will be.

I do wish the Pats had Dont’a Hightower or another athletic outside linebacker, because it is often the weakside linebacker who is targeted in the RPO. But that means it will be Kyle Van Noy who has had an outstanding season. He’ll be a key player in this Super Bowl, but expect the Pats to help him out by shifting their front around and trying to confuse Foles as to who’s coming and who’s dropping.

Really, that’s historically what the Patriots have done best, disguise their coverage and cause quarterbacks to make mistakes. Foles has been very good so this will be an excellent challenge and one where Belichick doesn’t have the overwhelming front seven pieces to play with.

This will be one of the most fascinating games within the Super Bowl. The Eagles will certainly hit a couple of them and it will be up to the Pats to adjust. The Jags hit three of them for big yards in the first half of the AFCCG but (thankfully) never went back to them. There’s no question they target the Pats’ biggest weaknesses and can be especially effective against a bend-don’t-break style of defense.

Add it all up and all signs seem to point to this being where the Super Bowl is won or lost.

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