PHILADELPHIA - Admittedly it was hard to decipher what rookie head coach Kevin OConnell and his veteran defensive coordinator Ed Donatell were trying to accomplish on Monday night in Philadelphia.The obvious part is that the Minnesota game plan didnt work under the weight of Jalen Hurts dual-threat abilities as the Eagles dominated the Vikings from start to finish in a 24-7 victory that lifted Philadelphia to 2-0 for the first time since 2016.OConnell, the former offensive coordinator of the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, seemed about as non-plu sed as his team after the Brandon Kintzler Jersey setback, although the coach did explain the template of his first poor game plan as an NFL head coach.The plan was to try to account obviously for Jalen in the run game and they put a lot of pre sure on you with those RPOs and different variations, the Vikings coach said. Sometimes theyre reading the throw sometimes theyre reading the pull and run, and then theyve got layers to what they do on those early downs.Hurts sliced and diced through the softest zone coverage imaginable while throwing the football and still was about to use his legs as well, scoring two touchdowns on the ground.When it was all said and done, the Eagles QB had thrown for 333 yards on 26-of-31 pa sing while also carrying for 57 more yards, 390 yards of total offense.OConnell blamed the i Duane Underwood Jr. Jersey sues on losing on first down which made third downs more manageable.So those kind of four or five-yard hits kind of put them in manageable third downs and they were able to convert here and there, he said. I think they were over 50% (actually 53.8%) for the night.The i sue with that besides no self-awarene s or sense of urgency is that when Minnesota's defense did generate second- or third-and-long situations, it was usually due to the Eagles shooting themselves in the foot with an offensive line penalty, Hurts simply converted.Ultimately when I look back Javier Baez Jersey on it there was some opportunities for us on second and long and third and long where he puts a lot of pre sure on the defense with how he can break contain and make some off-schedule plays, OConnell said. Scroll to ContinueThe seventh offensive play foreshadowed the long night ahead for the Vikings' defense.Facing a 3rd-and-13 after an illegal man downfield penalty on Landon Dickerson, Hurts calmly located A.J. Brown for a 19-yard gain in Donatells unique social-distance coverage philosophies.Five plays after that, Hurts ran it in from 3-yards out.I thought especially early on in the game we were right there, OConnell quizzingly said. A couple plays I can remember where we were right there and they just made the play and thats where I think you got to give them credit.The rookie coach was spot on ifthat meant defenders were five yards away from DeVonta Smith or 10 yards back of Quez Watkins in coverage.I think we made some adjustments, just not the proper ones that we felt we could put ourselves in better positions, veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson said. But those guys did a great job of attacking some of the weakne ses of our defense, especially that weakside defender.Peterson, a likely future Hall of Fame player Kris Bryant Jersey , seemed to have a better feel for what was going on than his coaching staff.The dre sing up of Minnesotas defensive i sues obscured the one-trick pony nature of the Vikings hope, that Hurts was incapable of throwing into the teeth of a zone consistently.For that to have happened, however, the heavy dose of matchup quarters coverage Donatell threw at Hurts would have had to have some teeth.Instead, the Eagles second-year starter completed his first Brandon Morrow Jersey 11 pa ses and finished with a career-high 83.9% completion percentage, the best number for the franchise since Nick Foles connected on 84.8% of his pa ses in a playoff-clinching win at Washington on Dec. 30, 2018, ironically one that knocked Minnesota out of the postseason.I think we just came out and played very efficient, said Hurts. ... To be able to come out here and perform at a high level as a team, thats big for us..
