Eagles had right call for failed third-and-goal RPO

Quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy describes what happened.

Officially, on the failed series of plays from the 1-yard line on Thursday night, the Green Bay Packers did not run the football.

The third-and-goal throwaway by quarterback Aaron Rodgers could have been a run. Instead, it was a failed run-pass option, with Rodgers electing not to hand the ball to Aaron Jones and instead having to throw the ball toward the seats to avoid a sack.

Former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz broke the play down on Twitter.

The @packers did attempt a run in their first failure inside the 5. It was a RPO, Rodgers predetermined the read, didn’t allow for the throwing window + the Eagles defense was ready. There’s so much happening in this one clip. As football nerdy as it gets. Enjoy. pic.twitter.com/XlD9jOOY78

— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) September 27, 2019

However, regardless of whether the analyst played in the NFL, is a self-proclaimed film expert or does independent grading for a site like Pro Football Focus, there’s some guesswork involved because he doesn’t know the assignment of every player on the field. In the opinion of coach Matt LaFleur and quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy, Rodgers’ ball handling had nothing to do with the result of the play. That’s because the Eagles’ No. 23, safety Rodney McLeod, had only one responsibility on the play.

“I think they just did a nice job,” Getsy said. “They had the free safety (McLeod) playing man on Aaron (Rodgers), so his decision was fine. If we would have handed it off, would we have scored? Maybe. The decision was fine but they did a nice job scheming it up and having the safety play Aaron man instead of him just being a roamer free safety taking away a slant.”

Had the play worked as intended, either Rodgers would have given the ball to Jones for the potential tying touchdown, or the fake to Jones would have sucked in the Eagles’ defenders – including McLeod – to open a window for Rodgers to fire a slant to Allen Lazard. Instead, by the estimation of Getsy and LaFleur, McLeod didn’t care about the fake to Jones and was free to attack Rodgers.

“The safety just has the quarterback,” Getsy said. “His run fit is the final ‘D’ gap and that’s it.”

The Packers failed to score on four plays from the 1, then turned over the ball on second-and-goal from the 3 on the next series to suffer a bitter 34-27 loss to Philadelphia.

In the video, LaFleur is asked about the play and RPOs in general.