The mismatch between the Eagles defensive game plan and the Broncos offensive game plan was seen very blatantly on Denver’s first offensive play of the game. It was a case of the Broncos starting out the game with a slow-developing pass play that would be great against a zone or man-to-man as long as Peyton Manning had time to let it develop.
They had Wes Welker lined off the line of scrimmage outside the numbers on the left side of the formation. Inside of him was Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker, who was also off the line of scrimmage. Inside on the left side of the formation was tight end Julius Thomas aligned next to the Broncos left tackle. Denver other wide receiver Demaryius Thomas was lined up on the right side of the formation.
Manning gave him the signal with his foot and had him go in short motion.
Welker continues in motion to the inside until he gets into position where he’s stacked behind Decker. If it was a man-to-man coverage, which it wasn’t, Welker would have set his guy up and used Decker as a pick to free up from him.
While on the run, Welker and Manning read the coverage. If it had been a man-to-man coverage Welker would have flattened out his route at about five or ten yards and ran as fast he could straight across the field to get free from the guy who was covering him. But it wasn’t man-to-man coverage, it was a zone and the key to Welker’s route was to get in behind the linebackers, so that they couldn’t see him crossing behind them. Andy Reid used to have DeSean Jackson run this same route, but it would be deeper, yet it was just as effective as long as the offensive line did a good job blocking the pass rush. It takes a long time to develop.
The other key to the route was the pass blocking of the Broncos offensive line. They needed to be able to give Manning plenty of time on the route because it was slow developing play with Welker coming all the way across the formation from the left side outside the numbers, to outside the numbers on the other side. The Broncos kept tight end Julius Thomas in to pass block and running back Knowshon Moreno was there to pick up a blitzed, but he didn’t have to pick up blitzing middle linebacker DeMeco Ryans because the offensive line took care of that. It was a three-man route with seven blockers protecting Manning. The veteran quarterback had two or three days to decipher what he wanted to do in the formation because of the outstanding blocking job.
While the Broncos offensive line was doing a great job of blocking the Eagles pass rush, Welker had gotten his depth so he was behind the linebackers and was now crossing out of their sight.
While he was making his way across the field. Demaryius Thomas was running off cornerback Bradley Fletcher, so that Welker wouldn’t have anybody in that area when he arrived there.
With Bradley Fletcher run off, Welker came out of the backside and Manning the let the ball go just as he was coming out of the backside. It was a great play design and great execution.
