After a lousy showing against the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football, the Philadelphia Eagles were heavily encouraged by many fans and analysts to throw out their screen plays to the rookie, Makai Lemon.
Week 3 wasn’t the first time the Eagles were under fire for the failed set of plays.
During games in Weeks 1 and 2, the Eagles struggled to find positive yards in the screen game. Heading into the action against the Bears, Eagles offensive coordinator Sean Mannion noted that the team was close to figuring it out.
So, the Eagles weren’t going to avoid running them. After another week of failures, where is the playcaller at now?
Eagles Will Continue Gambling With Frustrating Calls On Offense
“Ultimately, we’ve got to be better in the screen game. That starts with me. I think we look at all facets of our offense, and we want to make everything about it as good as it can possibly be. There’s things to clean up there,” Mannion told reporters, according to Zach Berman of The Athletic.
While deleting the play off the call sheet is what many are pounding the table for, the Eagles’ OC doesn’t seem close to caving to the pressure.
There is an obvious understanding that something needs to change, starting with the Week 4 game against the Los Angeles Rams, but moving away from the screens doesn’t seem to be in the cards right now.
“There’s things that we’re looking at that we can do different schematically to improve in that regard. Certainly, the screen game, we want to get more out of it,” Mannion added, per Berman.
“We’re working every day to get more out of it. Ultimately, it’s my responsibility to get that going in the right direction. We’re constantly looking at how we can make corrections and evolve and see how we can be the best team that we can be moving forward.”
The Eagles managed to get more out of Makai Lemon in Chicago on Monday night. They targeted the rookie four times. He caught three passes for 29 yards, with an average of 9.7 yards per catch. However, Lemon was only successful running routes–rather than getting a screen pass.
With DeVonta Smith likely out of the mix this week, the Eagles will have to lean more on Lemon and Dontayvion Wicks in the passing game. Running screens will continue to be a risk until Mannion’s system proves otherwise.