How Matt Patricia's play call went wrong for Eagles on Jaxon Smith-Njigba's game-winning Seahawks TD

Jacob Camenker

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How Matt Patricia's play call went wrong for Eagles on Jaxon Smith-Njigba's game-winning Seahawks TD image

The Eagles made a significant change on defense ahead of their "Monday Night Football" game against the Seahawks in Week 15. Defensive coordinator Sean Desai was stripped of his play-calling duties and they were handed over to senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said the decision to make the switch was his, and he explained it after the game.

"I did what I thought I needed to do in the best interest of the football team," Sirianni told reporters. "We made some adjustments there. Didn't feel like we were playing and coaching well enough on defense, so I made an adjustment."

Patricia's installation made Sirianni look good for most of the evening. It appeared to provide the Eagles with a needed spark on defense, and they held the Seahawks in check for the majority of the contest.

MORE: Breaking down the Eagles' playoff picture after loss to Seahawks

However, when it counted most, Philadelphia's stop unit came up short; and Patricia was at the center of a confounding play call that ultimately caused the Eagles to drop a third consecutive game.

How the Eagles lost to the Seahawks

The Eagles surrendered a 10-play, 92-yard touchdown drive to the Seahawks with under two minutes left in the game. Seattle managed to drive the ball downfield in just 1:24 despite sporting no timeouts and fielding an offense that was helmed by backup quarterback Drew Lock.

DK Metcalf starred throughout the drive, making a couple of excellent contested catches. The most important came on a third and 10 where he managed to get his hands on a pass between two Eagles defenders and safely corral it before being hit for a 34-yard gain.

Just a few plays later, the Seahawks faced another third and 10. Once again, Lock looked deep on the play. This time, he found rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba in single coverage downfield. He threw a dart into the end zone and the first-round pick was able to reel it in.

Below is a look at the Seahawks' entire 10-play drive:

The Seahawks' score came with 28 seconds left on the clock, so the Eagles had a chance for a rebuttal. However, Julian Love ended Philadelphia's chances of getting into field-goal range when he acrobatically intercepted Jalen Hurts for the second time in three drives to give the Seahawks the ball.

From there, the Seahawks took a knee to end the game, a 20-17 victory.

MORE: Where Eagles land in NFC East standings after loss to Seahawks

Matt Patricia's play call on Jaxon Smith-Njigba's TD

In truth, the Eagles' performance on the final drive wasn't terrible. They were positioned to make plays more often than not and forced the Seahawks into a couple of third-and-long opportunities.

On the first one, Lock simply made a perfect throw to Metcalf to split the Eagles' defensive coverage. The throw beat safety Sydney Brown there by just about a step.

But the second third-and-10 conversion, which resulted in Smith-Njigba's game-winning touchdown, featured arguably the biggest mistake of Philadelphia's evening. It was all about Patricia's defensive call.

Patricia opted to leave cornerback James Bradberry in one-on-one coverage on the final play of the drive. There was just one deep safety back, Reid Blankenship, who couldn't get over the top from his centerfield position to help once Smith-Njigba sped past Bradberry.

Making matters more confusing, the Eagles weren't blitzing on the play. They simply sent four pass rushers but appeared to have linebacker Nicholas Morrow help out underneath on Metcalf.

Metcalf was bracketed because of this, and that prevented him from catching the slant — which must have been Patricia's goal on the play. But the decision to use Morrow in this manner required Brown, who normally would have been the other deep safety, to come up and cover Zach Charbonnet out of the backfield.

That left Bradberry on an island, and he couldn't contain Smith-Njigba.

The play call was a confusing one that came with unnecessary risk. It likely would have been safer to play both safeties back and have Morrow cover Charbonnet out of the backfield rather than double Metcalf.

Instead, Patricia tried to change things up. That proved costly.

MORE: Why Matt Patricia replaced defensive coordinator Sean Desai as Eagles' play-caller

It was an especially unforgivable call considering that Bradberry is known for being a much better player in zone coverage than man coverage. 

Nonetheless, Bradberry took the high road after the game and criticized his play throughout what was a difficult contest for him.

Jacob Camenker

Jacob Camenker Photo

Jacob Camenker first joined The Sporting News as a fantasy football intern in 2018 after his graduation from UMass. He became a full-time employee with TSN in 2021 and now serves as a senior content producer with a particular focus on the NFL. Jacob worked at NBC Sports Boston as a content producer from 2019 to 2021. He is an avid fan of the NFL Draft and ranked 10th in FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Accuracy metric in both 2021 and 2022.