December 19, 2017
In Philadelphia's win over the New York Giants on Sunday, the Eagles allowed 434 passing yards to Eli Manning, despite the Giants missing Odell Beckham and Brandon Marshall.
One of the oft-targeted Eagles defenders was Ronald Darby, who was able to pick off a pass, but had a rough day overall. Let's take a look back at his afternoon in chronological order, with gifs and stuff.
On a third and short, Darby has pretty good coverage here, but this is a tough matchup as Evan Engram has four inches and 50 pounds on him.
On the very next play, Eli Manning pump faked on a quick slant, Darby bit, and the Giants had a wide open play down the field.
This isn't much of a route here by Roger Lewis, but it looks easy against Darby's coverage.
Facing a 13-point deficit, Darby made a huge play on third down, picking off Eli Manning, and then capping off his pick with a great return.
Darby has decent coverage on a slant here.
I'm not exactly sure what Darby was thinking here, but it appears that he was expecting an out route, because he jumps outside, leaving green pastures on a slant route. Manning hits Tavarres King on the slant, and King leaves Darby in the dust on his way to a 57-yard touchdown. This is really bad.
On 3rd and 17 from the Eagles' 40, Darby is playing way off of the receiver, and gives up an extremely easy 11 yard reception, putting the Giants in field goal range with a chance to go ahead in the fourth quarter. Of course, this was likely the play call by Jim Schwartz, so I'm not sure that Darby is to blame here. Luckily for the Eagles, they were able to block the ensuing field goal attempt and retain the lead.
With Darby guessing routes, the Giants smartly go back to the double move. Here Darby is forced to commit an illegal contact penalty against Sterling Shepard, who should have made a catch down the field anyway.
Darby defends the initial slant route well, but gets his feet tangled with Corey Graham and is unable to stick with Lewis when the Eagles' pass rush fails to close in on Eli Manning. This goes for 25 yards, and Darby was also called for holding.
(On a side note, how did nobody see the RT false start here?)
This should have been offensive pass interference, as Darby has good position, and the receiver pushes him in the lower back to gain separation.
Fool me eight times, shame on me. Darby finally plays a double move well (really well, actually), and nearly comes away with a monster play.
On the day, Darby gave up, by my count, 139 receiving yards. He did finish strong, and he made a big play on his interception that led to an Eagles touchdown. Still, he needs to perform better in the playoffs if the Eagles expect to have any chance of advancing.
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