Miles Sanders: I believe you have to run the ball to have a successful offense

USA TODAY Sports

Eagles running back Miles Sanders didn’t get his first carry on Monday night until the second quarter, but it seemed like he’d be getting more work once he broke that run for a 24-yard gain.

Sanders would only carry the ball once more all night, however, and the Eagles only handed the ball off one other time during their 41-21 loss to the Cowboys. It was a curious approach to a game and not one that Sanders would be jumping to employ in the future.

Sanders, who also caught three passes, said Wednesday that “I do believe to have a successful offense, you have to run the ball” while noting that he was a bigger part of the plan during the week and understood how the way things played out changed that plan.

“I didn’t dwell on it too much,” Sanders said, via Josh Tolentino of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “It is what it is. I can only control what I can control. The game was pretty much out of hand early. So I can see how the game plan didn’t go as planned. There was kind of a panic from the whole team based on how the game went.”

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said he was OK with the way things played out because many of the decisions not to hand the ball off were made off reads during plays, but added that “we’ve got to get our playmakers the ball” in reference to Sanders’ limited role in a lopsided loss. Sunday’s game against the Chiefs offers a chance to get Sanders more involved in the action.

6 responses to “Miles Sanders: I believe you have to run the ball to have a successful offense

  1. I kind of get what Sirianni was trying to do and if the Eagles had run more than 9 plays in the 1st couple of drives that they would’ve went deeper into the playbook and hopefully some runs but you have to be a special kind of stupid to see that something isn’t working and adjust.

    Kind of like Gannon letting the Cowboys running 10 of 12 plays up the gut and 2 TDs before thinking to himself that maybe we should try to adjust our scheme to block that play.

    The game was a total fail by the coaching staff. Even Matt Nagy was thinking that was bad playcalling. No presnap motion to help the young QB, no running game, all plays designed to be thrown to tight windows on the outside. The coach wanted his QB to fail. It’s like he’s trying to setup a narrative to switch to Flacco.

    The few plays that went over the middle went for big gains.

  2. He’s right. Especially when you have a good running game, to give up on the run because you’re down a couple scores in the first half, is the sort of mistake that too many coaches make.

  3. That’s the difference between a competent head coach and an incompetent one. A competent head coach is a great teacher and a sound strategist. If you’re only a great teacher, or only a good strategist, then you’re a coordinator.

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