For Shane Steichen, There Are ‘Endless’ Ways To Dress Up Plays – Including Jalen Hurts’ Game-Winning Touchdown vs. Colts In 2022

The Philadelphia Eagles trailed the Colts by six points with just under 90 seconds left in their Week 11 meeting at Lucas Oil Stadium. Facing third-and-goal on the seven-yard line, then-Eagles offensive coordinator Shane Steichen called for quarterback Jalen Hurts to take a designed carry up the middle.

You probably remember the result of the play. Hurts darted, untouched, seven yards for a go-ahead touchdown that ultimately netted the Eagles a 17-16 win over the Colts.

But the backstory of how Hurts sauntered into the end zone is a showcase of Steichen’s creativity and flexibility when it comes to scheming, designing and calling plays. Last season, Steichen said there are “endless” ways to scheme up run/pass concepts.

“You can do so many different things with a play to dress it up,” Steichen said.

Heading into Week 11, the Colts’ defense had alerts in place for designed Hurts runs – but those were based, primarily, on the Eagles being in empty (no running backs in the backfield). Hurts did have some rushing attempts out of shotgun with a running back lined up in the backfield, but those were on read options or other concepts where Hurts could pull and run or hand off to a running back.

From Weeks 1-10, Hurts carried 11 times for 77 yards on designed quarterback runs (as in: not read option plays, scrambles or sneaks), per Pro Football Focus. Of those runs, 10 came in empty formations; the other was with a back in the backfield, but with a 2×2 set (two receivers/tight ends to each side of the formation).

So when the Eagles lined up on third and seven play in a 3×1 formation (one receiver to the right, three receivers/tight ends to the left) with a back lined up to Hurts’ right, the Colts did not alert for a designed quarterback run. The Eagles hadn’t put a quarterback run in from that formation on film in 2022.

“Alerting for the quarterback draw was really an empty (thing),” defensive end Yannick Ngakoue said after the game. “And then they had a running back right…