In the Philadelphia Eagles' win over the New York Giants on Sunday, backup interior offensive lineman Brett Toth started at center, and he had a surprising standout performance. Let's take a look at his game. Clips in chronological order:
• The second play of the game was Saquon Barkley's 65-yard TD run. There were a bunch of great blocks on this play, by Toth, Landon Dickerson, Jordan Mailata, and DeVonta Smith.
- Toth and Dickerson doubled Rakeem Nunez-Roches (93) initially, before Dickerson got to the next level and pinned Darius Muasau (53) inside, while also getting a piece of Dane Belton (24) for good measure.
- Toth locked down Nunez-Roches after Dickerson moved to the second level
- Mailata turned Kayvon Thibodeaux outside so well that all Thibodeaux could do was futilely beg for a holding call.
- There isn't a great view of Smith's block, but he squared up Cor'Dale Flott (28) and took him out of the play.
All Barkley had to do was beat S Tyler Nubin (27), and he blew right by him.
"I think what you saw there was everybody executing their job at a high level, and good things happen," Dickerson said.
• Toth pulls to his left, finds Muasau, and pins him inside. Well done!
• Toth pulls to his left again, finds Bobby Okereke and drives him back before Barkley falls onto the back of his legs:
Toth had a bunch of pull blocks in this game, as shown above, and with more to come below.
"Run as fast as you can," Toth said of those plays. "Understand the relationship between you and the back… Had a couple good ones, had a couple that need to do better on and maintain the block afterwards."
• The Eagles are running a rare running back screen here, and Toth buries slot corner Dru Phillips (22).
Tyler Steen had a pancake on that play as well, on Okereke.
"They gave us [a five down lineman look], so you got to speed it up a little bit," Toth said of the screen. "Understand when the back's getting [the pass] did help because I was able to see — I can't remember if I saw it on the Jumbotron or if I was looking in the backfield — I saw Jalen get the ball out. So at least at that point, you gotta understand the timing… You have to break down in that situation with them on a five man front. You just gotta shoot your shot and it worked."
• Toth is on the move again, this time to the right. He finds Muasau again, and pins him inside. This is a great block that springs Barkley for a nice gain.
• Toth is pulling to his right again, and he blocks Okereke, who is coming hard downhill. I think Toth kinda lost a sense of where he was, after pinning Okereke inside, because he then threw Okereke at Barkley, lol. Still, another good block.
• Toth wasn't perfect in pass pro, but he didn't give up any sacks, and he even had his share of one-on-ones against the best NT in the NFL in Dexter Lawrence. Nice anchor here:
"They're an unbelievable group," Toth said of the Giants' defensive line. "And they did dominate us at their place [Week 6]. I was at left guard for that, and I felt that I didn't do my job well enough. I can't speak for the group as a whole, some people will think revenge games get emotional with it. I'm not really an emotional person when it comes to the sport. But for me, it was seeing my performance. That pissed me off more so than them doing their jobs."
• And finally, one last pull to the right on Barkley's last run of the day. Toth takes out Korie Black (38).
• One other thing to note is Toth's shotgun snaps, which he consistently struggles with every year in training camp, to the point where he has had to be replaced at center just so that he wasn't ruining offensive and defensive practice reps.
He has played 90 snaps at center so far this season, and hasn't had any egregiously bad snaps, at least that I can recall.
"Getting out of my own head," Toth said his snapping issues in practice not carrying over into games. "Something as small as shooting a free throw or a wide receiver catching a ball and trying to turn too soon. And for me, it's the same stuff. Don't think about it. Just do it. Do it and execute your job."
So what now?
The Eagles have gotten standout performances from two different backup offensive linemen this season. Fred Johnson helped stabilize the line when he filled in for an ineffective Matt Pryor against the Rams Week 3, and Toth had a great game against a daunting Giants front Week 8.
Cam Jurgens will return to his starting spot at center soon, and Toth will go back to the bench. But what Toth's and Johnson's performances have perhaps done is give the Eagles' coaching staff and the players on the field confidence that they have backups on the interior and on the edge who can get the job done, if need be.
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