On the Herd, Greg Cosell said..." Last year the Eagles lead the league in sacks.  This year they have the worst 3rd down pass rush in the league with the fewest

3rd down sacks in the league and the worst 3rd down defense overall in the league, with other teams converting 50% of the time."

With multiple pro bowlers on the D line and at CB how is it possible we could slip in 1 year to last place, 32 out of 32 teams in 3rd down D?

Our players have overcome their coaches so far with a 10-2 record, despite not playing 4 good quarters in any game this season. 

But they are getting worn down.  We have real problems with our schemes on offense and defense.

 

 

We have no real depth at edge.  Sweat and Reddick are on the field too much.  Our entire team is built around our defensive line but I think we are leaning too much on those two players and it wears them down.

17 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

We have no real depth at edge.  Sweat and Reddick are on the field too much.  Our entire team is built around our defensive line but I think we are leaning too much on those two players and it wears them down.

Yes they are playing too many snaps.  Why can't Nolan Smith do anything?

4 minutes ago, weko said:

Yes they are playing too many snaps.  Why can't Nolan Smith do anything?

This is a cause for concern. The speed is there with him, but he has yet to craft any worthy moves to combine that speed with. And consistently gets pushed away when trying to pressure. Not panicking yet but disappointed with his progress.

3 hours ago, Iggles25 said:

This is a cause for concern. The speed is there with him, but he has yet to craft any worthy moves to combine that speed with. And consistently gets pushed away when trying to pressure. Not panicking yet but disappointed with his progress.

Players don't typically craft new techniques in the middle of a season, that kind of stuff is worked on in the off season and during camp. Also when he was drafted they knew he was gonna be raw and need work. 

7 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

Players don't typically craft new techniques in the middle of a season, that kind of stuff is worked on in the off season and during camp. Also when he was drafted they knew he was gonna be raw and need work. 

Agree with you. He's has a lot of upside. Saw him dominate at Georgia. Hopefully the light goes on Year 2. 

On D they play even more Cold Drop Zone than even last year. There is very little deviation in what they do on Defense and it is very easy for DC's to draw up a game plan. The communication is horrible and there are open pockets all over the field. Tackling had been horrible with LB's and DB's. Our Front 4 can only do so much when our Back 7 is a disaster, and the DC rarely ever changes up the game-plan. And as bad as the numbers are ... it could be a lot worse; we've been helped by a bunch of big drops (usually of the wide-open variety) by opposing Offenses at crucial times. 

Guessing other teams are exploiting the middle of the defense and just getting rid of the ball too quickly not allowing our pass rushers to get home.  Doesn't help that our starting outside CB tandem is playing average at best but I wonder if that has to do with the revolving door at S ... no continuity back there and communication issues.  

I really wanted to get behind the new DC- Sean Desai, but it's really hard to do so right now. I'm not even going to talk about the OC today. Also, as we all know, this team has never put forth a 4 quarters of football effort in ANY game. They think they can just show up and win. Problem is- they were able to do just that for a while. Hopefully, the 49ers game woke them up. Time to ball out, Eagles- the playoffs are right around the corner.

I think a lot of this has to do with our coverage in the secondary.  You make that QB take an extra second or two to have to go through their progressions and we're on him.  Giving up third and longs as been our achilles heel all season. 

12 hours ago, weko said:

With multiple pro bowlers on the D line and at CB how is it possible we could slip in 1 year to last place, 32 out of 32 teams in 3rd down D?

Teams are mitigating the pass rush by getting the ball out fast. And our secondary has been so bad they can’t cover.

1 hour ago, Talonblood said:

I really wanted to get behind the new DC- Sean Desai, but it's really hard to do so right now. I'm not even going to talk about the OC today. Also, as we all know, this team has never put forth a 4 quarters of football effort in ANY game. They think they can just show up and win. Problem is- they were able to do just that for a while. Hopefully, the 49ers game woke them up. Time to ball out, Eagles- the playoffs are right around the corner.

Not sure I agree with this.  This defense has significant holes from a talent perspective but has preformed well for the most part.  I realize that statistically we are in the basement, but many of those games earlier in the year were won by (or because of) the defense.  For a first year coordinator, I think Desai has done a pretty good job given his tools. Clearly he got outcoached on Sunday, but that was to be expected. 

I'm interested to see how this defense plays this week.  Either our shortcomings are too significant and we get abused...or...we come back with a vengeance and remind the league why we are 10-2.  I wouldn't be surprised with either scenario.  

One thing is for sure, if we keep getting gashed in the run game like we have been the last 3 games, things will just continue to as they are (not sure how much worse they can get at this point, really).

Hopefully Desai implements some scheme changes.  What they've been doing isn't working, obviously.  At some point you have to just say "F it" and just start being overly aggressive in getting after the QB.  If that means playing more man coverage, single high safety, etc.  Start forcing the issue, maybe they'll make a play.  If they get burned, oh well.  Pick your poison...burned on a big play due to being aggressive, or death by a thousand cuts and just watch teams methodically drive the ball down the field, eating up the clock and scoring TDs.

That said, NFL coaches would rather die by a thousand cuts because getting torched by a big play "looks worse".

We lost both of our starting Safeties from last year.  The were good.  Blankenship is ok, but still a downgrade.  And the rest are absolute scrubs.  We lost our best LBs too.  And the guys we have playing now are also scrubs.  Then we lost our one decent Nickel, 'cause while he's decent, he's also fragile.  And turns out that none of our "depth" at CB is worth anything.

Yes, the DL rotation needs to be better.  Bu the bigger issue is personal on the back end.  It's because we've devoted so little attention to those positions early in the draft in recent years. Aging band-aids can't solve every problem.

I mentioned this in the other thread but

Last year we were blowing out teams in the 2nd quarter. By the second half the other team has no choice but to keep passing to catch up. Thats where the sacks came from. 

This year its different. We rarely have big leads and often are playing from behind. As a result other teams are just running the ball at us.

Teams are getting the ball out quicker against them this year along with the other reasons above 

9 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Teams are mitigating the pass rush by getting the ball out fast. And our secondary has been so bad they can’t cover.

We have a somewhat healthy defense going into this game. Problem has been communication. If it doesn't improve with continuity the coaching staff is truly Fn up. As much as I'd like to blame the coordinators something is up with the overall planning on both sides of the ball. Using to much analytics... Siri influencing too much... something is off. There's enough talent on this team to perform better than what they've been doing lately.

9 hours ago, judunno said:

We have a somewhat healthy defense going into this game. Problem has been communication. If it doesn't improve with continuity the coaching staff is truly Fn up. As much as I'd like to blame the coordinators something is up with the overall planning on both sides of the ball. Using to much analytics... Siri influencing too much... something is off. There's enough talent on this team to perform better than what they've been doing lately.

I don’t think the health is the real issue here. I just don’t think the defense is that good. There’s talent on the DL but outside of that there’s a lot of average to poor play and players.

They suck, plain and simple. Last year they were bailed out by the sacks. If it wasn’t for that we’d likely be looking at the same d two years in a row.

10 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I don’t think the health is the real issue here. I just don’t think the defense is that good. There’s talent on the DL but outside of that there’s a lot of average to poor play and players.

Health has certainly been an issue with musical chairs in the back end and at LB. Especially when we had Eliss out there and Ricks has been getting significant snaps in the slot. That's not desirable by any means. We've had a hole at slot CB since Roby was out. No coincidence that the slot and LBs are what's being picked on. Safety position was a liability once Evans went down as well.

On 12/8/2023 at 8:16 AM, time2rock said:

Guessing other teams are exploiting the middle of the defense and just getting rid of the ball too quickly not allowing our pass rushers to get home.  Doesn't help that our starting outside CB tandem is playing average at best but I wonder if that has to do with the revolving door at S ... no continuity back there and communication issues.  

I've watch the pass rush when they don't throw it quick. It still doesn't get home. and when they do touch the QB they bounce off or flop on the ground like a fish, then QB completes a pass down field.

On 12/7/2023 at 9:37 PM, weko said:

Yes they are playing too many snaps.  Why can't Nolan Smith do anything?

I've been saying this for a while, but Nolan is not a natural edge rusher. He relies mostly on speed because he doesn't have many pass rush moves. They're wasting his talent there. Hopefully they move him to off the ball LB next season. Draft a couple true edge rushers in the draft and develop them.

2 hours ago, PhillyPhreak24 said:

I've been saying this for a while, but Nolan is not a natural edge rusher. He relies on mostly on speed because doesn't really have many pass rush moves. They're wasting his talent there. Hopefully they move him to off the ball LB next season. Draft a couple true edge rushers in the draft and develop them.

Nolan Smith has been a good run defender on the edge and has the speed and athleticism to become a good edge rusher. He could be great on the edge if he gets some pass rush moves.

He’s not a great pass defender from the off ball linebacker spot… he can get by dropping into pass defense.

Either way, he’s got to improve one piece of his game. I’d rather they have him work on pass rush moves and develop into an edge where he could be real difference maker than move him off the line of scrimmage where he’ll just be a serviceable player in a scheme that doesn’t value linebackers.

14 hours ago, judunno said:

Health has certainly been an issue with musical chairs in the back end and at LB. Especially when we had Eliss out there and Ricks has been getting significant snaps in the slot. That's not desirable by any means. We've had a hole at slot CB since Roby was out. No coincidence that the slot and LBs are what's being picked on. Safety position was a liability once Evans went down as well.

Health has played a part Im not denying that at all. But I just don’t think this defense is that talented outside of the DL. And the DL is easy to negate with quick passes.

12 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Health has played a part Im not denying that at all. But I just don’t think this defense is that talented outside of the DL. And the DL is easy to negate with quick passes.

True. The injuries didn't help at all. Interested to see what they do today with just about everyone back and the secondary having a few weeks together.