More Like It

Posted: September 23rd, 2024 | Author: Tommy Lawlor

Vic Fangio was brought to Philly to fix the Eagles defense. He wasn’t expected to be a miracle worker. The defense needed to go from bad to at least solid. After the first two games, the defense looked just as troubled as last year. That changed on Sunday.

So what happened?

Fangio made some schematic adjustments that worked well. The players were more physical and more aggressive. They played at a higher level than the previous two weeks.

And Jalen Carter.

All I had to do was say his name. If you watched the game on Sunday, you saw Carter dominate. He destroyed the Saints OL and lived in the backfield. I’m sure Alvin Kamara got sick of seeing him play after play. Derek Carr was only sacked once in the game, but he got hit and hurried on a regular basis. Carr finished 14 for 25 passing. He just didn’t have the time to sit in the pocket and run the offense.

Carter had flashed in the first two games, but this was him taking a game over. He was the best player on the field in New Orleans. This wasn’t a one-man show. Carter was the star, but the whole defense played well.

Zack Baun was a key player.

He led the team with 13 tackles, but also allowed them to be creative at the LOS.

 

 

The Saints used personnel packages that matched up well with the Eagles. Fangio was able to run more 5-2 and 6-1 fronts. When the Saints spread things out, Fangio would sometimes use 3 DTs in a 4-2-5 look. That made it harder for the Saints to run the ball.

The DL won a lot of battles and that kept the LBs clean more than last week. Baun had a monster game, but Nakobe Dean also came up big. He had 8 tackles and a TFL.

Brandon Graham and Josh Sweat were disruptive. Jordan Davis had a sack and a TFL. Milton Williams had a pair of TFLs. Darius Slay had tight coverage on a throw into the end zone and broke up the pass. Reed Blankenship came up with the pick to seal the game.

This didn’t feel like a fluke. No player did anything that can’t be repeated. At the same time, other teams will study this tape and try to find ways to spread the Eagles out and attack them. Fangio will need to have a counter to that.

Fangio is learning what his players can do. They are learning how to thrive in the new scheme. There will be ups and downs, but the defense can still get better. Sunday was a sign of how good the unit can be.

*****

No official word on the injured players. Let’s hope some of these guys are able to go on Sunday. It sounds like Britain Covey could be out for about six weeks. We’ll see if Cooper DeJean can be a good punt returner. He had one return for 6 yards on Sunday.

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On 9/25/2024 at 1:14 PM, time2rock said:

After the first two games, the defense looked just as troubled as last year. That changed on Sunday.

I think that’s a slight exaggeration by Tommy there. I don’t think the defense looked as troubled. I think the DL has been overall worse (we expected that) but the secondary has been better. Overall they have been up and down and they’ve given up yards but in the red zone so far they’ve been pretty good.

The big difference I thought was the run game. We were able to stuff the run and that changes everything. But we did that in base with 5 D-Lineman on a lot of plays.