Blogging The Boys
It’s Eagles Week, so that means a conversation with Bleeding Green Nation. We asked five questions about the upcoming game and got five answers from our friend Brandon Lee Gowton.
Blogging The Boys: How has the Philadelphia defense become so dominant recently? Who is responsible and are they doing anything different?
Bleeding Green Nation: Multiple reasons why.
* Vic Fangio is a great defensive coordinator. The Eagles’ defense is “physical, disciplined, and incredibly well-coached,” as BGN film guru Jonny Page recently put it.
* The Eagles’ pass rush is in a much better spot than it was entering the Week 9 bye. In Week 8, the Eagles had three active edge rushers against the Giants: Jalyx Hunt, Joshua Uche, and Patrick Johnson. Now Uche isn’t even playing defensive snaps and Johnson isn’t even on the roster (he’s on the practice squad). The Eagles’ edge rusher rotation now looks like this: Jaelan Phillips (acquired in trade), Jalyx Hunt, Nolan Smith (still on a pitch count but back from injured reserve), and Brandon Graham (unretired). It’s a much stronger group with Phillips providing a real boost to that unit.
* Jalen Carter looks more like himself. The bye week seemed to do him good. Carter was previously playing through injury and Fangio mentioned his conditioning wasn’t up to par early in the season. Carter now looks like he’s back to being a game-wrecker.
* Getting Nakobe Dean back has been big. Jihaad Campbell showed plenty of promise (see: the big pass breakup he had against the Cowboys in Week 1) earlier this season but Dean is just the superior player right now. He’s especially great firing downhill against the run or getting after the quarterback (two big sacks in the last two games combined). The Eagles arguably have the NFL’s best off-ball linebacker duo in Dean and Zack Baun.
* The Eagles’ secondary has been strong. Quinyon Mitchell is having an All-Pro caliber season; he’s allowed just a 41.9% completion percentage in coverage this year, the lowest by any player with 50+ targets in a season since 2018 (via NFL Pro). Cooper DeJean is excellent as well. Adoree’ Jackson is the weak point but he’s still only allowing an 89.8 passer rating when targeted, so, it could be a lot worse.
* Not in the Eagles’ control but it might’ve helped that the Eagles have played their last two games in less than perfect weather conditions. It was really cold against the Packers at Lambeau Field in Week 10 and then it was really windy against the Lions in Philly in Week 11. Whereas the offenses may have suffered from the bad weather, the defenses could’ve benefited.
BTB: For a winning team, there seems to be an undercurrent of discontent on offense. Do you think it’s mostly a Jalen Hurts problem, or is there more to it?
BGN: To say the least!
It’s not just one thing.
Hurts needs...
