Bleeding Green Nation
Analyzing Philadelphia’s defensive performance from their Week 9 win over the Jaguars.
The Philadelphia Eagles’ offense was great to watch this week, but Vic Fangio’s defense against the Jacksonville Jaguars may have been even better. If Zack Baun’s agent is reading this one, please feel free to send this to Howie Roseman. It’s time to pay that man.
I don’t want to exaggerate, but I don’t think I’ve seen a better play from an Eagles linebacker in coverage for a long time. This is absurd. The Jaguars play call is perfect for this Eagles coverage, and there’s a big game for the corner route due to the vertical route taking away two deep Eagles defenders. This should be a completion, and it’s a well-thrown ball. Zack Baun reads Trevor Lawrence's eyes whilst black pedaling and then makes a fantastic play on the ball. This would be a great play by a cornerback. This is a linebacker. I’ve said this since the start of the season: the Eagles need to pay Zack Baun. They can’t let this guy out of the building. He’s not just playing well. He’s playing like a superstar. He was fantastic in this game.
The Eagles’ defense was outstanding in the first half. They stopped the run on early downs and then played tight coverage on 3rd down. This is an excellent play by the young Eagles’ defensive backs. Quinyon Mitchell locks down the outside receiver, and Cooper DeJean does a good job of being physical at the line of scrimmage to disrupt the timing of the route. The Eagles’ coverage has been so much better over the past month. However, having 7 men in coverage means you need your 4 pass rushers to win. They did here! Josh Sweat makes another big play (I think it’s time to accept that he’s been excellent for the past month), and Milton Williams also has a great pass rush. This is good defense all around.
Here’s another Zack Baun play. It won’t be the last! The Jaguars use a receiver on jet motion to try and distract the linebackers and Baun takes one false step before reading this one perfectly. He avoids the guard and makes a great tackle at the line of scrimmage. I can’t quite believe how much better the Eagles’ run defense has been the past few weeks since the Eagles’ bye week. I expected the Eagles to use more 5-man fronts in order to stop the run, but they haven’t needed to. They have been able to do it with 4-man fronts because the spacing is much better, and they have stopped slanting their defensive lineman. Other Eagles’ defensive backs, such as Quinyon and Cooper DeJean, have also stepped up to help against the run. The Eagles’ run defense is outstanding currently.
Guess who? Zack Baun. There’s nothing special about this play, but I wanted to mention it anyway. Within one half of football, Baun has covered a receiver down the field, made...
