No matter how it’s said, Birds have to keep pounding ball
PHILADELPHIA » Doug Pederson brought his sense of humor to his day-after news conference Monday when asked for the Eagles’ offensive identity in their 3-1 start.
“Pound and ground,” Pederson said. “That’s what you want, right? That’s my answer.”
It’s ground and pound. Other than thinking Isaac Seumalo was the answer at guard, that’s the only major mistake you can hang on Pederson at the quartermark of the season.
It took two games and eight fairly gross sacks of franchise quarterback Carson Wentz for the coaching braintrust to get Seumalo out of the lineup and switch to veteran Stefen Wisniewski, whose skills complement those of Jason Peters and Jason Kelce, who play on either side. Wiz still is going to share time at left guard, however, because Chance Warmack is going to rotate in. Why? Offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland schooled Warmack at Alabama?
While Pederson tried to imply the ground and pound attack that produced 214 rushing yards and a 2624 road victory over the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday is a product of offensive linemen needing time to get on the same page, nothing could be further from the truth. Wisniewski didn’t play a first-team snap until the last two games. Seumalo began struggling getting the first team snaps in the preseason and carried it into the regular season.
The ground and pound debate aside, what Pederson has to fix is the Birds’ bend and break defense. And the boss man says that he talks to defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, but generally just tries to “kind of stay out of the way and let him run the show over there.”
Everyone knew Schwartz was counting on the pass rush to give his young cornerbacks a chance to cover this year. When it was clear that wasn’t working the Eagles traded for cornerback Ronald Darby. When he dislocated an ankle the Eagles were back to square one.
With All-Pro Fletcher Cox on ice nursing a calf injury the Eagles have totaled two sacks in two games.
Cornerback Jalen Mills has played well but lacks deep speed. Third-round draft pick Rasul Douglas has played aggressively — too much so. He also he lacks deep speed.
Chargers quaraterback Philip Rivers lit the Eagles up through the air much of Sunday. Rivers connected on a 75-yard scoring pass to Tyrell Williams. He found Keenan Allen for completions of 50, 49 and 21 yards, Travis Benjamin for a 19-yard hookup and Hunter Henry for a 12-yard TD in the back of the end zone.
The Chargers averaged 15.8 yards per catch.
The Eagles have surrendered 52 points in the fourth quarters of their last three games.
The injury losses of Darby and defensive backs Corey Graham and Jaylen Watkins haven’t helped.
“We’ve had our share of injury, particularly in the back end,” Pederson said. “And again, not to use that as an excuse but young players are playing and things are going to happen a little bit faster for them. It’s something we’ve just got to continue to evaluate. There always seems to be one or two big plays, chunk plays in the game that we have to try to eliminate, whether it be linebackers getting off blocks, to not have a long run or the secondary, eyes in the right spot, being in the right position, things of that nature. And those are all things that are fixable and correctable.
“I guess the flip side of that is offensively we’ve been able to score late in these games to keep leads and to finish the game that way.”
The good news is Cox might be able to practice this week, although Pederson seemed to be forcing the optimism button.
“He didn’t go to L.A.; he stayed back and got the treatment on it,” Pederson said. “He’s progressing, so I’m hoping that he practices Wednesday. But we’ll see where he’s at on that day.”
Pound and ground, ground and pound or whatever, the Eagles aren’t playing great pass defense.
And this would be a good week to bend but don’t break as they oppose Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald, elite play caller Bruce Arians and the Arizona Cardinals Sunday at the Linc.
*** Eagles veteran receiver Torrey Smith continues to be plagued by dropped passes.
Smith was targeted three times Sunday but caught just one, a nine-yard gain. He’s had at least one drop in every game.
“You just keep firing the ball at them, keep shooting,” Pederson said. “That’s something we’ll continue to do. We’ll keep him in the mix, keep him coming. And he’s a guy that works extremely hard during the week, and he’ll get that fixed.”
*** NOTES » Pederson estimated that up to 12 of the 74 Eagles offensive plays were RPO’s – run-pass options made by Wentz. While Pederson insisted the RPO’s are down from last year, a look at the number of running plays suggests just the opposite. Clearly, Wentz has gotten the Eagles into good situations. Pederson, in his parochial way, might be trying to hide what seems obvious to many observers. … By the way, Pederson punted on fourth-andone at his 49-yard line with 1:04 left in the first half, instead of going for it. Again, it was fourth-and-one, not fourth-and-eight, the situation in which he went for it a week ago. “A minute and four in the half, at the minus 49-yard line, and we were up nine (points). So it was a no-brainer — punt and flip the field,” Pederson said.