Secondary did its best in tough situation vs. Cardinals
The expectations are so incredibly low for the Eagles secondary that on a day in which the Arizona Cardinals produced 500-plus yards of offense, there were some positives to be gleaned from following Sunday’s 33-26 loss.
The starting secondary of Jalen Mills and a handful of nobodies performed better than expected. They weren’t great, but they weren’t terrible. Michael Jacquet, who was tasked with covering star wide receiver DeAndre
Hopkins most of the night, gave his best effort. Jacquet forced Hopkins to cough the ball up in the red zone in the first quarter, and also recorded a pass deflection. Hopkins made a miraculous catch in the end zone over two defenders on a perfectly placed pass by Kyler Murray, and finished with 169 yards on nine catches, but Jacquet showed grit covering one of the top wide receivers in the league.
Safety Marcus Epps intercepted Murray in the end zone. Nickell Robey-Coleman didn’t embarrass himself at cornerback. Last week’s new guy on the team, Kevon Seymour, was injured in the first half, but earned praise for his work when he on the field.
“I tip my hat off to those guys,” Mills said. “Mike (Jacquet), a young rookie, he played really, really well. He competed. He wasn’t scared. Kevon as well. Even (RobeyColeman), our slot guy and even playing some outside corner as well.”It could’ve been a lot worse, but the unknowns in the secondary stood tall in a losing cause.
“You know coming into this game that Kyler’s going to force feed him,” Mills said of Hopkins. “Regardless of if we had injuries at our cornerback position or not, he’s a top-three receiver in this league right now. He’s going to make some catches, some crazy catches, and he’s going to make some plays. At the end of the day, you get up, get one clap for the bad guys and it’s the next snap.”
If it wasn’t the secondary’s fault, one might blame the defensive line’s lack of pass rush at times on Murray, who threw for a personal best 406 yards and three scores, or the poor special teams that allowed a blocked punt and lost punter Cam Johnston to injury. There was also a fake punt the Cardinals executed, a pass to tight end Maxx Williams that went for 43 yards.
The Eagles defensive line was whistled for poor penalties. Defensive end Brandon Graham mentioned the urgency to make a play, to attack the backfield, contributing to some poorly-timed infractions.
“We extended some drives on ourselves because of penalties and (Murray) just made some good plays, especially because he knows how to run around back there and extend plays,” Graham said. “I felt like we had a lot of opportunities to go ahead and we just didn’t do it. You keep on learning about the depth of your team and there’s a lot of promise with these guys. These guys were ready for their opportunity.”
The secondary certainly contributed to the Eagles’ ninth loss in 2020, but perhaps they deserve a break for one week, considering the circumstances.
“They were put in a tough situation against a really good football team with great skill and ability as Arizona does on offense. They battled their tails off,” coach Doug Pederson said. “These guys are solid NFL players, DeAndre Hopkins and Kyler Murray... and I thought our guys battled and gave us some opportunities there. My hat is off to them guys, it’s just going to make them better.”