Schwartz won’t say all that much about Slay
Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz dismissed questions Tuesday about how his defense fared this season out of “respect for the game.”
Schwartz said during his weekly availability that his only focus was on the Washington Football Team, which the Eagles host Sunday night and would clinch the NFC East with a victory. A WFT loss and the New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys survivor wins the East.
Gallant as that maneuver was, Schwartz’s defense of cornerback Darius Slay and a pass rush, which ranks fourth in the league but hasn’t translated into turnovers, says plenty.
Slay got his first interception as an Eagle late in the third quarter of the 37-17 loss to the Cowboys. Was that worth a three-year, $50 million contract plus third and fifth-round draft picks sent to Detroit, for a team that finished with six picks, second-least in the league?
Schwartz’s answer sounded like a thesis.
“As far as Slay, it certainly didn’t show up in the stat sheet as far as like interceptions and things like that,” Schwartz said. “But there were a lot of games that quarterbacks didn’t throw very much at him, including this last game. First play there’s help that should be coming his way on that first play, and it wasn’t there, and it made it look bad for him giving up a long completion. But after that, man, I have a hard time remembering another completion that he gave up after that in this game. He shadowed the best receivers. He’s made some guys disappear. He’s had a couple games that he wasn’t — he probably wasn’t at the top of his game — but I think that more falls to the NFL and the load that we put on him and knowing that you’re not going to pitch a shutout against great receivers every single week.”
Slay was destroyed by DK Metcalf in the Seattle game. Metcalf caught 10 passes for 177 yards, though he didn’t get into the end zone. Schwartz fueled Metcalf’s furnace pregame by telling him he was no Calvin Johnson.
The following week, Green Bay’s Davante Adams registered the bulk of 10 catches for 121 yards and two TDs against an injured Slay. New Orleans’ Michael Thomas was having a big game against Slay the following week when he was hurt.
Schwartz also made an interesting point about Slay’s work after giving up a big play to the Cowboys. Quarterback Andy Dalton found it so easy picking on defensive back Michael Jacquet that there was no sense in challenging Slay. Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup both had
100-yard receiving days.
“It’s probably an incomplete when it comes to how it’s gone,” Schwartz said of a grade for Slay. “But I do think that he’s done yeoman’s work when it comes to the things that we’ve asked him to do. It doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet. I was talking to him a couple of weeks ago. I think it was 2002, maybe
2003, about the best season I’ve ever seen from a corner was Samari Rolle with the Tennessee Titans. I mean, he pitched a shutout every single week and had zero interceptions until the last week of the year, and I think he had one or two. It was against Houston. Didn’t get any votes for the Pro Bowl or anything else because he had zero interceptions. But it was as fine a season as I’ve ever seen from a corner. Got everybody covered, quarterbacks wouldn’t throw at him.
“So, I’m not comparing him to that season but I would be cautious of judging guys just based on some metrics like interceptions. It’s a little bit like D-line. If you judge guys just on stats it doesn’t always tell the story. We put a lot of pressure on Slay. He’s been up for it every week and I think that’s a great comfort to me and the rest of the team.”
The lack of takeaways has been an issue for the Eagles since Super Bowl LI. The Eagles rank fourth in the league with 46 sacks yet have just
17 takeaways, third-fewest in the NFC and eighth-fewest overall. The Eagles are mi
nus-9 in turnover ratio.
“I’ve said a long time that if you chase turnovers, you’re going to put yourself in bad positions,” Schwartz said. “A lot of them come from game situations. You mentioned pass rush. A lot of them come when you’re protecting a lead and your D-line can just do nothing but rush the passer and your coverage can stay back and know that the quarterback can’t just afford to take check-downs, he’s going to have to force the ball into coverage. A lot of those do come from those kinds of situations. We really haven’t had those kinds of opportunities a bunch.
“I think that turnovers are important to us, and I think that you can talk about things that you want the defense to do: Keep points off the board and turn the ball over for your offense. It’s an important part of what we do. But again, no excuses. We haven’t done a good enough job there.”
In essence, for Schwartz’s defense to work most efficiently, the Eagles have to get leads, rush the passer
and cross their fingers for turnovers.
Eagles fans prefer more. And they have too much respect for their team to get less.
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Eagles special teams coach Dave Fipp says the limited use of receiver Jalen Reagor fielding punts is a collaborative decision.
Reagor had one return for
15 yards against the Cowboys. On the season he’s averaging
23.5 yards on four returns, taking a 73-yarder to the house against the Packers.
“We got Jalen back there for one in a real returnable situation,” Fipp said. “The other situations it was fourth-and-one or they were punting in the plus-50 area of the field and the return opportunities were a lot less. So, we’re just trying to manage his load, put him back there
when he has a chance to affect the outcome of the game in the biggest way possible.”
Receiver Greg Ward recorded three fair catches in the plus-50 area of the field. He’s averaging 6.8 yards on 37 returns, with 20 fair catches.
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NOTES » The Eagles stand sixth in the draft order. … The Eagles have averaged 22.3 points in going 1-2 the past three weeks. The Cowboys have averaged 36.0 in a threegame win streak. Any questions, Doug Pederson? … The Eagles have allowed 20 rushing TDs, fourth-most in the league. Of the 10 teams with
40 or more sacks, only the Eagles and WFT have losing records. … The Eagles protected practice squad players Hakeem Butler (TE), Joe Ostman (DE), Rashad Smith (LB) and Prince Tega Wanogho (OL).