Defense still has a lot to prove
Don’t budget for those playoff tickets just yet.
For all the good plays the Eagles have made lately is the reality that they haven’t beaten a quality quarterback this season. That isn’t the fault of head coach Nick Sirianni or quarterback Jalen Hurts, who have found comfort running the football.
The Eagles (5-6) are a collective 0-6 against Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Derek Carr, Justin Herbert and, yes, Jimmy Garoppolo. All Garoppolo does is win for the 49ers.
The Philly victories are over Sam Darnold, Jared Goff, Teddy Bridgewater, Trevor Siemian and Matt Ryan, the latter fading fast at age 36.
Almost buried in the Eagles’ 40-29 win over the Saints on Sunday was what Siemian did to them in the fourth quarter.
To set the stage, with 2 minutes, 38 seconds left in the third quarter Jake Elliott kicked his fourth and final field goal giving the Eagles a 33-7 lead. Eagles fans began celebrating what would become the team’s first home victory, and so did the defense. Who blows a 26-point lead?
Three minutes later the Saints got into the end zone. Two minutes after that the Saints scored another TD.
When Siemian scrambled through a beleaguered Eagles pass defense for a score just minutes after the second TD, cutting the score to 33-22 with 12:33 remaining, the collective groan from the seats accompanied with a smattering of boos said it all.
Had the Saints not blown two PATs, one a bid for two points, it would have been a one-possession game.
That the Eagles needed a dazzling 24-yard scoring scramble by Jalen Hurts with 3:59 left to create separation gives you an idea of how wishy-washy the Philly defense was when it was needed most. The Eagles would give up one more TD before exiting with a 40-29 victory.
While injuries to cornerback Darius Slay (concussion) and linebacker Davion Taylor (knee) didn’t help, the Saints were without their starting offensive tackles plus Alvin Kamara, one of the elite running backs in football.
It’s hard to justify the conservative plan coordinator Jonathan Gannon rolled with down the homestretch against one of those quarterbacks the Eagles and the rest of the league have been beating up on this season.
Had it not been for a 23-yard reception by JJ Arcega-Whiteside keeping the late TD drive alive for Hurts, the Eagles might be 0-5 at home.
Gannon said he was playing his patented don’t-let-them-get-behind-you defense after the Eagles got the big lead. And while he admitted playing conservatively in the final quarter, he said it was the inconsistent execution of his plan that let the Saints rally.
“I wouldn’t say we took off our foot off the pedal,” Gannon said. “You always balance what’s the score, what’s the time, how many possessions they have left. So, yeah, you’re going to call the game a little bit different.
“As that game went on, being up like we were and then they kind of got back into it, the teaching point to our guys is we still have to execute at a little bit higher level than what we did. I thought the execution was very high in the first half. The third quarter it was pretty good, the fourth quarter I thought that we got leaky in some things, rush and cover.”
Gannon pretty much said he was afraid to blitz, although that was his instinct. He said he was afraid of giving up a 50-yarder for a TD.
Truth be told, the Eagles’ pass rush has been a liability this season, particularly at the Linc, where the crowd noise should be an advantage.
“I don’t think we took our foot off the gas,” Gannon said. “I would like to see our execution be consistent throughout the game.”
Gannon blitzed early against the Saints, sending cornerback Avonte Maddox on the first snap by the Saints. The Eagles generally got pressure when they blitzed, just not enough from the defensive line. That’s been an issue throughout the season.
Seventeen of the Eagles’ 18 sacks are on the road.
Just three of their sacks are against the better quarterbacks they’ve played, Prescott and Mahomes being put on their backs.
The Eagles have allowed an average of 373 yards and 31.3 points in their losses to the upper-crust quarterbacks. They’ve crushed the bad-to-mediocre quarterbacks, limiting them to averages of 277.2 yards and 14.4 points.
Just as a team is what its record is, defensively the Eagles are little more than what the records of the opposing quarterbacks are this season — 13-27-1.
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The Giants fired offensive coordinator Jason Garrett on Tuesday before the longtime Cowboys head coach completed his second season.
Giants head coach Joe Judge, his team occupying the NFC East basement, criticized the coaching staff and players for not scoring enough points after a 30-10 loss Monday to the Buccaneers in Tampa. The Giants (3-7) were coming off a bye. Reports are that Freddie Kitchens, who was 6-10 as head coach of the Browns in 2019, will call the plays the rest of the season. Kitchens is a senior offensive assistant with the Giants.
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has thrown nine touchdown passes, seven interceptions and has an 84.0 passer rating. Only seven quarterbacks have been sacked more than Jones, who has been dropped 21 times in 10 games.
The news bodes well for the Eagles on allaccounts.TheBirdsare3 ½-point favorites this Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
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Eagles special teams coach Michael Clay said Tyler Brown’s kicking prowess has been an outlet for kicker Elliott.
Elliott is 18 of 20 in field goals, including 8 of 10 from 40 yards and out, which includes a 58-yarder. With 83 points, Elliott is tied for fourth in the league with Matt Gay of the Rams.
Nick Folk leads the league with 104 points.
Brown is the son of longtime Ravens kicking specialist Randy Brown, once the mayor of Marlton, New Jersey.
“With his dad being Randy Brown in Baltimore, they have more of a thumb on kicking techniques and everything,” Clay said. “But for myself, I just try to keep them loose and talk to them about different stuff in terms of the mental aspect of it.
“When they go out there … right now, they’re a well-oiled machine between Jake, Arryn (Siposs) and, really, it all starts with Rick (Lovato). Rick serves a great, short snap and makes it easy for Arryn to hold and takes the mind off Jake of where the laces are and everything like that. So in terms of mechanically, they do it for so long I don’t need to tell them anything. I just try to keep them loose and in a great mental space.”