Schwartz: Birds have to tackle an annoying problem

PHILADELPHIA » The most significant thing about the Eagles’ victory in Los Angeles Sunday was that they lost Carson Wentz for the season.

The second most was that they won the NFC East.

The third most was that they scored 43 points.

The fourth most, Jim Schwartz would address Tuesday.

Simply, it was: When did the Birds forget how to tackle?

“The last couple games, it hasn’t been up to par,” the defensive coordinator said. “The Rams made a lot of big plays on play-actions deep down the field, and one of our objectives in that game was to prevent those kind of things. We actually did a pretty good job preventing the big plays from deep-down-the-field stuff. But we countered that by missing some tackles in the run game and on some short passes, and they still got those explosive plays. And they are an offense that thrived on explosive plays.

“Our style of play dictates that we must be good tacklers. And if we don’t, we’re going to give up yards and give up points. And those are obviously points we don’t want to give up.”

The Eagles won, and victories camouflage all, the Birds had particular difficulty tackling Todd Gurley, who averaged 7.4 yards on 13 carries, rushing for 96 yards and two touchdowns.

“I spent some time in Detroit and saw a lot of Barry Sanders,” Schwartz said. “And there were a lot of really crappy tackling defenses that played Barry Sanders. When I was a kid, Walter Payton was out there and every week he was going against a crappy tackling defense.

“You have to give some credit to the opponent.”

Schwartz having provided that credit, he did recognize that the trend has been building. Solutions?

“We do a lot of tackling drills and things like that,” he said. “It’s certainly not full speed. You can simulate some things. One of the things that really helps us defensively is (special teams) Coach (Dave) Fipp. He does a lot of tackling drills in his special teams. Those are all defensive drills, anyway.

“But there’s no substitute for live tackling and tackling guys to the ground. Honestly, at this point in the season, I don’t know that you really need to do that. I think our biggest emphasis is on team defense and pursuit angles. There’s going to be some individual tackles. Something busts through the front and the safety is going to have to get a guy on the ground.”