About 5,500 Eagles fans able to enter Ravens game
Eagles get OK to have limited fan support at the Linc beginning on Sunday
Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz expected scrutiny over the defense he called that left Steelers receiver Chase Claypool wide open for an easy gamebreaking touchdown Sunday.
Claypool’s 35-yard scoring reception against linebacker Nate Gerry, who was asked to do something that the Eagles’ cornerbacks had failed at for much of the afternoon, was his fourth TD on the day. It capped the scoring in a 39-28 Steelers victory and began the old, “what were you thinking questions” about the coverage.
“There’s a lot of ‘keeping with that theme’ today,” Schwartz said slyly of one such question.
What Schwartz said about calling a timeout to change the defense and avert the mismatch was much more revealing. Schwartz not only said it was totally Doug Pederson’s call, he intimated that timeout mismanagement in the first half hurt the Eagles.
“Yeah, you know, timeouts, that’s always been the head coach’s responsibility here,” Schwartz said. “There’s been a couple times over the years that we’ve had 10 guys on the field and that’s up to Doug. Doug has to weigh that with saving timeouts for when we get them stopped and we’re trying to go down and kick a game-winning field goal. You look at the end of our first half and boy, what a difference one timeout would have made for us in kicking a field goal at the end of the first half.
“So, that really never enters our thought process on defense. It’s just executing what’s called and trying to balance that.”
Pederson took his first timeout Sunday when the Eagles had first-and-goal at the one-yard line. There was considerable confusion, as the timeout came from Pederson just before Carson Wentz took the snap with two ticks left on the play clock. Rookie Jack Driscoll had reported as eligible.
Miles Sanders quickly went the final yard with 6:21 to go in the first half knotting the game at 14.
Late in the first half, Eagles rookie receiver John Hightower didn’t get out of bounds after a nine-yard gain to the Philly 47, necessitating the use of the second timeout. Pederson called his last timeout after Sanders’ four-yard run on
third-and-1 got the ball into Steelers territory with 27 seconds to go. Two incompletions later, JJ Arcega-Whiteside hauled in a 37-yard ball to the 12 with two seconds left.
While some Eagles tried to get to the line for a last play, the Steelers were already on their way into the tunnel with a 17-14 lead.
“We look at that as coaches and say, OK, we’ve got to coach that situation better,” Pederson said Monday. “We’ve got to make sure that our receivers and ball carriers understand our two-minute situation. We overcommunicate it, overcommunicate clarity and you get out of bounds in those situations, and you don’t have to burn the timeout. Because if I had the timeout on the JJ play, you call the timeout and you kick the field goal right before the half.”
A field goal would have tied the game at the intermission. A field goal there and another late in the fourth quarter the Eagles could have had a one-point lead. They wouldn’t have had to attempt a
57-yard field goal with 3:23 left, which Jake Elliott pushed wide.
Subsequently the Steelers got the ball at the 37-yard line, and a few plays later, Claypool embarrassed Gerry, Schwartz and the Eagles defense.
And two days later, Pederson’s use of timeouts is added to the list of Eagles shortcomings that need improvement — right there with Schwartz’s in-game adjustments, or a lack thereof.
“In that situation,” Schwartz said of the Gerry-Claypool breakdown, “we were in zone defense, and in zone defense there’s a lot of times that you can end up with linebackers and safeties on wide receivers. It just depends on who is in your zone. And that’s what happened in that situation.”
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The Eagles released seventhround draft pick Casey Toohill, the pass rusher out of Stanford, and defensive back Grayland Arnold.
Toohill hasn’t been active since playing 22 defensive snaps in the opener.
The Eagles also activated the
21-day practice window on safety Will Parks, who went on injured reserve with a hamstring issue during training camp. Parks was expected to be a big part of the Eagles’ coverage packages. Parks hails from Philly and played football at Germantown High.