It’s hard to believe this Philadelphia Eagles team is 11-5. After losing four of their last five games, all in embarrassing fashion, this doesn’t feel like a team that should be in the playoffs. Their performance against the Arizona Cardinals offered very little to like and a whole lot to dislike. Still, there were some positives to take away. But we’re definitely starting with the dislikes this week.
FOUR THINGS I DISLIKED
ENTIRE DEFENSE
Trying to narrow down what to focus on with the defense was an impossible task. Everything was bad about the unit. Gap integrity, defeating blocks, tackling, communication, coverage, maintaining leverage. I could go on. This doesn’t look like a football team that has played 16 games. Part of that has to do with injuries and constant rotations within the secondary and linebacker group. Another part of that has to do with changing defensive coordinators mid-season.
For as much as people have been down on the offense, they’re still seventh in points per game, eighth in yards per game and fifth in yards per drive. The offense has kept the team in almost every game. It’s the defense, the one that is 29th in points per game allowed, 23rd in yards per game and 26th in takeaways that is going to be the down fall of this team.
The unit was lifeless, and I know people want to say this team is gassed, but they’ve played the 11th most snaps in the league. The Baltimore Ravens, first and fourth in points and yards per game respectively, have played the fourth most snaps on defense.
The Eagles defense provides little resistance against whatever an offense wants to do. Early in the season, they could hang their hat on being good against the run and living with a subpar pass defense that was afforded many long third down situations due to their run stopping capabilities. Prior to their bye week in week 10, they allowed only one team to rush for over 100 yards. Since the bye week, all six teams have rushed for over 100 yards. They’re not holding teams to right around 100 yards either, they’re allowing 150.3 rushing yards per game, third most since their bye week.
The Eagles defense can’t stop anyone’s fastball. They can’t take away what an offense does best and make them play left handed. Whatever the opposing offenses gameplan is coming into the game is what is going to work. Want to pound the rock with James Conner 25+ times? No problem. Want to force feed DK Metcalf when everybody in the world knows he’s getting the ball? Go for it. Want to throw short passes to George Kittle and Deebo Samuel and let them run wild? The Eagles are all for it.
Hell, the Eagles defense made the Arizona Cardinals look like the San Francisco 49ers. There was only one drive where the Cardinals didn’t score, and it was on Sydney Brown’s pick six that occurred in field goal range.
Hopefully this historic collapse will lead to some changes in philosophy among the front office. I still believe having a great defensive line is one of the hallmarks of a good defense, but football is the ultimate team game. The front needs the players behind them to hold their weight, or that great defensive front will be negated while the weaknesses are exploited. And you know, maybe that defensive line isn’t as great as we really think they are.
SITUATIONAL FOOTBALL/DECISION MAKING
I could share this space to talk about both the offense and defense, but I’m going to focus on the offense here. The offense, for all of it’s shortcomings in formational diversity, lack of motion or personnel usage, has still been one of the top offenses in the NFL. They’ve been held below the league average in points and yards per game just five times.
It’s the situational football that has been extremely troubling. Those issues are highlighted by the fact that the defense cannot hold onto any leads. The inept defense magnifies every decision made by the offense because the offense has to carry this team.
I talked about situational football as something I didn’t like last week as well and I have to touch on it yet again. I’ll start with the players first.
The penultimate drive for the Eagles, the one in which they turned into a JV football team, scared to throw the ball down the field despite having a $250 million QB, two top 15 wide receivers and a top five tight end, was ultimately set up by a holding call on the offense.
Last week, I touched on the fact that D’Andre Swift has to understand game situation and when is the right time to try to risk bouncing runs for bigger gains and when it’s prudent to take what is available. Jordan Mailata was called for a holding, but Swift also put him in a bad position by playing out of structure.
This run isn’t designed to go outside and Mailata is trying to turn his guy out of the gap for Swift. There’s a good chance that Swift isn’t getting much of anything on this run if he decides to stay inside, but it’s also not going to put the offense in a bad position late in the game. It’s the second week in a row where Swift has put the offense in a bad position late in the game by trying to play out of structure.
I thought Swift had a good game for the most part. He had some big runs and made some nice cuts. He did miss some fairly open holes or predetermine that he was going to cutback a couple times though, and it’s something that shows up on his tape a good amount. He reminds me a little of Jalen Hurts but as a running back. Sometimes these guys want to play hero and go for the big play, and it’s fun when those plays connect, but there’s times where they just need to take what is available and not put the offense in a bad spot.
Still, 1st & 20 shouldn’t mean the drive is over. I think the narrative that the Eagles sequence of plays when they get into 1st & 20 situations is to run, run and then throw a screen has gotten a little out of control mainly due to frustration. I was a little surprised when looking at the numbers.
On 1st & 20+, they’re 11th in run pass ratio at 28.6%. The issues is that when they do throw, their average throw depth of 20 yards is first in the NFL, but they’ve only completed 20% of those passes. We’re talking a very small sample size here though.
On 2nd & 15+, they are 10th in run pass ratio at 22.7%. Their average throw depth drops to 30th in the NFL, though they’ve only thrown two screens in those situations.
On 3rd & 15+ they are 28th in run pass ratio at 5.6%. Their average throw depth is 12th at 8.9 yards while they are seventh in average yards per attempt. They’re 12th in the NFL with four screen passes thrown in those situations. Even when looking at 3rd & 10+, they’re 20th in total screen passes.
When factoring in run pass ratios and average throw depth in these situations, the Eagles are about middle of the pack in terms of aggressiveness. But in late game situations, the Eagles have become conservative. We saw that play out against the 49ers when they punted down multiple scores while their defense was giving up touchdown drives every time. Against the Cardinals, the offense decided to settle for a field goal when the holding call put them in 1st & 20, despite a defense that again offered little resistance on the day. They’re going to have to get aggressive in these situations to cover for their defense.
This coaching staff is playing not to lose and it’s costing them. I know people want to put the blame on Brian Johnson for the end of game play calling, but he’s not making these decisions in a vacuum. I’ve said since the beginning of the year, and maintain the stance to this day, that the offense that you see on the field is Sirianni’s vision. Johnson’s comments in his press conference on Tuesday pointed to this as well. When asked about how much communication goes on in regards to late game play calling, he pretty much said him and Sirianni are in constant communication. It’s Week 17, if Sirianni wanted those end of game situations handled differently, they would be by now.
Unfortunately for the offense, they have to be near perfect, especially during end of game situations. The decision making, by coaches and players, has not been very good in those situations.
SHAQ LEONARD
Following the 49ers game, fans said things couldn’t get worse at linebacker to use as a justification for signing Leonard. When they say things can’t get worse, this is your reminder that in professional sports, things can always get worse. If the Eagles decided to put me or you at linebacker, things would definitely get worse.
When a former All-Pro, well respected team captain is cut from a playoff contending team midseason, that should be as clear an indication as any that his playing days are numbered. The Colts were surely trying to find a trade partner before the deadline, the fact that they couldn’t find one should’ve been another indication.
Leonard has been a force in this league, but at this point, he lacks the physical ability needed to be a starter. Maybe with a full offseason of being able to workout instead of rehab he can recapture some of his old form. But this league passes people by quicker than any other professional sport. He’s only 28, but in the NFL, that might as well be 38 for a guy coming off back surgery.
He made a couple nice plays last week where he came down hill quickly, but for the most part he is struggling to keep up, and that was painfully evident when he was trying to chase down Tyrod Taylor last week.
Against the Cardinals, his lack of speed and quickness was on display several times, and he wasn’t very physical striking and attacking blockers either.
Leonard was injured for a play, then came back in to finish out a drive, and then didn’t play the entire fourth quarter. Maybe Leonard’s injury is one that will cause him to miss games, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Eagles coaching staff realizes that Leonard’s time is coming to a close.
AVONTE MADDOX
It should be stated first that this was Maddox’s first game action since week two and he was also playing for a new defensive coordinator. It should also be noted that he has been in and out of the lineup for the past two seasons, so he should be expected to be a little rusty.
Still, there were some concerning things from Maddox. He looked completely lost at times in coverage. He often played too soft, or with bad leverage, or he had bad eye discipline.
What concerns me most is that he had similar issues in week one against the Patriots as well as the Super Bowl (yes, we can put some blame on the players on the field). All of those games were games where he had not played very much prior due to the season starting or missing previous games with injury.
Maddox probably should’ve been eased back into game action, and in hindsight, making Bradley Roby officially inactive for the perpetually inactive Rashaad Penny was a bad roster decision. I think with consistent playing time he will fix those issues, but it’s looking more and more likely that Maddox gets only two more games with the Eagles before the offseason begins.
FOUR THINGS I LIKED
COMMITMENT TO THE RUN GAME
If you look at the final run pass numbers you’ll see a much more balanced game from the Eagles with 23 runs and 23 passes. But that underscores just how much they committed to running the ball. If the Eagles came out of the game with a victory, I feel like we would be talking about this game similar to the Lions game in 2021.
After starting the first seven weeks of the 2021 season ranking ninth in pass attempts and 26th in rush attempts, they ran the ball 46 times against the Lions. They only attempted 16 passes. They finished the rest of the season ranked first in rush attempts and 32nd in pass attempts.
The Eagles didn’t have the ball very long thanks to the defense so the numbers are a little deflated. Still, of the Eagles 23 pass attempts, 13 came in the final two minutes of the first half or the final drive of the game where they had 32 seconds to get a touchdown. Only one rush occurred during that span, a scramble, so outside of two minute or end of game situations, the Eagles run pass ratio was 22 to 10.
Maybe this was a result of trying to control the clock themselves knowing their defense couldn’t get off the field. It could also be a turning point for the coaching staff (albeit, a bit late). It’s important to note that the Cardinals are last in rush yards per game allowed and 28th in yards per attempt, so it could just be a result of the Eagles attacking the Cardinals where they’re weak.
Their pass defense is just as bad though, and considering Sirianni wants to throw the ball around the yard, this felt like more of a changing in their approach. Especially when you factor in the changes we saw in the design and multiplicity in their run game last week.
This defense should get Zach Cunningham and Darius Slay back by the playoffs, so hopefully that can stop some of the bleeding. But it’s clear that this offense is going to have to carry the team if there is any hope of them reaching the Super Bowl again. This offense can help hide this defense if they do exactly what the Cardinals offense did, grind out the clock and give the opposing offense less chances to tee off against their bad defense.
JALEN HURTS STEPPING UP IN THE POCKET
When you watch other top quarterbacks in the league, the most obvious difference between them and Jalen Hurts is pocket presence. Nick Bosa wasn’t talking out of his ass when he said Jalen will drop his eyes and look at the rush. He also has a very bad habit of bailing out of pockets by rolling to his right, which turns everything into a scramble drill and takes away more than half of the field to work with. When he does step up in the pocket, often times it leads to him running the ball instead of keeping his eyes down field.
In recent weeks, Jalen has been a little better stepping up in the pocket. He had a nice 3rd & 16 conversion when he stepped up in the pocket against the Cowboys. Against the Giants, his 3rd & 20 conversion he had while climbing vertically in the pocket sparked their offense.
Versus Cardinals, he again climbed the pocket, had the opportunity to scramble but instead ran parallel to the line of scrimmage so that he could keep his eyes down field to find Julio Jones for the touchdown.
I do want to nitpick this play a little though. When we look at the play from the tight view, Jalen had a clean pocket and still got happy feet. You can see his eyes drop and he reverts to scrambling instead of moving within the pocket.
Let’s look at some other examples of QBs stepping up in the pocket.
I’m also not so sure he doesn’t scramble if not for the fact that there’s 24 seconds left in the half and the Eagles don’t have any timeouts remaining. Still, this play should serve as an example for Jalen of that next level he can unlock when he learns to play with better pocket presence more consistently.
JULIO JONES
If the Eagles defense didn’t collapse, years from now we would still be referring to this games as the Julio Jones game. Julio has pretty much been an after though in this offense, and though I wouldn’t be designing a ton of plays to him, he’s still a good red zone target as he is a big body with toughness, experience and good hands to match. I also think he would have a little better production if he played with a QB that gets to the 3rd and 4th routes in the progression more consistently.
I detailed last week how Julio was doing the little things right and he deserved more playing time over Quez Watkins. He made the most of his targets on Sunday, reeling in both of his targets for touchdowns.
Getting someone else involved in this offense makes the Eagles more dangerous. Just a handful of a targets a game to the “other” guys will help take some of the focus off of A.J. and DeVonta. Not to mention, the Eagles might be playing Sunday’s game without Smitty anyway.
MORO OJOMO
Lost in the fog of disappointment was the performance of Moro Ojomo. Moro only saw limited snaps but I think that’s going to change soon. He was strong against the run, fighting above his weight class. He held his ground on double teams, he fought back across down blocks, and he showed his strength and athleticism to not get reach blocked. He was impressive resetting the line of scrimmage on one occasion. He wasn’t afforded many pass rush opportunities, but he made the most of his reps against the run.
I think the emergence of Ojomo is important long term as well. Milton Williams is coming up on the last year of his contract. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Eagles re-sign him or let him walk in free agency. I imagine he’ll get a decent contract if he hits free agency.
My hesitancy in re-signing Milt is that he doesn’t provide much in the form of a pass rush. I touched on Milton’s lack of pass rush production in a recent film room episode, and while he has the tools to become a good pass rusher, we have yet to see that come to fruition. For as good of a run defender as he is, I don’t really see a lot in the way of progress from last year to this year in his pass rush.
Are the Eagles willing to give out a contract to a good, yet undersized run defender while hoping he develops into a serviceable pass rusher? What if they have a very similar player under contract for less money? I get the feeling that Ojomo is going to make Milton expendable unless we see Milton take a positive step in his pass rush production next season. Interestingly enough, the Eagles acquired Javon Hargrave due to similar circumstances for the Steelers.
