Cracks on Eagles' Defense are Tied to Poor Communication
Generally, when the Eagles “fail” with pass defense, it comes down to miscommunication on the back end.
That’s a common thread between all the Vic Fangio-inspired schemes in the NFL which are zone-heavy but also roll out a host of different looks in an attempt to force quarterbacks into a post-snap process when it comes to diagnosing the actual coverage they are seeing.
The added seconds of uncertainty is what makes the defense so difficult to navigate and why so many young, sharp-minded offensive head coaches like Nick Sirianni, Sean McVay, and Kevin O’Connell want their defensive coordinators to run the scheme.
Jonathan Gannon was always coming to Philadelphia whether Josh McDaniels or Sirianni got the job to run the Fangio style of defense.
McVay, the template for the modern NFL head coach, tabbed now-LA Chargers coach Brandon Staley because of his history as an outside linebackers coach under Fangio, the defense McVay found toughest to deal with.
Similarly, McVay’s former offensive coordinator, O’Connell, got Fangio’s long-time, right-hand man Ed Donatell to run the defense in Minnesota when he got the big chair there.
Fangio’s brainchild is what Tony Dungy’s Cover-2 or Petre Carroll’s Cover-3 once were as the en vogue system on the defensive side. The teams that run it reach into the double digits and honestly, no team has done it better than the Eagles but the 40-34 Christmas Eve loss to Dallas was hardly a high point for the unit.
For now, the poor performance, stamped by an unacceptable third-and-30 coverage bust, is an anomaly but it’s also a warning sign.
Opposing offenses now see the scheme so much that many have identified the pressure points to beating it and it starts by forcing defensive backs to communicate seamlessly by stressing the zones.
“There will eventually come a point when the fad fades and becomes less effective,” a former NFL personnel executive told SI Eagles Today earlier this season. “I don’t know how soon that’ll be because of how multiple is in on the front and back ends, but a day will come.”
The Eagles are lucky enough to have a host of savvy players in the secondary but that’s taken a hit with injuries to C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Avonte Maddox.
Generic numbers like Dak Prescott going 24-of-24 against zone coverage sends many fans into a frenzy with little information as to what is trying to be accomplished.
“As far as the zone, I think all zones are a little different,” head coach Nick Sirianni explained. “I mean, some match zones are going to play out like man and be labeled as a zone as far as the way they -- you know, cover three really you can play multiple different ways.
“You can play a zone; you can play a true zone; you can play a match zone; a match zone on one side; a zone on the other with the safety cheated to the other side; you can play it with zone all the way across with the corners playing man. So, there are a lot of different variations of that zone that could be played, and then obviously that's the same thing in cover two, same thing in cover four.”
If your head is spinning, imagine what Josiah Scott’s was doing on game day when he was forced into action due to injury and tasked with racing from the slot to cover the back end as a deep safety.
“We're a defense that does multiple things to defend people, defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said. “There's always going to be elements of what looks like zone when we're playing zone, when it looks like zone when we're playing man, when it looks like man, we're playing zone to one side and man to another side. I think that's pretty common around the league.
“Some guys live in the world of man or pure zone, which that's a way you can go, but ultimately it doesn't matter in my opinion what calls are being called. You have to teach it and coach it the right way, and then have the players be able to function at a high level with execution.”
And that’s the crux of this.
With younger players that are less seasoned than Darius Slay and James Bradberry, perhaps don’t have the high football IQ to handle hybrid work like Maddox, or don’t have the natural feel for the game that Garder-Johnson and Marcus Epps have shown, it might be time to simplify.
When it's third-and-30, it's fine to play Cover-2 or even a sticks defense and call it a day.
The poor statistics in Dallas may need context but there’s no world where 24-for-24 is good for any defense.
“I think just looking at that stat in that world is, hey, we didn't coach good enough and play good enough, and that's why it was 24-24, not necessarily that it was zone, because, again, some zones play out like man anyway and all the zones are a little bit different,” said Sirianni.
Gannon's superpower as a coach is teaching, a testament to the Eagles' blown-coverage counts vs. their peers.
“I mean, anytime you give up explosive passes and situationally conversions on third down like we did, it always falls on me to coach that a little bit better and put our guys in better spots,” Gannon added.
“Then for our guys to know exactly where their eyes have to be, what technique, what calls they have to make pre-snap and post-snap and just function at a little bit better level to do what we've been doing and really playing good pass defense in known pass.
“It was a good learning experience for us.”
The day of reckoning is growing closer for the Fangio-minted defenses in the NFL but the good news is that the Eagles remain ahead of the crowd.
“They use different sets of rules to play the coverages even if they’re the same result, and that’s what makes the difference,” an NFC personnel exec said when discussing the differences between the teams that run similar defenses to Philadelphia. “What has set the Eagles apart so far is their rules and their teaching.”
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
