Eagles' Defensive 'Give and Take' Has Faltered Against Explosive Offenses
PHILADELPHIA - If the product put on the field by the Philadelphia Eagles was art, the name scribbled on the bottom right would read Nick Sirianni.
The rookie head coach is an offensive-minded mentor but made sure to take plenty of accountability when it came to the 471 yards and the 42 points surrendered to the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday.
"First of all we got to put our guys in position to make plays," Sirianni said during his Monday afternoon virtual presser. "We're always going to talk that way. We're always going to be critical of ourselves first as coaches. Just because it's defense, doesn’t mean – that's my responsibility, too, right?
"Because I'm the head coach of this football team and any product you see on the field has my name on it and I'm responsible for it."
The day-to-day game-planning on the defensive side, however, is the domain of Jonathan Gannon, a rookie defensive coordinator himself, who had great results at Atlanta and vs. San Francisco before falling to earth against two of the best offenses in the NFL: Dallas and Kansas City.
The Eagles have allowed 83 points over the last two weeks and over 851 yards of total offense with Gannon sticking to a zone-heavy scheme designed to limit big plays.
That philosophy has left the Philadelphia defense vulnerable to the run, though.
"A little bit, because when you're taking away big plays in the passing game or you're trying to take away people that they're trying to get the ball, you're going to be light at times in the run game," Gannon said on Tuesday when asked about the give-and-take of his early-season philosophy by SI.com's EagleMaven.
Darius Slay and T.J. Edwards watch a KC pass fall incomplete in their Week 4 matchup
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"But the first critical thing for myself is, how can I call the game a little bit better at a little high percentage to say, ‘Well, they're really not trying to attack down the field in these certain spots. Let's be better in the run.’"
Sirianni also noted how the two-deep looks are going to affect other areas.
"When you're playing a little bit more middle field open coverages like we're playing, we got to be able to do some more things with the front, be able to change some things on the front, and create a couple of issues for the offense so they can't just run it when you're in those middle field opens," he said.
"Because, I think you guys see, when you're in some of the middle field open coverages that we're in, the big pass play gets limited, right? The big pass play gets limited. But, if you're not doing some of the right things in the front with what you're doing in the front, then the run game can be susceptible, right? You give a little, you get a little."
Over the past two weeks, though, the Eagles have given up too much and not gotten enough back.
"Obviously, you come off two games where you gave up – I'm not going to say they scored 40 points, his offense gave seven points up against Dallas, 35 points and 42 points, or whatever it was. That's not good enough, right? We all know that," the coach noted. "I know what [Gannon's] capable of, I know what the defense is capable of and I know what his defensive staff is capable of. So, I'm very confident that we'll get these things fixed and that we'll improve from this and go from there."
Accountability is one of Sirianni's core values as a coach, and there has to be accountability for the 200 yards KC hung on the Eagles.
"He's very demanding," Gannon said of Sirianni, "but, ultimately, all the conversations that we have with the head ball coach is, ‘How can we help this team win?’ And so, that starts with Nick and I, when we talk about the defense and then goes right down into the position coaches. So we're, obviously talking every day how we're defending and what we're doing, and is it acceptable, and how we can get better."
Eagles defense was gouged for 200 yards rushing vs. Kansas City in Week 4
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Sirianni believes he can be helpful and needs to get better when he is in the moment.
"Where I can help and what I can do is give the offensive side approach," the coach said. "‘Hey, I think they're doing this because of this. That makes me nervous if you would have done this. Oh, I like when you do that because I'm going to do this.’
"That's what I have to be able to do. I have to be able to do that not only a Monday after a game, but I also need to be able to do that on a Sunday to help out right there."
An example of that came against the Chiefs when Andy Reid caught the Eagles in the second quarter resulting in the dynamic Tyreek Hill getting a mismatch against linebacker Eric Wilson in coverage which ended how you might expect.
"That particular formation forced us to check a call. And they got us in a mismatch," Gannon explained. "It was a good design by Andy."
The proper adjustment was baked into the game plan, according to Gannon.
"It's always going into the game plan, ‘All right, here's the call, what are the adjustments within the call? Where are the soft spots of every call?’ And not one call takes away everything. ‘And what are we asking our guys within each call to do and who are they going to be on, and can they execute that?’" the DC told SI.com's EagleMaven.
"That's a constant. We just met all this morning about Carolina. It's, like, ‘All right, well, with these certain calls, who has the hard duty, where's the soft spot, where should the ball go? Boy, this call is really good against this and this, but if they give us this, it's not great. And that guy has a tough matchup for that down.’
"From that, it's the standpoint of, ‘All right, guys, here's the call, here's who have the hot spots of the call, here's what the call is for, and this is who has some hard duty.’ And they have to know when they have hard duty and how to do defend it."
Maybe the ultimate adjustment in the case that went down with Hill is a timeout to correct the issue but that's the head coach's purview.
"Yeah, I'm not going to call a time-out, John,” Gannon said, "Nick handles that."
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven 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 both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
