Evolving Eagles Defense Getting Better and Better
PHILADELPHIA - Many Eagles fans still don't particularly like Jonathan Gannon's defense based on the intangible yardstick of passivity vs. aggressiveness.
Early season struggles in which some of the NFL's top quarterbacks used Gannon's defenders to stage glorified 7-on-7 drills have given way to an impressive run in which the Philadelphia defense has been top-10 in the league in numerous important categories, beginning with the most important of them all - points scored.
Since Week 8, the Eagles are allowing just 17.7 points per game, the sixth-best mark in the NFL over that span, and have they've held four different teams to under 20 points.
Over the same time frame, they are seventh in total defense, third in run defense, fifth in third-down defense, ninth in scoring efficiency, sixth in forced-fumbles, and No. 1 in defensive touchdowns.
Not too shabby, but the well-grounded Gannon isn't about to be taking victory laps or handing out an 'I told you so' with four games remaining and a playoff berth still a possibility.
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For Gannon, it's been an evolution and he spoke about the yin and yang of the improvement a few weeks ago when asked about it by SI.com's Eagle Maven.
"A blend of both," Gannon said referring to the coaches learning about the players and vice versa. "You always want to be mindful first of what are we asking our guys to do, how that fits into our skill sets, what we're trying to get done on defense first, and then who you're defending."
The glass is half-empty crowd will point to who the Eagles have been playing.
The defense didn't have success when Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Derek Carr, and Justin Herbert were on the docket but did with Jared Goff, Trevor Siemian, Daniel Jones, and Zach Wilson.
Over the context of the entire season, however, the Philadelphia defense is now ranked No. 9 in a 32-team league.
"There's always a blend of, ‘What are our guys comfortable doing? What can we do? How can we set them up in good spots to where they can function and execute and win one-on-ones?’" Gannon said.
From there he said "you start looking at, ‘All right, what does this quarterback like? What does he struggle with? Who does he have throwing the ball to? What's their protection schemes?’"
Eagles DC Jonathan Gannon
The players themselves are also buying in.
Pro Bowl defensive tackle Fletcher Cox seemed to question his role earlier in the season and has since seemed to have embraced the new defense in which he's being asked to play multiple techniques at times and be a little more disciplined as a pass rusher.
"The new system, you go through training camp, you go through those first few games, and you kind of figure out what’s going on, what type of defense we’re going to be," Cox said on Thursday. "Obviously, you have some new players in different positions. You got coaches getting to know players, and players getting to know coaches … once you get that, and everybody is playing on the same page, and each guy holding each other accountable, it’s always 100 percent.
"It’s going out on Sunday and just showing out. The last few weeks have shown what kind of team we can be, what type of defense we can be if we stick to what we’re doing."
And what they're doing morphs a little each week.
"We're a little bit different from week to week and that's solely based on who we're playing and how we decide to try to defend them," Gannon said. "So, it kinds of rolls into the same thing with your packages. It's always going to come down to, who's up, who's playing, who we have to defend, what we have to take away, and are we doing a good job of setting it up?"
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Linebacker Alex Singleton boiled it down to chemistry.
"Obviously, everything new takes time and so everyone is just getting comfortable," said Singleton. "Everyone is - I think coach has talked about it forever - playing your role, doing all the right things, and just learning the situations and trusting each other with new schemes.
"Everyone can know what they are doing on paper. We can sit in a meeting and everyone call tell you exactly what they are doing but if a certain guy does one thing in quarters [coverage] and not in [cover]-two. Just little things you need to feel from that person to play next to them for a long time and that's what you usually get from about midseason [on so I think that's where we are starting to click as a defense."
For Gannon, he's content to take the hits and let the players take the bows.
"It all comes down to the players," the DC said. "And they're executing at a high level."
-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.
