Eagles Defense Enjoyed an Historic Afternoon Against Jets

The D Recorded 10 Sacks and Scored Two Touchdowns, Something that had Never Been Done Before in the NFL

The Eagles defensive line was hungry, so they picked up their forks and took big bites out of the New York Jets’ offensive line and made life miserable for second-year quarterback Luke Falk on Sunday.

All September long the Eagles heard about their lack of a pass rush. They had only three sacks coming in to their game with the Jets. They left with 13, after pummeling the New York quarterbacks with 10 sacks.

Poor Falk, he even threw a pick-6 interception to linebacker Nathen Gerry, who ran 51 yards to the house.

Poor Falk, he had the ball ripped right out of his hands by 32-year-old cornerback Orlando Scandrick, who had been hanging out with his family in Los Angeles for a month after the Eagles released him at the end of training camp, but raced 44 yards with his prize to complete the scoring in the fourth quarter.

“I feel bad for quarterbacks who have to play our defense, our D-line,” said Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz. “You know I see it in training camp. I see it, fortunately I’m wearing a red jersey so they’re not hitting me, but our D-line is great.”

It was an historic performance by the Eagles defense.

Never before in the history of the NFL had a defense recorded at least 10 sacks while putting up two defensive touchdowns.

“It’s hard to get 10 sacks,” said safety Malcolm Jenkins. “I’m not going to sit here and act like we had a plan that gave us the opportunity to get 10 sacks, that doesn’t happen often. The guys definitely had a lot of energy getting after the quarterback, but I don’t think we can expect to go into any game and get 10 sacks. It’s not a regular occurrence.”

Seven different players recorded a sack.

Brandon Graham had a career-high three sacks and Scandrick two. The others were Derek Barnett, Vinny Curry, Hassan Ridgeway, Daeshon Hall, and Josh Sweat.

Graham, the 31-year-old veteran of 10 NFL season, got the parade started by getting the first sack of the day.

Graham didn’t have much sleep, either. He had to leave the team hotel in the early morning hours to be with his daughter after his wife had to go to the hospital for an emergency procedure to remover her gall bladder.

“He had the same mentality (the entire defensive line did), just go,” said Sweat. He just went. He did some big things. We all fed off his energy. We make enough of those sacks that we didn’t get earlier in the year, so that’s big time.”

Speaking of Sweat, he probably played the best game of his short career, at least from a statistical standpoint.

He notched his first career sack in his 14th career game, but also had three tackles and three quarterback hurries.

“I did not want to be left out,” said Sweat. “I was like, I’m going to get it. Said all right, it’s a double team, it’s a chipper, I’m going to get it anyways. I’m like come on!” said Sweat. “It’s a lot better now. I’m getting game experience. I’ve been playing all year so far, so I’m getting a lot of game experience. I can play fast now. The calls are easy, I get it and I just go now.”

Ridgeway recorded his first sack as an Eagle after picking up 4.5 in three years with the Colts.

“When BG (Graham) came in, pop, pop, pop, that’s energy for the line and we feed off that,” said Ridgeway. “Any time you get a big plays like that, somebody gets one, the next person feels like it’s going to be him. It’s a build-up.

“That’s what you dream of, everybody on the D line, that’s what we want in the room. Not one person has to have every single (sack), let’s spread the love around and everybody has to go out there and show what they can do.”

Hall had a half sack last year, but got his first full one Sunday.

“It felt amazing,” said Hall. “The fans were rocking, my teammates were getting after the quarterback, so I just tried to get in the game and do what I could do. I was really feeding off all my teammates making plays out there.”

They fed off each other, and they were truly hungry.

“The guys kept eating – a bunch of different guys doing well and performing – and that’s what you want to see from a defense, especially us,” said Jenkins. “We rotate defensive linemen a lot, so to see all of them get involved, it’s good. A good outing.”

An historic outing.