Run Defense Has Jim Schwartz Scrambling

The Eagles DC was embarrassed after Daniel Jones shredded his defense yet again, this time on a 34-yard touchdown run in the second meeting between the team's this year

PHILADELPHIA - Jim Schwartz clued us in on Tuesday about Daniel Jones' 34-yard touchdown run 48 hours earlier.

The Eagles knew it was coming after allowing an 80-yard gash to the athletic Giants quarterback on the same type of look back on Oct. 22.

The defense watched it on film and prepared for it in practice because it knew Joe Judge and Jason Garrett wanted a sequel. And the defense got it right away.

The game's first drive in the ugly 27-17 loss to the Giants was punctuated by Jones on the zone-read taking it to the house.

“The defense broke down on that play,” a frustrated Schwartz said on Tuesday.

The Eagles defensive coordinator is never one to single out individual players but had no problem admitting the result was unacceptable after they saw Jones reach 21-plus MPH on his spectacular run last month at Lincoln Financial Field.

“First game, it was a little bit of a surprise, they ran out of a formation we hadn’t seen before," said Schwartz. "But it was embarrassing in this game because they ran out of the exact same formation and we fit it wrong. The guy that’s supposed to be there for the quarterback wasn’t there.

"Nobody else got off any blocks and (Jones) made us pay with a touchdown.”

When viewing the play, typically the QB reads the unaccounted for defender, in this case right defensive end Josh Sweat, who crashed down very hard on the fake toward the running back. From there, the second level was unable to get off blocks to make up for Sweat's misevaluation.

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— NBCSPEagles (@NbcspE) November 17, 2020

Jones, who finished the game as the Giants leading rusher with 64 yards, had another TD run called back when Giants rookie left tackle Andrew Thomas was called for holding.

On that effort, Thomas sustained his block well and Jones raced by before the first-round pick held on to the block for longer than needed and was flagged.

Schwartz, though, felt the hold did affect the play.

"The other one that got called back with a penalty, the hold affected that play and also caused us - well, we had a chance to get him in the backfield and it was more of a physical play on that one that got called back," he said. "There was a lot of those plays our guys executed very well but particularly early in that game on that first drive we weren't up to that challenge and it cost us.

"The way we started that game had a lot to do with the final result of that game."

The season-long narrative of being able to stop the conventional running game but not tweaks to it, like misdirection or zone-read and read-option plays lives on for another week.

As Schwartz turns the page to Cleveland, however, he believes the Browns offer the biggest test to date from the backfield with the talented Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt running behind what has arguably been the top offensive line in football.

"Yeah, it's our biggest challenge of the season in the run game," said Schwartz. "And how well we stop the run is going to go a long way to how well we play in this game. They are an outstanding run team. Probably the best two running backs we face this year. Not just the best two on the team, but the best two overall. Great balance. Great power. 

"They know what they want to do in the run game. Nothing sort of takes them out of it. There's not a whole lot you can do scheme-wise that forces them to do something else. They are going to run it.

"... It's going to take everybody, it's not just the defensive linemen, it's not just the linebackers; our corners are going to have to have an outstanding game defending the run."

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John every Monday and Friday on SIRIUSXM, and every Tuesday and Thursday with Eytan Shander on SportsMap Radio. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

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