Eagles Self-Scout Reveals Bigger Issue Than Special Teams or Second-Half Scoring

The Eagles have been the best team in the NFL over the first six games of the season, something validated by being the league’s only remaining unbeaten at 6-0 and through film work.

According to Pro Football Focus, which grades 13 different categories each and every week, Philadelphia has been a tad better than the AFC’s best, Buffalo (5-1), and already dominated the No. 4 ranked team, Minnesota (5-1), in Week 2.

The Eagles have been consistently good across the board in most areas – No. 1 overall, No. 1 in offense, No. 2 in passing offense, No. 1 in pass-blocking efficiency, No. 7 in receiving, No. 8 in run-blocking efficiency, No. 4 in defense, No. 5 in pass rush and No. 5 in pass coverage.

There are a couple of middling categories like a running game that has left too much meat on the bone at No. 21 and the run defense which is pretty good when Jordan Davis is on the field and less so when the first-round pick is not at No. 15 overall.

There are three categories that Nick Sirianni can’t be happy with during his self-scout that has gone on this week, however.

It’s been obvious that the Eagles haven’t been good enough on special teams and the film backs that up with Philadelphia grading out at No. 27 the team's inability to score in the second half has been debated endlessly.

Sirianni has consistently said “you never want to be bottom five in anything,” however, the Eagles cleared that low bar just barely when it comes to the third phase where the New York Giant. San Francisco, Tampa Bay, Miami, and Green Bay have all been worse.

While the team is in the bottom five in second-half scoring much of that can be at least mitigated by human nature after accumulating big leads and the ability to put together methodical, time-consuming dives that served as finishers in Detroit and Arizona, as well as against Dallas.

The only category the Eagles are actually bottom five in with no potential spin is tackling, tied for No. 30 overall with Cleveland, and only Jacksonville grading out worse.

Some may want to point to the anomaly of the season-opener, a 38-35 win over the Lions when the Eagles missed 15 tackles, and assume that is skewing a small sample size.

The obvious reaction to the tackling issues early was to point to the team’s summer plan, which was light on practice time, live periods, and preseason action as a whole. That low-hanging fruit was picked time and time again by disgruntled fans on social media.

Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon dismissed that at the time.

“I really don't think it's a product of that,” Gannon said. “We just know that from what tackling is, that we've talked about, we've just got to be better at that, coach that better, and tackle better.”

While that was the worst performance this season by Philadelphia in any aspect for any game, it was no anomaly. Week 3 against Washington was Philadelphia’s only good tackling performance this season so that was actually the outlier.

Tackling efforts against Minnesota, Jacksonville and Arizona were all graded out as poor with the victory over Dallas on Sunday night being generously labeled as below average.

Of the 13 categories graded over six weeks (78 total), the Eagles' best overall performance was the passing game vs. the Vikings and the worst was the tackling against the Lions.

Almost 60 of those 78 categories were at acceptable levels and only six were completely unacceptable. Of that small number, four of the six were tackling performances.

The Eagles have been credited with 57 missed tackles on the season, nearly 10 per game and all three levels have contributed with 17 coming from the defensive line/edge rushers, 14 from the off-ball linebackers, and 26 from the secondary.

If you eliminate the Lions game it's still 42 missed tackles over the ensuing five games, over eight per game.

Considering the Eagles’ defensive philosophy, which hinges on preventing explosive plays, imagine how effective the No. 4-graded defense could be with league-average tackling metrics.

That, more than special teams or second-half scoring, is the biggest fix the team must make during the bye week.

-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 every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on 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