Associated Press
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Paul Domowitch: Jake was a breeze for Eagles; Saints' Brees won't be
WHILE MUCH is being written and said this week about offensive issues such as Donovan McNabb's rib injury and the readiness of Kevin Kolb and whether the Eagles can really trust the right-tackle position to Winston Justice now that they've finally stopped waiting for Shawn Andrews, a much more critical issue in Sunday's Week 2 battle against the New Orleans Saints will be the defense's ability to prevent another superhuman performance by Drew Brees.
As defensive coordinator Sean McDermott's unit was terrorizing Jake Delhomme on Sunday, Brees was doing pretty much whatever he felt like doing to the helpless Detroit Lions, which included throwing for 358 yards and six touchdowns in the 45-27 Saints win.
"[The Saints] are a completely different team from the one we played [this past Sunday]," strong safety Quintin Mikell said. "We have to be ready to make some plays and not give up too much stuff and not get too frustrated. Because he's a good quarterback."
About the only similarity between Brees and Delhomme is that they both have four letters in their first names.
Delhomme is a complementary part to an offense that is fueled by its power running game. He needs an effective ground game the way Joan Rivers needs an effective makeup artist.
The Eagles went into the Carolina game knowing that if they could put the clamps on DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, Delhomme would be toast. They did and he was.
Brees, though, isn't dependent on anything except a healthy right arm, and judging from his impressive Week 1 performance, it seems to be very healthy.
"Against the Panthers, we felt like if we could stop their running back and put them in a lot of second- and third-and-longs, we'd definitely have the advantage," said outside linebacker Chris Gocong. "But with Brees, I don't know if, as a defensive player, you ever feel like
you've got the advantage over him. He makes plays regardless of the down and distance."
McDermott and many of the Eagles' defensive players found out the hard way 2 years ago just how difficult Brees can be to stop. He led the Saints to a pair of three-point wins over the Eagles in 2006, one in the regular season, the other in the divisional round of the playoffs.
The first one was the Michael Lewis game, when the former Eagles strong safety got suckered on a double move by wide receiver Joe Horn and gave up a game-tying, 48-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. The Saints went on to win on a 31-yard John Carney field goal with 3 seconds left that was set up by an 8-minute, 16-play, 72-yard drive in which Brees completed eight of eight passes.
In the playoff rematch, the Eagles couldn't stop Brees (20-for-32, 243 yards, one TD, no interceptions) or the Saints' running game, which gashed them for 208 rushing yards.
"He's tough to play against," said Eagles defensive end Trent Cole. "He gets rid of the ball very fast. He does the quick three-step drop. It's very frustrating [as a pass rusher] when you're in a situation with a guy who's three-step dropping and all you can do is bull rush. It's no fun."
Even with the departure of Brian Dawkins, the Eagles are better equipped to deal with Brees now than they were in 2006. They're deeper at corner and deeper along the defensive line. Mikell is night-and-day better than either Lewis or Sean Considine.
The Eagles owned one of the top pass defenses in the league last year. Finished third in net passing yards allowed (182.1), second in yards allowed per attempt (6.1), second in opponent completion percentage (.541) and ninth in passing touchdowns allowed (19).
Just twice in 19 games did a quarterback really get the best of them - the Cowboys' Tony Romo in Week 2 (21-for-30, 312 yards, three TDs, one interception) and the Cardinals' Kurt Warner in the NFC Championship Game (21-for-28, 279 yards, four TDs, no interceptions).
Even without injured Stewart Bradley, this year's linebacking corps that has Omar Gaither in the middle, Gocong on the strong side and Akeem Jordan on the weak side still is much better overall than the 2006 group of Gaither, who was just a rookie and playing on the weak side, Dhani Jones and an out-of-gas Jeremiah Trotter.
"We don't have any Pro Bowlers," said Gocong. "But we like to take pride in what we do. We're downhill, physical linebackers, and we hold it together between the d-line and the secondary."
Gaither started 16 games at middle linebacker 2 years ago, but was moved to the weak side in 2008 to make room for Bradley. Jim Johnson benched Gaither after the Eagles' ugly Week 11 tie with Cincinnati and replaced him with the more athletic Jordan, mainly because he felt Jordan was a better weakside run defender and also matched up better with the tight end. Now, the 235-pound Gaither is back in the middle.
"Two years ago when he was the MIKE, Omar was the most productive player on defense," Gocong said. "He might not be as big as Stew, but he makes plays. That's what we need."
He made them Sunday, notching four tackles, half a sack, a hurry and a fumble recovery. McDermott frequently had Gaither and Jordan blitzing off the edges.
"I thought the linebackers played solid football," coach Andy Reid said. "Gocong played very well. Akeem played very physical football. Omar played the whole game [base package and nickel] and did a heck of a job leading the defense.
"He's the one who makes all the calls. Everybody was accurate with their assignments and that starts with Omar."
We will find out a lot more about the Eagles' defense this weekend than we did last weekend.
"It was a step in the right direction," McDermott said of his unit's performance against Delhomme and the Panthers. "I don't know if it's anything more than that."
Send e-mail to pdomo@aol.com.
