Eagles' D: Goals and personnel
Sean McDermott has a specific set of goals for his defense. Did the Eagles reach those goals on Sunday against the Packers?
Eagles' D: Goals and personnel
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
Back in May, Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott shared his goals with the media.
Each week, I'll take a look at those goals and see which ones the Birds met, along with a breakdown of their defensive scheme and personnel.
Let's start with the goals.
Allow 17 points or less: The Eagles obviously did not accomplish this one, allowing 27 points. The defense has not limited an opponent to 17 points or less since Week 15 of last season. The Packers are going to be one of the league's better offenses, but only five teams allowed more points than the Eagles in Week 1. Green Bay's average starting field position on its five scoring drives was its own 32 yard line.
Allow 285 yards or less: The defense was close on this one, but ended up allowing 299 yards. The Eagles actually outgained the Packers, 320-299, for the game.
Create two or more turnovers: Here's a winner. The Eagles picked off Aaron Rodgers twice, which is impressive, considering Rodgers was only intercepted seven times all of last season. The Birds won the turnover battle, only giving it away once (the Eldra Buckley fumble) on offense.
Limit opponents to less than 44 rush attempts and pass completions (combined): Rodgers completed 19 passes, and the Packers had 33 rushing attempts for a grand total of 52. Now, five of those rushing attempts were by Rodgers, which I'm pretty sure we shouldn't count. But even so, that puts the number at 47.
Allow no more than three big plays (defined as runs of 10 yards or more, or passes of 25 yards or more): Nope. The Eagles allowed five big plays. What's interesting is that four of those were run plays of 10 yards or more. The only pass play of 25 yards or more was the 32-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings.
Limit opponents to 5.5 yards per pass attempt: This is a very ambitious one. The Eagles limited Rodgers to 6.07 yards per attempt, and didn't reach the goal. Shaun Hill, the quarterback the Eagles will face in Week 2, was limited to 4.63 yards per attempt. Michael Vick, likely the Eagles' starter, averaged 7.29 yards per attempt.
Again, these are not my goals. These are the ones McDermott and his staff have outlined for the defense.
DEFENSIVE LINE ROTATION
As I mentioned earlier this week, all eight defensive linemen who were active played. Below is a rundown of how often each guy was on the field.
| No. of snaps | Percentage of overall | |
| Trent Cole | 58 | 92% |
| Brandon Graham | 49 | 78% |
| Mike Patterson | 34 | 54% |
| Brodrick Bunkley | 32 | 51% |
| Antwan Barnes | 28 | 44% |
| Trevor Laws | 24 | 38% |
| Juqua Parker | 19 | 30% |
| Antonio Dixon | 8 | 13% |
The Eagles had a fifth defensive back on the field for pretty much half the game (49 percent of the snaps). That was most often Joselio Hanson, but on four plays, it was a third safety, Kurt Coleman. On the plays when Coleman was in, Quintin Mikell played up at the line of scrimmage.
Mikell, Ernie Sims and Nate Allen played every snap. Asante Samuel and Ellis Hobbs played all but one snap.
THE BLITZ
Paul Domowitch of the Daily News had a good piece on the Eagles' blitz on Wednesday.
The Eagles blitzed 14 times on Sunday and used 12 different combinations. The only blitz package that was used more than once involved sending Sims by himself. That happened three times. The other blitz combinations:
| Bradley and Sims |
| Bradley, Sims and Samuel |
| Sims and Allen |
| Bradley, Sims and Mikell |
| Bradley |
| Sims and Gaither |
| Bradley, Sims and Allen |
| Gaither |
| Sims, Gaither and Mikell |
| Hanson |
| Sims, Hanson and Mikell |
Sims was the most active blitzer. McDermott sent him 11 times. Here's an individual breakdown of how many times each player blitzed:
| Player | No. of blitzes |
| Sims | 11 |
| Bradley | 5 |
| Gaither | 3 |
| Mikell | 3 |
| Hanson | 2 |
| Allen | 2 |
| Samuel | 1 |
And finally, the Eagles dropped linemen back into coverage on five separate occasions. Cole did it four times; Barnes did it twice; and Graham and Laws did it once each. Note that multiple linemen dropped back on the same play twice.
And finally, the Eagles dropped linemen back into coverage on five separate occasions. Cole did it four times; Barnes did it twice; and Graham and Laws did it once each.
I count eight.— piercit- Why is our best D-lineman and pass rusher dropping back in coverage on four passing downs? Maybe we should have Vick play Guard or Nate Allen play Tackle.— rob808pf
- Trent Cole is in great shape and hates to miss a play, but he should be averaging 80% of the snaps. Graham has a good backup in Parker, and is young, so no way he should be in on 78% of the snaps. 65% maybe. Why carry 9 linemen and then use the two ends so heavily?— tacklinjoe
- Looks like the Eagles prefer Barnes over Tapp and DTN, judging from the chart above. Maybe Tapp and DTN weren't active. Barnes is the logical guy to drop if they're going to drop an end into pass coverage.— tacklinjoe
- Tapp & DTN were inactive. How many of those blitzes resulted in a sack?— camynnek
They need to get Clayton into the games. He made an impact everytime he was on the field in preseason. They need to find out if he really is a gamer, because they sure could use a few.- Kolb threw for over 300 yards in his first two starts last year, the only QB in history to do that!... Kolb threw for 327 yards and 2 TD's and beat Kansas City Chiefs 34-14....Now let's see Vick beat that this week...period.
— Bill20 - I believe the Eagles had a team mental lapse at the end of the half and beginning of the fourth quarter with all that was tranpiring. 17 Packer points were scored bing, bang, boom. Otherwise I think they played a very good defensive game.— retzlaff
- The Defense played well enough and both lines were fighting for their lives. The offense woke up in the 2nd half and McCoy is a threat on screens again. Clay Matthews was a difference maker and is used all over the field. Did anyone notice that Vick looked out of gas by the last score. He may be in better shape but he was not able to run that fourth down play with any drive. We must let this one go, but we were given the highs and lows like no other sport.— peteswho
Comment removed.- Im with Rob, I don't understand why you drop a @ 300+ pound man into 'coverage' to track down <220lb speedsters. Seems like a recipe for failure. I understand being 'tricky' but this always seemed ridiculous to me. Especially a guy like Cole (I know, he's not 300 but he's not DJack either) who can be so dominant up front as it is. Seems like you are purposely minusing a stength to add a weakness.
-not bob levy— remyy - Question, were the recievers open in the first half? Don't think so. Why don't we give the Packers some credit. They certainly didn't game plan for Vick to play an entire half. Of course they felt more comfy playing against Kolb. Thats who they game planned for. Packers just flat out played us. They will do better.— sima_down_nah
- piercit - "multiple linemen dropped back on the same play twice" - If two dropped back one play and three dropped back the other time, that would do it.
- Boy that Ernie Sims is a real ball hawk. Thats what we were told when we got him. His career stats for sacks and int's are lacking. Just like his play against the Pack. 11 blitzes and no sacks. Another player that they tell us is great but is average at best. (Andrews, Andrews,Peters, Macho Harris, Corn on the Kolb, that stinkin RB we got from the Dolphins) I'm convinced this team cannot evaluate talent.
- Comment removed.
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