Man Up: McDermott benches Patterson
Here's the player-by-player breakdown of the Eagles' defensive performance against the Vikings Tuesday night.
Man Up: McDermott benches Patterson
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
Here's the player-by-player breakdown of the Eagles' defensive performance against the Vikings Tuesday night.
And earlier Wednesday, I posted five things you should know about the Birds' playoff scenarios.
Note: The first three defensive plays did not record on my DVR, but I'm working on getting them. Notes on those plays, however, are not included here.
Juqua Parker- I'm guessing he had nightmares about Joe Webb last night. I counted four times where Parker had a chance to bring Webb down behind the line of scrimmage, but came up short. The Vikings ran play-action fake after play-action fake where Webb rolled to his right. Parker showed good discipline but just kept failing to bring Webb down. The most costly miss was on Webb's third-quarter touchdown run. Parker got him once, picking up his first sack since Week 10 by pushing Webb out of bounds in the third.
Mike Patterson- He played pretty well. Patterson stuffed a running lane in the first as JaMar Chaney brought Peterson down for a loss. Patterson combined with Darryl Tapp to stop Peterson after a gain of 1 in the second. And he stopped Peterson after a gain of 2 in the fourth. Only Trent Cole played more than him among defensive linemen.
Antonio Dixon- He basically split reps with Brodrick Bunkley and was pretty quiet. Dixon made a nice play to bring Peterson down after a gain of 3 in the second. He was called for an encroachment penalty in the second.
Brodrick Bunkley- He was on the field for about 45 percent of the snaps. Bunkley disrupted a Peterson run that resulted in a 1-yard loss in the fourth. And he tripped Webb up for a loss of 1 on the Vikings' final drive.
Trevor Laws- He left the game and then came back after suffering a shoulder injury and a chest injury. Laws played about 13 snaps and was quiet.
Jeff Owens- Rough go for Owens. The rookie was active for the first time all season and suffered a ruptured patella tendon. Owens only played a couple snaps while healthy and has now been placed on injured reserve.
Derrick Burgess- He was active for the first time and played four snaps by my count. Didn't notice Burgess get anywhere near the quarterback on those plays.
Darryl Tapp- He played a lot of left defensive end, rotating in with Parker. Tapp and Patterson combined to stop Peterson after a gain of 1 in the second. He stopped Peterson for a 4-yard loss from the right defensive end spot in the third and got good pressure on Webb on a rollout in the fourth. Tapp was blocked on an 18-yard Peterson run in the third.
Trent Cole- This is an example of stats not telling the story. Cole had his first sack since Week 12, but was very quiet overall. He was blocked on a play-action Webb run for 7 yards in the first. And Peterson cut back to his side on a 27-yard run in the fourth. Cole slipped on the play. Last week against the Giants, Cole did not have a sack but was very active and disruptive.
JaMar Chaney- Chaney made some plays, but looked like a rookie at times. He brought Peterson down after a loss of 1 in the first and hustled to bring Percy Harvin down from behind after an 8-yard completion. He did a nice job of turning his head around and breaking up a pass intended for tight end Visanthe Shiancoe on a third-down throw in the first. But it looked like Shiancoe was his responsibility on a 23-yard completion over the middle. Chaney had trouble catching up with Peterson on an 18-yard run in the third. And he was called for a neutral zone infraction in the red zone. On a key 3rd-and-11 play in the fourth, Joselio Hanson blitzed, and Harvin beat Chaney for 19 yards. Tough to expect him to win that matchup though.
Akeem Jordan- Remember him? Jordan saw his most significant playing time since being benched as the strong-side linebacker earlier this season. He played alongside Chaney in nickel situations and was on the field for about 12 snaps. He didn't do much.
Omar Gaither- Another surprise. Did you notice him on the field in goal-line situations? Gaither played three snaps.
Ernie Sims- Not a good showing for Sims. Harvin leveled him with a big block on a 3rd-and-2 completion that went for 11 yards in the first quarter. Sims was completely fooled on a 7-yard Webb run off play-action in the first. He missed a tackle on Peterson's 15-yard carry in the second. And Sims was blocked by the fullback on an 18-yard Peterson run in the third.
Moise Fokou- Quiet game for Fokou. The Eagles went with a formation that consisted of three down linemen, three linebackers and five defensive backs at times. Fokou looked like his feet were stuck to the ground on Webb's third-quarter touchdown run.
Dimitri Patterson- Sean McDermott benched him after a disastrous series at the start of the third quarter. Patterson was beat by Harvin on a 46-yard completion; he was also called for pass interference on the play. Two plays later, he was whistled for unnecessary roughness after mixing it up with Harvin. We didn't see Patterson again as McDermott opted to go with Joselio Hanson at right cornerback instead. Earlier in the game, Patterson was beat by Harvin on completions of 12 and 17 yards. The cornerback situation has to be the biggest concern on this team going into the playoffs.
Joselio Hanson- He stepped in as the starter after Patterson was benched in the third and played relatively well. Hanson's wanted a shot to be the right corner since the Eagles traded Sheldon Brown away. He might get a chance to prove himself now.
Asante Samuel- Webb attacked him deep in the first, but Samuel broke up the pass intended for Sidney Rice. In the third, it was originally ruled that Rice caught a TD over him, but the play was overturned. I don't remember Webb throwing at Samuel other than those two occasions. Samuel was called for unnecessary roughness for his hit on Rice in the third. A fine is likely coming.
Trevard Lindley- After Patterson was benched, Lindley came in to play on the outside in nickel situations. He was on the field for five snaps.
Quintin Mikell- He had ups and downs. Mikell missed a couple tackles - one after a Harvin completion in the first and another on a Peterson 7-yard run. Mikell recovered a Peterson fumble in the second and stopped him after a 1-yard gain inside the 5 in the third.
Kurt Coleman- I thought he was excellent in run support. Coleman stopped Peterson after gains of 2 and 4 yards in the first. He might have saved a touchdown on Peterson's 18-yard run in the third. Coleman dropped Harvin for a 5-yard loss on a swing pass in the red zone in the third. There were two bad moments for him though. One was when he got caught inside in the fourth as Peterson bounced it outside for a 27-yard gain. And the second was when he got juked by Webb on the touchdown run.
Colt Anderson- Once again, the Eagles employed the 1-cornerback/3-safety personnel group with Anderson on the field. He played 12 snaps but didn't have an impact.
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Vote: Grade the Eagles
you guys are idiots. last week we are goin to the super bowl, this week half the coaching staff should be replaced...smh— tremo12- The author of this article did as good a job as you can reviewing each defensive player and how he did. Hopefully, he'll give a copy of this to the horrific defensive coach so he can learn what went wrong.
Comment removed.- Forget the SB fans. This swiss cheese defense can't stop itself let alone the opposition. McDermott needs more schooling. Not ready for prime time!— walt1
- Funny how everyone is so quick to blame McDermott for this game when our offense couldn't move the ball an inch. DJAX should have been benched from the way he was jogging his routes. He took the game off and it showed big time. Vick was awful. The D only gave up 17 pts, and it's sad that our offense couldn't top that.— PHTNPHLS
- Juqua Parker - I don't agree. I can only remember three of his misses. Each time he shot up field to try to tackle Webb, each time he should have contained better and cut him off towards the sideline.
JaMar Chaney - He should not be paired with a receiver on 3 and 11.
Ernie Sims - Not a good showing all year. Quite a disappointment. I expected more based on his high draft selection, performance as the only defensive player in Detroit for several years, and a burning desire to be a part of a winning team.
Quintin Mikell - I'm beginning to think he's overrated. He benefited most from Dawk, and now he often looks turned around or just a yard out of position.— T 
Excellent job as usual by Sheil. I understand this is about individual performances but it would add additional perspective if accompanied by a chart or list including overall defensive stats and perhaps a breakdown by player of tackles, sacks, passes defended, etc. Overall a weak performance by the D— Mabus- Wasn't Chaney's neutral zone infraction actually caused by someone else? I remember them calling a penalty on Chaney at some point, but it was someone else who committed the foul.
Also, You can't say that Coleman "got juked" by Webb. Fokou basically blocked him. If Fokou wasn't in the way, I seriously think Webb would've been taken down by Coleman 4 yard short of the endzone.— shamburg82 - yeah, lets bench (fire) the coach for not having any talent for his banged up defense...have another beer (typical idiot Eagles fans)! If this Eagles team had the talent on D and still played this way THEN go after the coach...sometimes I wonder what most Philly sports fans drink before they make ridiculous comments...— tralala
- Go easy on them, tralala. They're young and products of the modern American school system; they haven't yet learned to think. — JoeJanko
- ...they do have talent on d. a lot of rookies yes.so mcderm can't take all the blame. but his game plan vs the vikes was insane. blitz the kid. hit'em a few times. give him an eli like welcome to the national football league. birds call a to on the big 3d/11 with the score 17-14.and mcderm still leaves #51 to cover the middle of the field by himself istead of subbing him for an xtra db to take the middle away. guess what happened? 1st down. pass over #51's back shoulder. td after that. 3rd/6 and eagles last real hope of a w. rooke qb in shot gun. derm plays soft and leave plenty of room to allow him to run for the 1st. game.set.sb dreams crushed!
- This just in....Packers 51.....Birds 10.— hititwheretheyaint
- Look, this isn't even McDermott's fault anymore. This D is simply outmanned because of injuries. They're going to get crushed in the first playoff game— jimmyj
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