Washburn effect: Should Eagles blitz more?
As I mentioned earlier this week, there were several reasons the Eagles failed to get pressure on Jay Cutler last Monday night.
Washburn effect: Should Eagles blitz more?
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
As I mentioned earlier this week, there were several reasons the Eagles failed to get pressure on Jay Cutler last Monday night.
The Bears kept extra blockers in. They moved the pocket and rolled Cutler away from Trent Cole. Cutler showed great pocket awareness and was able to escape pressure and make plays. And Chicago's offensive linemen won one-on-one battles when they needed to.
Eagles cornerbacks were unable to stick with the Bears receivers when Cutler had time, and the result was a 30-24 loss.
Keeping that in mind, here's the breakdown of how Jim Washburn's defensive line is performing, as always, starting with snap counts from last week:
| Player | Pct. of Snaps |
| Trent Cole |
70.1% |
| Jason Babin |
68.7% |
| Cullen Jenkins | 68.7% |
| Mike Patterson | 67.2% |
| Trevor Laws | 34.3% |
| Derek Landri | 34.3% |
| Darryl Tapp | 31.3% |
| Brandon Graham | 31.3% |
For the second week in a row, Washburn was able to go with a pretty true rotation. Cole played the most snaps, followed by Babin, Jenkins and Patterson. The second group featured Graham for the first time. He played 21 snaps.
Juqua Parker did not play last week and was listed as a limited participant in practice Thursday. We'll see what Washburn's plan is when all five defensive ends (Babin, Cole, Tapp, Graham, Parker) are healthy.
WHO'S PRODUCING?
Here's a look at sacks and hurries:
| Sacks | Hurries | |
| Cole | 0 | 2 |
| Babin | 0 | 7 |
| Jenkins | 0 | 0 |
| Patterson | 0 | 2 |
| Laws | 0 | 0 |
| Landri | 0 | 0 |
| Tapp | 0 | 0 |
| Graham | 0 | 0 |
No one had a sack, but Babin was still pretty productive with seven hurries. He and Cole both saw a lot of extra attention. It seemed like when the Bears had a tight end or running back outside to help against Cole, he would try to rush inside, but wasn't very effective.
The Eagles got very little from their interior pass rushers. Patterson had a couple hurries, but the other three defensive tackles were completely shut out. Jenkins has gone without a sack in three straight games and four of the last five.
As always, it's good to look at opportunities. Below are percentages on how often each defensive lineman has notched a sack or hurry, based on number of chances to rush the quarterback (provided by Pro Football Focus).
| Sacks+Hurries | Pass-Rushing Opportunities | Pressure Pct. | |
| Cole | 21 | 172 | 12.2% |
| Babin | 38 | 212 | 17.9% |
| Jenkins | 14 | 208 | 6.7% |
| Patterson | 14 | 190 | 7.4% |
| Laws | 11 | 105 | 10.5% |
| Landri | 2 | 44 | 4.5% |
| Tapp | 12 | 81 | 14.8% |
| Parker | 5 | 63 | 7.9% |
| Hunt | 5 | 45 | 11.1% |
| Dixon | 1 | 42 | 2.4% |
| Graham | 0 | 11 | 0.0% |
Babin has been the Eagles' most productive pass rusher. Cole has one sack and four hurries in two games since returning from injury. He hasn't looked like his usual self just yet.
Jenkins has five sacks, but if you look at pressure percentage, Patterson and Laws have actually been getting to the quarterback at a higher rate.
I was somewhat surprised to see the Eagles' coaching staff have Graham down for zero hurries. I thought there were a couple instances where he got pressure.
WHAT ABOUT THE BLITZ?
Against the Redskins and Cowboys, the Eagles didn't blitz a lot, but when they did, they were effective. Those two opponents were just 4-for-9 for 43 yards (4.78 YPA) when the Eagles blitzed.
But when Juan Castillo dialed up extra pressure against Chicago, Cutler burned them. The Eagles blitzed on seven of 32 Cutler dropbacks, or 21.9 percent of the time. On those plays, he went 5-for-6 for 78 yards (13.0 YPA). The Bears also drew a 17-yard pass interference penalty on Nnamdi Asomugha on one of the blitzes. Keep in mind that for our purposes, blitz is defined by more than four pass rushers. On two occasions, the Eagles lined up with five defensive linemen. Once, they ran a zone blitz, dropping Cole back into coverage.
On the season, the Eagles have blitzed on 42 of 274 dropbacks, or 15.3 percent of the time. Opponents are 20-for-38 for 334 yards (8.79 YPA) against the Eagles' blitz. In other words, the extra pressure has not been effective.
The Bears found success keeping extra blockers in and letting what has looked like a mediocre receiving group get open against the Eagles' secondary. We could very well see other teams follow a similar formula to neutralize the Birds' pass rush, which has been the strongest part of the defense through the first half of the season.
But clearly, extra pressure has not exactly confused opposing quarterbacks, so more blitzing is unlikely to solve the Eagles' issues.
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Tackling might help.— p-diddy- I can't wait until Castillo and Reid are gone.— gelang
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- p-diddy nails it.— reb
- With only 3 receivers out on routes... There is no excuse how wide open they were all day long.— chris_r
- Cutler sidestepped his way to negate the pressure and add 2 seconds to each drop back, our cornerbacks didn't hold their coverage long enough, especially on routes where there was a great directional change by the Bears receivers. He threw some really good passes as well, and as Tom Brady and other great passers have shown, it's nearly impossible to defend.— 215PhillySean
- were supposed to care about this team? Im rooting for losses for a higher draft pick at this point. I suppose there is a super small sliver of a chance the giants could completely implode but I doubt it, Eli is playing well this year. That being said, they do like to crumble second half of season. Look at me trying to convince myself, who am I kidding, its over.— peteike
- Which Trevor Laws are they talking about, because the one I watch hasn't been involved in 11 sacks/hurries.— banned
- They are learning a new system. Better to surprise with the blitz than allow teams to plan against it. They had better learn to hit though or this years' 8&8 will be 6&10. SB next year. You read it here 1st.— jjthree
- The season is over, no matter whether they blitz or don't blitz. A team that can't hold leads in the 4th quarter has no business and no chance of being in playoffs. Reid has to go. He can't evaluate talent, and can't get multimillionaire players to play at the competitive level. Moreover, why should they play hard if they've made their money. See you next year Iggles, with new coach, and more motivated players!— prudential2
- Let us consider the top DC's in the business. What makes them so fearsome? It is their ability to game plan and attack/blitz the weakness of the offense. The Eagles sit back and use the conservative approach and rely on the front four to get to the QB. A competent DC would confuse the QB by showing him different fronts and complicate his coverages and blitzes (the mark of a good DC). We have a DC learning as he goes so the Offense definitely has a hand up. Our lack of blitzing is the reason for the redzone problems. All great defenses blitz in the redzone. The expect the front four to get to the QB. So to beat the Eagles all you have to do in max protect. Its concerning that our defensive coaches could not see what the offense was doing and make the necessary adjustments.
- When I went back and looked at the replay of Bears game, often the Eagles DE's would line up wide, but in lieu of staying wide and rushing the QB, they deliberatly pinched into the O line, making contact with Offensive tackle.
It appeared that they were allways guessing wrong. In passing downs, they still thought Bears would run, and played the run.— camasbud - Juan Castillo is an idiot through no fault of his own. By taking someone with an offensive background and trying to turn him into a defensive coordinator, he is a product of one of Dr. Andy "Frankenstein" Reid's science projects. Historically, our defense has always been spot on. Now we have Juan bumbling and fumbling around in the dark and it has failed miserably! This defense couldn't stop a clock. Jay Cutler had time to have lunch in the pocket before getting rid of the ball. I can only hear the late great Jim Johnson going "WTF!"— PhillyfaninFL
- Team has no heart and no leadership. Look what happens when something goes wrong. They lay down and get beat. Coaching staff gets beat every week too.— Ssteve115
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