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Phil Sheridan: Against awful Jags, defense comes together

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Darryl Tapp didn't want to reveal the "weaknesses" the Eagles spotted while watching game tape of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Asante Samuel intercepted one pass and deflected two others against the Jaguars. (Yong Kim / Staff Photographer)
Asante Samuel intercepted one pass and deflected two others against the Jaguars. (Yong Kim / Staff Photographer)Read more

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Darryl Tapp didn't want to reveal the "weaknesses" the Eagles spotted while watching game tape of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"Can't say," Tapp said after getting his first sack as an Eagle. "We might see them again."

That seems incredibly unlikely, since a rematch would be possible only in the Super Bowl. The team the Eagles crushed, 28-3, on Sunday has approximately zero chance of winning a championship. The Jags are wretched, a fact that makes it difficult to get a handle on how good the Eagles' defense might be.

If the Eagles made beating David Garrard and the Jags look easy, it may simply be because it was easy. It certainly was fun, as the Eagles racked up six sacks, flustered Garrard all afternoon, and held the Jaguars to a lone 51-yard field goal.

Considering that the Eagles allowed a league-high 59 points in their first two games, that's a major step forward. And they did it against a Pro Bowl quarterback. Yes, believe it or not, Garrard was invited to play in the all-star game last season after most of the other AFC quarterbacks withdrew.

"It was really embarrassing out there," Garrard said after completing 13 of 30 passes for 105 yards. His quarterback rating was 38.9, a ridiculous and, yes, embarrassing figure. Garrard also threw at least four passes that should have been interceptions; Asante Samuel was the only Eagle to hang on to one.

But playing a bad team with an ineffective quarterback was no guarantee of success. Last week, Detroit Lions backup Shaun Hill put 32 points on the scoreboard, throwing a pretty good scare into the Eagles. The Eagles needed to show something after that white-knuckle performance.

This week, with another large lead, the defensive line simply went on a rampage.

"That's the greatest feeling for a defensive lineman," end Trent Cole said. "You can just pin your ears back and go."

"It was relentless today," rookie defensive lineman Brandon Graham said. "That was the memo for the whole week. It starts up front. We were really going to see what our front four's got. I'm glad we did what we were supposed to do."

Cole sacked Garrard twice. Juqua Parker got him once. Those guys are accustomed to getting to the quarterback. It was the contributions from Tapp, Trevor Laws and Nate Allen that made this such a rout for the Eagles.

Tapp, acquired from Seattle in the off-season, was finally in uniform after being inactive for the first two games. Allen, the rookie safety, got his first career sack on the next-to-last play of the game. Laws, a second-round draft choice in 2008, finally got his first sack, too.

"Long time coming," Laws said.

It isn't likely to be this easy for the Eagles the rest of the season.

They are going to face Donovan McNabb at home next week. Peyton Manning, Tony Romo, Matt Ryan, Eli Manning and Jay Cutler await. The schedule makers gave the Eagles a road that gets steeper as the season goes on.

These last two games were absolute must-wins if the Eagles are going to have a chance to compete for a playoff spot later on. They are games they likely would have won whether Michael Vick or Kevin Kolb played quarterback. They are games that tell us very little for sure about this team.

But confidence is a funny thing. The Eagles are suddenly a team on a winning streak. They are in first place in a mystifying NFC East. They have a winnable game, their first against a division rival, at home next week. Things have a way of snowballing for a football team.

Better to have good things snowballing than bad things.

The defensive linemen were all smiles after this game. It's fun to impose chaos on the carefully designed order of an opponent's game plan. On a hot and humid afternoon, they stayed fresh with a regular rotation. Everyone got a chance to play.

The Eagles have had some great defenses over the years. There have been dominating, intimidating groups like the teams led by Reggie White and Seth Joyner. There have been tough, aggressive bunches like the ones led by Jeremiah Trotter and Brian Dawkins.

This team hasn't established its identity yet. After getting run over by Green Bay and then nearly collapsing in Detroit, these Eagles needed to prove something - to the world and to themselves.

"We just went out there and we played Eagles football," Graham said. "We showed them we can turn it on when we don't make mistakes."

If this defense is going to live up to the standards of its predecessors, Graham and Allen and Stewart Bradley are going to be the leaders. They are going to have to put this kind of pressure on the game's better quarterbacks.

If they're on the threshold, it's fitting the Jaguars provided the doormat.