Paul Domowitch: McDermott wants a balanced Eagles defense

LAST YEAR, the Saints won a Super Bowl with an explosive, score-at-will offense and a defense that was really, really good at forcing turnovers, but not so good at preventing opponents from moving the football up and down the field.

The Saints finished second in the league with 39 takeaways, but ended up 20th in points allowed and 25th in yards allowed.

The Eagles' Sean McDermott loves turnovers as much as the next defensive coordinator, including the Saints' Gregg Williams. But he'd prefer to get them without being a points-and-yards sieve.

"I'm a little more in between than some other guys," said McDermott, whose defense currently leads the NFL in takeaways with 26. "If you look at the Saints last year, if you look at both of the Super Bowl defenses [Saints and Colts], they were ranked in the 20s [in points allowed].

"My gut can't handle that. Most offensive coaches, all they care about is, hey, defense, get the ball back for us. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. I want to be an aggressive defense. But I also want to be fundamentally sound at the same time.

"Turnovers are great, and that's the name of the game. But I don't just want to be feast or famine. That's not where I'm coming from. I want us to be able to say, hey, we've got a good defense whether we're getting turnovers or not."

McDermott feels that slowly but surely his young unit, which includes five regulars with fewer than 10 career starts, is becoming a good defense.

While the Eagles are ranked only 19th in the league in points allowed (22.9 per game), they held the Giants to 17 points and 208 total yards last Sunday.

Three weeks ago, they intercepted the great and powerful Peyton Manning twice and held him to 5.65 yards per attempt and a .596 completion percentage. They have been one of the best run defenses in the league over the last month-and-a-half, holding their last six opponents to 3.6 yards per carry.

"Each week, we've gotten a little bit better," McDermott said. "Fundamentally gotten better."

And each week, they continue to pile up the takeaways. Five last week against the Giants. Thirteen in the last four games. They have a league-high 19 interceptions and have recovered seven opponent fumbles.

Last year, McDermott's first as the team's defensive chief, the Eagles finished third in takeaways with 38, but 19th in points allowed (21.1).

Of the Eagles' impressive takeaways totals the last two seasons, McDermott said, "It's just the style and brand of football we like to play on defense. That's attacking and putting pressure on the quarterback and putting pressure on the receivers.

"You find ways to get turnovers. It's not always blitzing. We didn't do that a lot Sunday because of what they were doing offensively [max-protect], but we still got some interceptions [three] and forced some fumbles [two]."

While the Eagles are second in the league in scoring, it should be pointed out that the offense hasn't maximized the turnovers the defense has been creating. Those 26 takeaways have produced just 63 points. That's 2.42 points per takeaway, which puts them 19th in the league in that category.

"When we get them [turnovers], we need to turn them into points," safety Quintin Mikell said.

Mikell understands where McDermott is coming from when he talks about wanting to be a well-rounded defense that limits points and yards as well as forces turnovers. But he feels takeaways trump everything else.

"We definitely want to limit the red-zone touchdowns and the yards and stuff," Mikell said. "But we're getting the turnovers and we're winning games. At the end of the day, the Saints won the Super Bowl.

"That's Sean being a perfectionist, and I understand what he's saying. But at the same time, we're going to go out there to try and do whatever it takes to win games. Me personally? I'd rather win a championship and give up more yards, then not get to the playoffs or lose in the playoffs and shut everybody down."

AROUND THE NFC EAST

* Giants coach Tom Coughlin clearly is fed up with his team's gift-giving. They have a league-high 30 turnovers, including five in Sunday's 27-17 loss the Eagles. Turnovers are the reason Coughlin has benched running back Ahmad Bradshaw for Sunday's game against Jacksonville and replaced him with Brandon Jacobs. Bradshaw fumbled for the sixth time this season last week. Had the ball stripped from his hands by Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham. Bradshaw has averaged a fumble every 31.3 rushing attempts in his career. Jacobs has been much better at ball security, averaging one every 61.2.

"My fumbles happen on the extra effort," Bradshaw said. "All I can do is play my game. All I can do is get what I can get and go down."

* Clinton Portis probably has played his last game for the Redskins. The running back was placed on injured reserve this week after tearing an abdominal muscle in last week's 19-16 win over Tennessee. Portis missed five games this season and has played in just 13 of the Redskins' last 32 games. He'll be 30 by the start of next season and is scheduled to make $8.3 million in 2011. None of that $8.3 million is guaranteed. Redskins coach Mike Shanahan thinks Portis still can be a productive running back if he can stay healthy. But considering his injury issues the last couple of years, that's a big if.

"I don't think there's any question [he can still play]," Shanahan said. "He's got such a strong will. It all depends on does he come back 100 percent? Does he want to come back and play? He's got that inner drive that most people don't have. He wants to compete. But obviously, he's got to get well."

And stay well.

* The Eagles will face the Cowboys twice in the final 4 weeks of the season. Jon Kitna still will be the Cowboys' quarterback for the first meeting in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 12. But Tony Romo could be back for the Week 17 rematch at the Linc on Jan. 2. Romo, who fractured his clavicle on Oct. 25 against the Giants, threw for the first time on Sunday. A broken clavicle generally is a 6-to-8-week injury, which means he might be back for the Cowboys' Week 15 game against the Redskins or their Christmas Day game vs. Arizona.

2-MINUTE DRILL

From the lip:

* "We went 34-22, which is pretty good. I went out with the same winning percentage as Tom Landry, so I don't feel bad about my head-coaching career." - Former Cowboys coach Wade Phillips, who was fired earlier this month

* "Definitely, we're going to win it all. I can't guarantee it, but I can tell you we're going to win it all." - Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe.

* "One of the first things he talked about was everybody buying in and forgetting about individual success, and that it's all about the team and the things we want to get accomplished here. Everybody bought in from Day 1, and I think you're seeing the result of that." - Jets running back LaDainian Tomlinson on coach Rex Ryan.

By the numbers:

* In the last five games, Eagles opponents have completed just 17 of 42 passes on third down and have a 29.5 third-down passer rating.

* The Eagles are 81-18-1 in the Andy Reid era when they've held opponents to 17 or fewer points, including 3-1 this season.

* The Bears' last two foes (the Dolphins and Vikings) converted just two of 20 third-down opportunities.

* The Eagles have a plus-30 turnover differential the last two seasons. In Andy Reid's 12 seasons as the team's coach, they have a plus-60 turnover differential. They have only had a negative turnover differential twice in those 12 seasons - 2005 (minus-7) and 2007 (minus-8). They missed the playoffs both years.

* The Chiefs' six wins this season have come against teams with a combined record of 22-38.

* Peyton Manning has thrown at least three touchdown passes in a game 63 times in his career. Only Brett Favre has more three-TD games, with 72.

* Bucs cornerback Ronde Barber is the only player in NFL history with at least 25 sacks (26) and 40 interceptions.

* The Giants haven't allowed a sack in three straight games. It's their longest streak since 1972 when they went four games without giving up a sack.

Who would've thought:

That ex-Eagles Jason Babin and Chris Clemons would have more sacks than Trent Cole after 10 games? Babin has eight, Clemons has 7 1/2 and Cole has seven.

THAT'S SAYING THUMBTHING

Thumbs Up: To Titans coach Jeff Fisher for essentially telling quarterback Vince Young to stick his text-message apology for his behavior after Sunday's loss to the Redskins where the sun don't shine. Upset that he wasn't allowed to return to the game after suffering a thumb injury, Young exchanged words with Fisher in the locker room and told him that he wasn't quitting on the team, but was quitting on the coach. Young was placed on injured reserve earlier this week, but Fisher said he would have been benched even if he wasn't hurt. Anyway, Young, or someone with access to Young's cell phone, sent an apologetic text message to Fisher. Fisher wasn't impressed. "I'm not a real big text guy," he said. "I'm not really into this new-age stuff. I don't Twitter or tweet, but I think face-to-face is a man thing." He also questioned whether Young even sent the text. "Someone could have grabbed his phone and texted," he said. Someone like, say, his agent?

Thumbs Down: To the NFL Players Association, for its latest labor-negotiation publicity stunt. The union actually sent out letters this week to the mayors and governors of cities and states with NFL franchises, informing them of the economic impact the cancellation of the 2011 season would have on their fiefdoms. The union urged the politicians to stress to the league's owners the "importance of engaging in good-faith negotiations with the NFLPA." For starters, politicians aren't idiots. OK, maybe most of them are, but they're smart enough to know that if there is no football season next year, it would be a very bad thing for their constituents. But isn't it a little early in the game for union chief DeMaurice Smith to be predicting the end of the world? Maybe he should spend a little more time at the bargaining table and a little less time with his spin doctors dreaming up these pointless sky-is-falling PR releases.

DOMO'S RANKINGS

(Last week's rankings in parentheses)

1. Packers 7-3 (1)

2. Ravens 7-3 (3)

3. *Jets 8-2 (4)

4. *Patriots 8-2 (5)

5. *Saints 7-3 (7)

6. Eagles 7-3 (8)

7. Colts 6-4 (2)

8. Steelers 7-3 (9)

9. Giants 6-4 (6)

10. Falcons 8-2 (10)

11. Bears 7-3 (11)

12. Bucs 7-3 (15)

13. Chiefs 6-4 (16)

14. Chargers 5-5 (21)

15. Redskins 5-5 (22)

16. Raiders 5-5 (12)

17. Dolphins 5-5 (13)

18. Titans 5-5 (14)

19. Jaguars 6-4 (23)

20. *Cowboys 3-7 (24)

21. Texans 4-6 (18)

22. Browns 3-7 (19)

23. Rams 4-6 (20)

24. 49ersw 3-7 (17)

25. Seahawks 5-5 (25)

26. Broncos 3-7 (26)

27. Vikings 3-7 (27)

28. *Bengals 2-8 (28)

29. Bills 2-8 (31)

30. *Lions 2-8 (29)

31. Cardinals 3-7 (30)

32. Panthers 1-9 (32)

*Yesterday's Games Not Included.