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Eagles' defense needs to get better

INDIANAPOLIS - The Eagles walked the tightrope again on Monday night and made it across one more time. They promise not to turn this into a habit.

Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks and safety Malcolm Jenkins. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)
Eagles linebacker Mychal Kendricks and safety Malcolm Jenkins. (David Maialetti/Staff Photographer)Read more

INDIANAPOLIS - The Eagles walked the tightrope again on Monday night and made it across one more time. They promise not to turn this into a habit.

Just as it did in the opener against Jacksonville, the defense gave up 17 points in the first half to the Indianapolis Colts. And just as it did against the Jags, the defense got enough stops, made enough plays, and forced enough turnovers to locate a win in what could have been a mess.

"You're not going to make a living 17 points down in this league," Chip Kelly said just moments after Cody Parkey's game-ending field goal gave the Eagles a 30-27 win. "But [the defense] came up big when they had to come up big."

The Eagles were never really 17 points down in this one, but it felt that way when Indianapolis used a surprisingly effective run game to hold a 17-6 lead at halftime. If the Colts could do that before quarterback Andrew Luck warmed up his engine, what would happen in the second half?

It was a question worth asking, and the defense had its problems with Luck, but a pair of takeaways by the Eagles were able to slow down the Colts just enough and give Nick Foles just enough possessions to make the improbable comeback possible.

"We know you've got to play four quarters," nose tackle Bennie Logan said. "And DeMeco [Ryans] says the longer the game goes, the stronger we get.

"We made mistakes we had to correct, but when we needed a play, we stepped up and made plays. There are going to be games like that when the stuff hits the fan. We train for situations like that."

Well, OK. After two games, it is difficult to prove differently, but there was an awful lot of stuff hitting a pretty big fan in the first half.

The Colts gained 101 yards on the ground in the opening half, as they used the tandem of Trent Richardson and Ahmad Bradshaw to beat the Eagles to the edge on some occasions and then exploit the inside with an unexpected power-running game. On Indianapolis' three scoring drives of the first half, the Colts gained a total of 174 yards, with 97 of them coming on the ground.

"We had to add a couple of calls to defend those big tight-end sets, which they used more than we anticipated," defensive coordinator Bill Davis said. "You could tell they felt they had something on us, so we adjusted some calls and alignments. It shows the character we have to come out of that hole."

Luck adjusted by going down the field more in the second half, and he had the Colts in front, 20-6, midway through the third quarter.

Foles got one touchdown back with help from a long interference penalty, and then the Eagles defense rose up to make their first big play of the game. With a 20-13 lead and the ball late in the quarter, the Colts fumbled it away when Fletcher Cox stripped Richardson from behind and Ryans fell on the loose ball to set up the offense at the Indianapolis 26-yard line.

Having just scored on a LeSean McCoy run, the Eagles tied the game when Darren Sproles unfurled a gravity-defying, 19-yard run to bring the Eagles all the way back and put them in position to pull out the win.

The defense didn't help that cause, however, allowing the Colts to drive 80 yards to take a 27-20 lead. Inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks was out of the game by then, going down with a calf injury, and the Eagles were forced to insert Casey Matthews in the lineup. That's been a position where the Eagles knew they were thin. They lost Travis Long at the end of the preseason and Najee Goode in the season opener. Only Matthews and Emmanuel Acho were available last night to back up Kendricks and Ryans in the middle.

That's where the Colts stopped, though. Malcolm Jenkins made the second big play with an interception of Luck, and, after Foles and Sproles combined to tie it again, the third big play arrived on an incomplete third-down pass by Luck just before the two-minute warning. The Colts punted, the Eagles drove, and Pelkey put away the game.

"Coming back gives us great confidence, but you can't keep playing around with that," outside linebacker Trent Cole said. "There's nothing we could do about it tonight, but we were the stronger team and pulled it out at the end.

Maybe it wasn't always pretty, but it was a win. Everyone agrees, however, that giving up 17 points every first half is no way to conduct business.

"If we do that, I won't make it through the season," Davis said.

Neither will the undefeated streak.

@bobfordsports