Despite record, Eagles' defense holey unacceptable

A COMMON THEME in the old classic "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" goes like this:

Someone is mortally wounded - arrow in heart, all limbs chopped off, the plague - and is given up for dead. Except that he not only survives, but pronounces, to the amazement of all, that "I'm feeling much better."

This then, is the position taken by the Philadelphia Eagles defense three games into the 2014 season, at least as expressed by its architect, and the majority of its warriors not named Cary. The Eagles have surrendered well over 400 yards in two of the three games thus far, and 61 points over the last 2 weeks. They were on the field for nearly 23 of the first 30 minutes played last Sunday, have allowed a total of 54 points in the first half of games this season and failed to register a sack in either of their last two games.

"I saw," defensive coordinator Bill Davis said the other day, "a fresh-legged defense at the very end."

Now Bill's a great guy and has the makings of a great coordinator and that line came amid a lot more talk about tightening things up and improving technique, especially in those gory first halves of which you spend most of the time covering your eyes. But "fresh-legged" as it applies to this defense is as interpretive as the Black Knight's view that his severed arm was "only a flesh wound."

Davis used Washington's final possession of the game as evidence of fresh legs. Given that his defense had allowed Kirk Cousins to move Washington 80 yards in 1 minute, 39 seconds on the previous drive, it made only slightly more sense than the logic used by Sir Vladimir in "The Grail" to determine whether a woman with a carrot attached to her nose was indeed a witch.

Statistically, the Eagles' defense is a bloody mess. It ranks 26th in the NFL in points allowed, 26th in total yards allowed, 30th in passing yards allowed and ranks 13th against the run.

Psychologically though, they are in much better shape. Because, well, they're feeling better. As linebacker DeMeco Ryans said yesterday, "In wins there are mistakes and in losses there are mistakes. In wins it's kind of easier to fix your mistakes, because you're dealing with your mistakes in a good mood."

"There's not a panic kind of feeling going on . . . At the end of the day we made a play when we needed to make a play. It wasn't, 'Oh, phew we made it out of that one. We're still confident in what we're doing. We just need to get off blocks quicker and make more plays."

Take Bradley Fletcher, for example. Picked on incessantly by Washington Sunday, he spoke yesterday of short memory and mental toughness. "When things don't go well you just get up and go to the next play," he said. "That's the life of a cornerback. I kept battling. I kept going . . . But there are definitely things I can improve on and we can improve on."

So many things, in fact, that the answers vary with each player you ask. And while Davis scoffs at the stat and speaks of disruption as the goal, the Eagles' defense has played the first half of all three games as if they were going against teammates, not the opposition.

That lack of execution, intensity, precision - players cited all three yesterday - has fueled long drives and large deficits and allowed the opposition to use its entire playbook.

"When you play Jacksonville and you're down 17-0," said Connor Barwin, "they're going to run the ball, they're going to move the pocket and run boots because that's what they want to do. You saw the next week they got down to Washington and they gave up 10 sacks. We would have had 10 sacks if we had gone up 21-0. Against [Washington] we got down and they settled into that quick-pass game. Even if nobody blocked me I wasn't going to get a sack."

Added safety Malcolm Jenkins, "A yard on first down makes all the difference. Third-and-3-to-6, we're very good. But you get into those third-and-2s, those are hard to stop against anybody.

"It all comes hand in hand. The coverage has to buy our rushers another step, and the rushers have to get there. You look at the different games, they all take a life of themselves. But if we do a better job on first and second down where we can get them in long situations, then they have to play one-handed."

Putting up a brave front perhaps, as the Eagles' defense plays a little offense for a change. Less gore, especially in the first half, less need for the heart-in-hand heroics at the end.

"At the end of the day, it's all about, did you win the game?" said Ryans. "But we still want to be better. It's not, 'Hey, we won, so we can sweep all those things under the rug.' We know there's a lot to fix. And we will."