Eagles say they need to do a better job on third down

MAYBE THE Eagles' offense needs to play the Eagles' defense.

Sam Bradford and his merry band of underachievers rank 31st in NFL third-down conversions heading into Sunday's visit from the New Orleans Saints, moving the chains at a 26.5 percent rate.

Bill Davis' defense actually had been doing a decent job getting off the field on third down until Sunday's game at Washington, when the immortal Kirk Cousins converted nine of 17, dropping the Birds' defense into a tie for 16th in the NFL in that category, at 40 percent. Meanwhile, Bradford and Co. managed to convert only four of their 12 third-down attempts. It was a glaring difference in a three-point game.

"The way our offense runs (with tempo), we have to be one of the better teams in the league on third down to be successful," tight end Zach Ertz said yesterday. "We go three-and-out (repeatedly) early in the game, the defense kinda, it wears on them for later in the game . . . We're gonna fix that."

"I think a lot of it goes to first and second down," Chip Kelly said yesterday, when asked about the offense's third-down issues. "I've got to do a better job playcalling and put us in better situations, so we've got a little bit (more) manageable third-down situations."

Bradford, asked what the third-down issue is, said: "There's a lot of 'em. I don't think it's one issue. I think it's all over the place. We've had some missed assignments, some missed throws and drops."

Bradford agreed that playing better earlier in the sequence would take a lot of the pressure off third down. The central culprit there would be the fact that according to Football Outsiders, 33 percent of the Eagles' runs this season have been "stuffed" - they either were held for no gain or they lost yardage.

Asked about the Eagles' offense yesterday on a conference call with Philadelphia-area reporters, Saints coach Sean Payton said: "We kind of went through some of the same struggles at the start, and battled the early-down efficiency. In some of these games, you turn to your call sheet and you're looking at your third-and-7s, third-and-9s, third-and-10s. I'm sure they're preaching the same thing we are, with first- and second-down efficiency."

Payton's offense ranks third in the league on third down, converting at a 47.4 percent rate. His defense is allowing 38 percent on conversions, putting the Saints three spots ahead of the Eagles in the league rankings.

"The first two games, (first and second downs were) our main problem," Bradford said. "It's hard to be efficient and convert a high percentage of third downs when you're in third-and-7, third-and-8, longer yardages. On first and second down, we've got to do a better job of just being efficient. We can't have negative plays, whether they be negative runs, sacks, even incompletions . . . We've got to do a better job of getting into third-and-2 or third-and-3."

The Eagles have managed to mess up some of the manageable third downs, as well. Sunday, with the Eagles up four points and needing to eat up some clock, just under 9 minutes remaining, Washington neglected to cover Darren Sproles on third-and-6 from the Redskins' 46. That should have been pretty darned easy to convert. Though Bradford had good protection, his pass was behind Sproles, and maybe came in harder than it needed to be thrown, given that Sproles was all alone.

On replay, it seemed Sproles could have caught the ball, turned down the left sideline, and run quite a ways. But even though he planted his feet and got both hands on it, the pass bounced away, and Donnie Jones took the field.

"We've got the right plays called. We just have to do 'em right," Sproles said.

Asked whether he should have caught that ball, Sproles said: "I don't know. What did you see?"

The Eagles' defense got the momentum going the wrong way early in Sunday's game, when a unit that prides itself on stopping the run was gashed for 42 yards on a first-series, third-and-19 draw by Chris Thompson. Davis' inside linebackers were at opposite sidelines, in pass coverage, and the middle was wide open. Safety Walter Thurmond had a shot at limiting the damage, but he missed the tackle, which eventually was made by cornerback Byron Maxwell, who bruised his quadriceps on the play and left the game.

Davis said the coverage was designed to stop a vertical passing attempt, not a draw, but "we had three guys converging on it and just missed."

"I see a lineman come out. I'm trying not to get picked off by the lineman, trying to stay alive. I kind of took a bad angle, because of that situation," Thurmond said. "I just let my feet die a little bit . . . I didn't have my feet underneath me to make the wrap-and-roll tackle. It was more of a diving situation. Backs are just too good in this league to be able to make arm tackles like that.

"I think we could have been more aggressive . . . to be able to read and react on that play, and stop them short of the first down. That could have changed the dynamic of the game. They get that long run, they get the (subsequent) field goal, and if we get that stop, the offense gets the ball, we have momentum."

Outside linebacker Connor Barwin said "there was no theme" to Sunday's third-down troubles. The Redskins converted four of their first five third downs and both thirds they faced on their defining 90-yard, 15-play drive for the game-winning touchdown, scored with 26 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

"A couple of missed tackles," Barwin said. "You've got to rally to the ball on those plays."

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian