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Brookover: Eagles hope defensive domination is not a false positive

Jim Schwartz exaggerated only a little bit after being asked how much stock he puts into what he sees during the preseason.

Nolan Carroll celebrates with his teammates after scoring a touchdown against the Steelers.
Nolan Carroll celebrates with his teammates after scoring a touchdown against the Steelers.Read more(Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)

Jim Schwartz exaggerated only a little bit after being asked how much stock he puts into what he sees during the preseason.

"For a long time I was with Tennessee, and our biggest division rival was the Colts," the Eagles defensive coordinator said. "Every year the Colts would go 0-4 in the preseason. And if you said, 'Oh, they're going to be down this year,' you were on the wrong boat."

Schwartz never jumped off the SS Peyton Manning because he was sure the quarterback would captain the Colts to another successful voyage once the games had meaning.

"They were a veteran team," Schwartz said. "They were getting through. Peyton didn't play a whole lot [in the preseason]. Every year they were Super Bowl contenders."

For the record, the Colts went 3-15 in exhibition games during Schwartz's final four seasons as the defensive coordinator with the Titans. They were 51-13 during the regular season and made two trips to the Super Bowl.

Schwartz also recalled how the Lions went 0-16 in 2008, the year before his arrival as head coach, despite winning all four of their preseason games.

This came up Tuesday morning at the NovaCare Complex because the defense is the one department after two preseason games that the Eagles should feel really good about. Schwartz's defense has allowed just one touchdown and recorded eight takeaways, including seven interceptions, in the first two preseason games. Duplicate that kind of production in the regular season and talk of the 1985 Chicago Bears will circulate.

For now, however, Schwartz is holding off on the back-patting drills. Still, there are things that he saw in the first two preseason games that pleased him. What he is looking to see is how well his defensive players are executing the scheme and the "individual production" within that scheme.

"Can you make the plays that should come to you?" he said.

Strangely, it was a 14-play sequence that yielded 72 yards to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday that seemed to satisfy Schwartz the most. That was the second most yards the Eagles have allowed in a series during their two preseason games, but it ended with a Malcolm Jenkins interception in the end zone.

"That's very, very difficult for a defense," Schwartz said. "They were going three yards, four yards, five yards, and they kept moving the chains. Usually in those [long drives] somebody breaks down, somebody misses a tackle, somebody blows an assignment, somebody gets frustrated and tries to make a play they shouldn't make and then you end up with a touchdown.

"What I was proud of the defense for in that case is that nobody panicked. They just kept playing. Everybody did their assignment, and we ended up with a turnover that came off it. I think you're looking for those things in the preseason."

Exhibitions are always going to come with disclaimers. That was Landry Jones, not Ben Roethlisberger, making the throws on the Eagles' four interceptions against the Steelers. The defense has played only one quarter and four series against a starting quarterback so far this season, and on three of those series Jameis Winston and Tampa Bay averaged 7.1 yards per play and scored a touchdown.

The other series ended after one play with Fletcher Cox's registering a sack and forcing a Winston fumble that the playmaking defensive tackle also recovered. Barring injury, we should see plenty of great plays from Cox this season, and there is reason to believe the defensive line is the team's greatest strength.

Defensive tackle Bennie Logan said he told teammate Vinny Curry that the defense has a chance to be special. Connor Barwin, however, is not ready for any sort of declaration after two exhibition games.

"I think we got a long way to go still," he said. "Obviously we believe in who we have on this defense. I think we're a talented group. I think we all believe in the coaches we have and Coach Schwartz's system, but I want to see us in regular games against top running backs and top quarterbacks before I'll start saying anything like that."

The Eagles will go against Andrew Luck and the Colts on Saturday, and that should give us a better gauge of the defense. Luck completed all eight of his passes for 71 yards in his 2016 exhibition debut last week against Baltimore.

"We don't know how long Luck will be in there, but hopefully he'll be in there while we're in there," Barwin said. "You obviously want to go against the best, and he's one of the best in the league, so that will give us a good idea of where we're at."

It should give us a better idea, but we should always remember that these NFL exhibition games have been providing false positives and negatives for years.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob