New scheme making Eagles' defenders happy

INDIANAPOLIS - Opponents will find ways to work the ball downfield against the Eagles. Andrew Luck put together some short, quick throws that worked Saturday night, just not enough of them to turn the tide in a 33-23 Eagles preseason victory. The Colts also hit big on a screen that turned the Birds' aggressiveness against them.

But if it's safe to infer anything from the preseason, we're going to go on ahead and infer this: The days of opening the NFL's defensive rankings and automatically going to the bottom of the list to find the Eagles seem to be over.

Jim Schwartz's unit has allowed 10 points, total, in three preseason games. Luck had no running game to take the pressure off his dropbacks Saturday night, and he was hit hard and often, sacked three times.

Defensive end Brandon Graham is in his seventh season here. He knew to evoke the usual qualifiers late Saturday night, as Graham walked toward the bus, past teammates piling food from chafing dishes on plastic plates in a passageway underneath Lucas Oil Stadium.

But it was clear Graham was excited.

"Don't get too far ahead of ourselves. A lot of people haven't game-planned us, and we haven't game-planned anybody, either," Graham said, though when a questioner offered that excuse to Luck, the QB said the Colts actually put a fair amount of study into this game.

Nonetheless, Brandon . . .

"This defense is built for us. The people that's here, the personnel, and that's good . . . You don't have to have a down year to get the personnel here," Graham said. "For us, we've just been lickin' our chops and happy to be back into this type of defense."

"This type of defense" being attacking, from a 4-3 setup. The corners aren't elite and the linebacking is thin, but this bunch really can get after people.

Safety Malcolm Jenkins said the Eagles "did a good job of really stopping the run early, and then when we did get to some third-down and passing situations, we were able to get a lot of pressure with a four-man rush, which puts another guy another guy in coverage, makes the quarterback hold the ball longer."

This, Jenkins allowed, is a "pretty good formula."

The newest linebacker, Stephen Tulloch, wore pads for the first time since the Lions' 2015 season ended, back on Jan. 3, he said. Tulloch has played six seasons for Schwartz, in Tennessee and Detroit. Asked how he thought the defense looked against Luck and the Colts, Tulloch said:

"The same way it always looks when my man Schwartz puts it together. It's very simple . . . He's going to work to the guys' strengths. It's always been a productive defense as long as I've been a part of it. He has the talent here to be able to execute the defense.

"If they have long drives, red-zone defense is how you win games. Just watching last week, and the way the team performed in the red zone this past week, it shows you that the talent is there, and guys are willing to fight, throughout the whole series."

Vinny Curry's knee sprain was not serious, Curry said . . . David Watford, the Hampton QB learning to play wide receiver, caught a 28-yard Chase Daniel TD pass, then survived Sunday's cutdown to 73 players. Name to watch for the practice squad . . . "He threw a great ball. I just need to make sure I train on snapping my head," said Nelson Agholor, when asked about the Sam Bradford pass that bounced off him to the Colts' Darius Butler. "I did one part of my responsibility, I saw man coverage, I tried to get flat, but at the end of the day, I need to snap my head and get prepared for the football."

@LesBowen

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