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Bowen: Birds expect Vikes to hit ground running

IT'S A TRICKY process, explaining how what had been the NFL's third-ranked run defense managed to give up 230 yards rushing last week in the Eagles' 27-20 loss at Washington, to a team that previously hadn't run the ball very well.

IT'S A TRICKY process, explaining how what had been the NFL's third-ranked run defense managed to give up 230 yards rushing last week in the Eagles' 27-20 loss at Washington, to a team that previously hadn't run the ball very well.

But two things from that unexpected stumble are most relevant, heading into Sunday's visit from the 5-0 Minnesota Vikings, the NFL's last unbeaten team.

1. The Eagles know there is blood in the water. Even though Minnesota averages an NFL-low 2.5 yards per carry, Adrian Peterson sidelined by a torn meniscus, the Vikes do run it a fair amount to keep the pressure off quarterback Sam Bradford. Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said Thursday: "I don't care if they're averaging 1 yard a rush. You watch what we did on film last week . . . they are in their game plan saying right now, 'We're going to run it 65 times.' And it's our job to make sure that they don't have success doing that. If they're not having success doing that, then it's not opening up the play-action game and it's also not slowing down our pass rush. That's our responsibility."

2. The Eagles, whose defensive front seven was perceived as the strength of the team during their 3-0 start, don't think that has stopped being the case. They don't think they were overmatched last week, they think they stopped doing little things, and one thing led to another, until disaster built upon disaster.

Explaining that is where it gets tricky.

"We were bad. I was bad," defensive end Connor Barwin said Thursday, when told of Schwartz's "65 times" comment. "The Vikings are probably pretty excited.

"Things kind of compounded, so to speak. You try to cover somebody here, cover a mistake here, it starts to compound. It really opened up everything for them.

"In the first three weeks, it was kind of the opposite. We were taking things away earlier, and it was compounding against the offense; they were getting limited in what they were able to do. It made us get better as the game went on. The Washington game was the exact opposite."

"This type of (wide-9 front) defense, if one person is out of their gap, gets split, and it gets split in a hurry," middle linebacker Jordan Hicks said. "There were times when we had multiple people out of their gaps . . . It's dialing back to the basics. I think we've done a good job (this week). The tempo at practice has been really good . . . We've taken those run downs in practice and those run periods in practice seriously. Gotten back to what we do."

Of course, in those first three games, the Eagles played most of the way with a lead. The opponent was forced to throw in the fourth quarter, and the pass rush racked up sacks. The Eagles did not sack Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins and they never led.

A week earlier in Detroit, the Eagles trailed 14-0 and 21-7, but Schwartz was able to get his unit back on track at halftime. The Lions managed only a field goal in the second half, and even that was set up by a Ryan Mathews fumble. Last Sunday was different.

"I think it's my job to find a way to put a fire out," Schwartz said, after noting that his defense was bad last week "on all four levels" - defensive line, linebackers, secondary and defensive coordinator. "And to find something that when we're not having a great day, to be able to have a changeup somewhere - unfortunately my changeups didn't work, either."

Schwartz cited a crack-toss play. The first time the Eagles saw it, they didn't get to the edge quick enough and it went for big yards. The next time, everybody got to the edge, including defenders who were supposed to stay home; the runner saw the overpursuit and cut back. Same result.

Another example of one bad play leading to another came on a second-quarter Cousins scramble. The pass rush collapsed the pocket. Cousins, who is righthanded, had to flee to his left, which is what Schwartz wanted. It was third-and-9. Cousins looked like he would get maybe 5 yards, with one of the Eagles' most dependable tacklers, linebacker Nigel Bradham, closing in. Down 7-0, having allowed a TD on the previous possession, the defense was going to get off the field.

Then Bradham whiffed. Cousins picked up the first down. The next play was a 45-yard Robert Kelley run, and the Redskins were on their way to a 14-0 lead.

Bradham said he was savoring a chance to really punish a quarterback in the open field, more than trying to stop the first down.

"Obviously, I was trying to use the sideline, and I didn't want to slow down. I was going to give him everything I had," Bradham said. "When you do that, you have some guys in pursuit, they put their trust in me to make the play so they kind of slowed up a little bit, and he cringed on me at the last second, and he kind of cut inside. I was going too fast, I tried to give him my best shot.

"Could've slowed down, not tried to hit him so hard. He probably would have ended up running out of bounds (short of the sticks)."

One obstacle to getting back on track this week is the presumed absence of starting defensive tackle Bennie Logan, who is "week-to-week" with a left groin injury suffered against the Redskins. Schwartz noted that Logan was one of the few Eagles who was playing well, until he had to leave in the second quarter. Beau Allen is scheduled to start. Schwartz said Fletcher Cox might shoulder a heavier load in the rotation, and rookie Destiny Vaeao should get more snaps.

"I've played a lot of snaps in this defense, I've played a lot over the last three years," Allen said. "I've started games for this team (two last season). It's kind of nothing really new."

Schwartz talked about pursuit angles, about how easy it is to be held when you "shoulder" a blocker instead of directly engaging him, and about discipline - Cox, the Eagles' most dominant player, has taken third-down roughing penalties in each of the last two games, both leading to opposition touchdowns.

"If we don't learn from them, we're doomed to repeat those mistakes," Schwartz said.

@LesBowen

Blog: philly.com/Eaglesblog