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Jim Schwartz accepts some blame for defense's woes

Asked how he was doing Thursday morning, Jim Schwartz replied that we'd find out Sunday. There was little time for pleasantries during a week spent trying to fix an Eagles defense that has problems on "four levels."

Asked how he was doing Thursday morning, Jim Schwartz replied that we'd find out Sunday. There was little time for pleasantries during a week spent trying to fix an Eagles defense that has problems on "four levels."

"We were bad at defensive line, we were bad at the linebackers, we were bad in the secondary, and we were bad at the defensive coordinator position," said Schwartz, the defensive coordinator.

Other than that, it was a good afternoon against the Washington Redskins on Sunday.

Safety Malcolm Jenkins, who returned an interception for a touchdown, said defensive tackle Bennie Logan "was probably the only guy who had a good game" - and Logan left in the second quarter and is not expected to play Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. Schwartz must make the necessary adjustments so the Eagles defense looks more like the one that made him a fan favorite during the first three weeks, and not the one that has left the team on a two-game losing streak with the undefeated Vikings visiting Lincoln Financial Field.

"I think it's my job to find a way to put a fire out," Schwartz said. "Unfortunately my change-ups didn't work, either. . . . We got no sacks in the game. That's not us. We've got to have pressure. Our front four has to carry us. We've got good players up there and they've got to do it. When they are not having a good day rushing, our blitz package has to be able to come through. We weren't successful in that."

Stopping the run is a good place to start. The defensive players say that the Eagles must force opponents into passing situations, when the Eagles' pass rush can be effective. But if they cannot make foes one-dimensional, opponents will gash the Eagles for big gains and it will affect the pass rush. The Redskins rushed for 230 yards while the Eagles struggled to contain and tackle.

"To put it plainly, we missed a lot of our gaps and we had bad fundamentals going into it," linebacker Jordan Hicks said. "Really, it was all on us. This type of defense, if one person is out of their gap, gets split. And it gets split in a hurry. There were times there were multiple people out of our gaps. And that's, if you can imagine, not a good situation to be in."

The Vikings lost running back Adrian Peterson for the season and are averaging only 2.5 yards per carry. So they might not seem like the type of team that will hurt the Eagles on the ground - unless the Eagles play the way they did Sunday.

"After watching us on film last week, they are going to test us," Schwartz said. "I don't care if they are averaging one 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."

The Vikings don't have a prolific offense, but they also don't make many mistakes. It helps that quarterback Sam Bradford has not thrown an interception this season. Schwartz has insight on Bradford from four months practicing against him, but he said it doesn't take four months to know Bradford isn't that mobile, is a good pocket passer, and is accurate. Also, Bradford is familiar with the Eagles scheme to the point that Schwartz is going to change some of the defense's calls.

But it's not the play calls that will be the factor as much as the players. As Schwartz said, if the defensive line doesn't get a sack, it's going to be a problem. Five of the Eagles' 11 highest-paid players are defensive linemen, and they rely on a four-man rush.

Beau Allen will likely replace Logan on the defensive line, but another personnel change the Eagles could make is to reduce Connor Barwin's playing time. Barwin, who is one of the Eagles' most important players, has nine tackles and one sack while playing a line-high 79 percent of the defensive snaps. Schwartz thinks Barwin can be more effective with less playing time, and the Eagles can get closer to the defensive end balance by using Brandon Graham and Vinny Curry more.

"I like playing as much as possible," Barwin said. "I've played a lot of snaps my whole career. I understand what [Schwartz] was saying. If you look at the game last week, it looked like I wore down. And I was going against a good player and a good offense, but there were some snaps that I didn't look like myself. And it might have just been I wasn't fresh, or as fresh as I've been."

The Eagles also must reduce their penalties. They had 27 penalties during the last two games, including two personal fouls by Fletcher Cox that cost the Eagles eight points.

"The last week cost us, and the week before cost us - and it cost me, too," said Cox, who was fined by the league after both games.

Another difference from the first three games has been the deficits the Eagles needed to overcome. The Eagles played with a lead throughout most of the first three weeks - especially in the second half. They went into 14-0 holes the last two games. Early points are one way of forcing the opponent to be one-dimensional, and it's especially relevant at home because crowd noise becomes a factor.

The defense is aware of what must improved. Whether the Eagles do it will be seen by Schwartz's mood Sunday.

"We need to strive to be more consistent and, like I said, that goes for all three levels of the defense," Schwartz said. "It goes for coaching as well."

Extra points

Logan (groin) did not practice and cornerback Ron Brooks (calf) was limited. Every other player was a full participant, including wide receiver Jordan Matthews (knee) and center Jason Kelce (foot).

zberman@phillynews.com

@ZBerm