Eagles defense not worried about sacks

A SUSTAINED pass rush is not the end-all, be-all for a successful defense.

In 2013, the Eagles won 10 games and captured the NFC East title with a defense that ranked 20th with 37 sacks.

Still, if you can apply consistent pressure on the quarterback, it makes everything else you want to accomplish on defense that much easier.

"It's pass pressure," Eagles defensive coordinator Billy Davis said. "It's disrupting rhythm."

Whether it is by design or necessity, Davis speaks of "pressure" and not sacks when he describes what he wants to see from his defense.

Of course, he'd like to see the Birds dropping quarterbacks on their backsides for losses at a rate better than in 2013, but he says just getting close enough, quick enough can be effective to make a quarterback have to react to the oncoming bodies.

"It's not a concern at all," Davis said of the Eagles not being highly rated in sacks. "We talk about it often, but are we moving the quarterback off the spot?

"When you study the tape over and over again and you see who is moving the quarterback off his spot, that is more important to us than the sacks are because other things happen when you move them off the spot, the rhythm of the offense is broken down, incomplete passes, turnovers, all of those things are tied to it."

I understand what Davis is saying; especially since the Eagles still look like a team ready to have a breakout season in the sack department.

Disrupting the progress of the offense, by making the quarterback do things quicker than he wants to, is probably the most vital component of good pass defense.

But you can't diminish the value of the sack.

Sacks and turnovers by the defense are like touchdowns by the offense.

They are the game-changers, the momentum-shifters.

Few things energize a defense more or brings a home crowd to life better than a defender getting hold of a quarterback and slamming him to the turf for a sack.

Few things demoralize an offense more than getting beat for a clean shot at the quarterback.

All of the benefits Davis talks about gaining from pressure are amplified when that pressure results in a sack.

Quarterbacks don't start seeing shadows out of the corners of their eyes because a defender almost got him.

But they get happy feet when know they are facing a defense that is a constant threat to put them on their butts.

Sacks are an advantage in intimidation.

All of the successful defenses have had a sack component as a big part of the arsenal.

Last season, the Eagles got eight sacks from linebacker Trent Cole, five from Connor Barwin and four from both Mychal Kendricks and DeMeco Ryans.

That's simply not enough.

The Eagles don't have lockdown cornerbacks, and with the emphasis on the rules against illegal contact, an already questionable secondary will come under more scrutiny.

One of the best ways to alleviate pressure on the secondary would be for the front seven to get more pressure on quarterbacks and not allow them to get too comfortable.

At the beginning of August, the Eagles brought in linebacker Kevin Greene, who has the third highest sack total in NFL history, to be a guest coach of the skill he mastered.

Davis said Greene brought a simplistic approach. "It was a very basic, fundamental way of rushing the passer."

Without stronger one-on-one corners, the Eagles don't want to get blitz happy like they were back in the days of legendary defensive coordinator Jim Johnson.

They don't have the personnel to successfully do that the way Johnson's defenses could.

The Eagles had just five sacks in their four preseason games, but Cole said that does not mean they won't come once the regular season begins.

"We have very talented guys," said Cole, who is second in Eagles history with 79 career sacks. "You really can't get into the groove [in the preseason]. Sacks are hard to come by in this league. It's hard to get them. We're just going to keep pushing ahead and improving."