Overall, though, the pass rush still has not been good enough.
It is the darndest dilemma.
Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson would not agree with this whole notion, by the way, but it is there in the numbers. The Eagles are not getting enough pressure on enough pass plays. We can debate the whys and the hows and the what-it-means, and we will.
But in two games so far, the Texans' David Carr and the Giants' Eli Manning have completed 70 percent of their throws against the Eagles and it isn't because either one of them is on a fast track to Canton. It is because they had too much time or it was too easy to adjust to their lack of time.
Either way, it is a disaster waiting to happen for an Eagles football team that has one of those better-win-it games coming up on Sunday at San Francisco.
Johnson, though, would disagree.
"Yeah. I think last Sunday, no question about it, excellent pass rush, good pressure on the quarterback," he said. "We had eight sacks and got really close on a couple of others, but I think the pressure was good. The biggest problem, we all know, is just giving up a couple of big plays, and that's the only thing that's kind of discouraging."
Johnson is a pretty straight shooter. It's true that the Eagles have created more pressure with their front four than at maybe any time since this staff has been here. Johnson said, "We've been fresh and the guys kind of like it. We've really been able to stay with our rotation so far and they are fresh and they seem to like it. We've got some good players rushing the passer."
Still, the numbers nag at you. The sacks, you can see. The hurries are compiled by the Eagles' coaches. Against the Giants, the Eagles had eight sacks and seven hurries, which gave them pressures on 15 out of 51 pass plays. That isn't enough.
For the first two games, it is 25 total pressures in 83 pass plays. That is 30.1 percent. And while it is a huge improvement over last season (24.8 percent, an astoundingly low number), it is nowhere near where the pass rush was in the Super Bowl season of 2004 (37.3 percent).
Instead, it is an almost identical number to 2003. That was the year when the Eagles had terrible defensive-line injuries, and played most of the season with N.D. Kalu on one end (like last year). It was the year when Andy Reid was so worried about his pass rush that he spent a zillion dollars after it was over to sign a free-agent end named Jevon Kearse
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/15580086.htm
It is the darndest dilemma.
Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson would not agree with this whole notion, by the way, but it is there in the numbers. The Eagles are not getting enough pressure on enough pass plays. We can debate the whys and the hows and the what-it-means, and we will.
But in two games so far, the Texans' David Carr and the Giants' Eli Manning have completed 70 percent of their throws against the Eagles and it isn't because either one of them is on a fast track to Canton. It is because they had too much time or it was too easy to adjust to their lack of time.
Either way, it is a disaster waiting to happen for an Eagles football team that has one of those better-win-it games coming up on Sunday at San Francisco.
Johnson, though, would disagree.
"Yeah. I think last Sunday, no question about it, excellent pass rush, good pressure on the quarterback," he said. "We had eight sacks and got really close on a couple of others, but I think the pressure was good. The biggest problem, we all know, is just giving up a couple of big plays, and that's the only thing that's kind of discouraging."
Johnson is a pretty straight shooter. It's true that the Eagles have created more pressure with their front four than at maybe any time since this staff has been here. Johnson said, "We've been fresh and the guys kind of like it. We've really been able to stay with our rotation so far and they are fresh and they seem to like it. We've got some good players rushing the passer."
Still, the numbers nag at you. The sacks, you can see. The hurries are compiled by the Eagles' coaches. Against the Giants, the Eagles had eight sacks and seven hurries, which gave them pressures on 15 out of 51 pass plays. That isn't enough.
For the first two games, it is 25 total pressures in 83 pass plays. That is 30.1 percent. And while it is a huge improvement over last season (24.8 percent, an astoundingly low number), it is nowhere near where the pass rush was in the Super Bowl season of 2004 (37.3 percent).
Instead, it is an almost identical number to 2003. That was the year when the Eagles had terrible defensive-line injuries, and played most of the season with N.D. Kalu on one end (like last year). It was the year when Andy Reid was so worried about his pass rush that he spent a zillion dollars after it was over to sign a free-agent end named Jevon Kearse
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/15580086.htm
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