Defense- pretty discouraging

[Eagle60]

DON’T BLAME THE TEMPO

The Eagles have several players among the league leaders in snaps. Per Pro Football Focus, Connor Barwin, DeMeco Ryans and Cary Williams have all played the most snaps at their respective positions. Fletcher Cox and Nate Allen are in the top-five.

So the problem is simple, right? The offense moves quickly, sometimes strikes out, and the defense is forced to take the field more often than other teams?

Wrong. We mentioned this earlier in the season, but it’s worth revisiting. The defense has been on the field for 167 possessions, per Football Outsiders. The league average is 163. And that’s spread out over 13 games. Ten teams have been on the field for more defensive possessions than the Eagles.

The problem is not the offense’s tempo. It’s the defense’s inability to get off the field. The Eagles face 6.24 plays per defensive drive. That’s dead-last in the league. And they are forcing three-and-outs 18 percent of the time. That ranks second-to-last.

Bottom line: If the defense did a better job of getting off the field, it wouldn’t be playing so many snaps. The problem is independent of what’s happening on the offensive side of the ball

[kyfred]

This is as much a product of team depth as it is the defenses ability to get off the field.

[MDFAN]

Have said it for 15 years -- TOP doesn't tire a D out--- the # of plays do. They need to get themselves OFF the field. Especially on 3rd down and more than 3, not sure i have seen a team give up more 1st downs on 3rd and long as this team (Probably the poor secondary), but god that is hard to watch..

[Eagle60]

Have said it for 15 years -- TOP doesn't tire a D out--- the # of plays do. They need to get themselves OFF the field. Especially on 3rd down and more than 3, not sure i have seen a team give up more 1st downs on 3rd and long as this team (Probably the poor secondary), but god that is hard to watch..

I know TOP is a pet peeve of yours, and it seems that most modern coaches are in agreement with you. For the most part stats don't mean a whole lot to me anyway. It's the eyeball test along with the scoreboard that count.

[stocknowledge]

The fact that the defense cannot get off the field quickly is probably the most important determinant of why our TOP is so out of whack - more so than the ability of the offense to score so quickly. To their credit, the defense has stiffened near the goal line, which is why they rank 17th in scoring and 32nd in number of plays allowed.

It is a credit to the conditioning of the team (which was mentioned in another thread) that this defense hasn't suffered more injuries than it has (knock on wood!).

As shown in the San Diego and Minnesota games, teams that can control the ball and score will beat us. The Chicago Bears have the ability to control the ball and score, and present an enormous challenge for our defense this week. It is going to be very tough for us to get a win on Sunday.

[rspurr]

Have said it for 15 years -- TOP doesn't tire a D out--- the # of plays do. They need to get themselves OFF the field. Especially on 3rd down and more than 3, not sure i have seen a team give up more 1st downs on 3rd and long as this team (Probably the poor secondary), but god that is hard to watch..

What about last year's team? I guess they gave up long touchdown passes on 1st and 2nd down so they weren't in as many 3rd and longs.

[Eaglebreath]

They can't get off the field on third down to save their ass. We can talk about TOP and # of plays all day long, but the bottom line is that you can't allow the other team to drive down the field at will every time they have the football. Yea, they do a good job of tightening up in the redzone, and that has cut the number of points they are giving up, but you simply cannot allow teams to covert on third down all game long, and expect to win.

It's a huge problem.

[musicman]

They can't get off the field on third down to save their ass. We can talk about TOP and # of plays all day long, but the bottom line is that you can't allow the other team to drive down the field at will every time they have the football. Yea, they do a good job of tightening up in the redzone, and that has cut the number of points they are giving up, but you simply cannot allow teams to covert on third down all game long, and expect to win.

It's a huge problem.

JMO, but the primary culprit is the DBs,we don't have a Dawk or even a Dawklite to come up for those 3rd and shorts and we don't have anyone capable at this time of shutting down Cole Beasley,much less a stud WR.Add in the OLB duo of Cole and Graham who are out of position and 3rd downs are interesting to say the least.There is however some promise in the front 6 of 7, another draft/ FA and this team has a very good/excellent chance to be quite good next season. If we return even 2 of the 3 Cs next year (Cary,Coleman ,Chung) we are fucked.

[YourPalChrisMal]

I was skeptical that the streak of games with 21 or less points was largely a mirage the entire time it was happening. I didn't have much to base that on other than they played quite a laundry list of crap quarterbacks during that streak, and my eyes were telling me those opposing offenses were missing a LOT of easy passes during the streak.

On the bright side, Dallas's defense is much much worse, so assuming our offense doesn't lay an egg, there's no reason this Eagles team shouldn't win against the Cowboys in Week #17.

[Eaglebreath]

JMO, but the primary culprit is the DBs,we don't have a Dawk or even a Dawklite to come up for those 3rd and shorts and we don't have anyone capable at this time of shutting down Cole Beasley,much less a stud WR.Add in the OLB duo of Cole and Graham who are out of position and 3rd downs are interesting to say the least.There is however some promise in the front 6 of 7, another draft/ FA and this team has a very good/excellent chance to be quite good next season. If we return even 2 of the 3 Cs next year (Cary,Coleman ,Chung) we are fucked.

They don't have a consistent pass rush, and that puts more on the secondary too. They were playing better, prior to the meltdown last weekend. But, it's obvious that they are still a ways away from being good enough to win a title. Trent Cole has played better than I thought he would, and it's a credit to his conditioning. But, they really need a dominate rush LBer to go along with upgrades in the secondary.

[Eagle60]

JMO, but the primary culprit is the DBs,we don't have a Dawk or even a Dawklite to come up for those 3rd and shorts and we don't have anyone capable at this time of shutting down Cole Beasley,much less a stud WR.Add in the OLB duo of Cole and Graham who are out of position and 3rd downs are interesting to say the least.There is however some promise in the front 6 of 7, another draft/ FA and this team has a very good/excellent chance to be quite good next season. If we return even 2 of the 3 Cs next year (Cary,Coleman ,Chung) we are fucked.

I'll bet anything Williams is back year MM. Chip considers him a team leader, and he got a shitload of money to sign here.

And as for this Sunday. If we can't beat the friekin Chicago Bears and their putrid defense at home, then why in the world would you want to take this team to the playoffs?