While our defense improved, it pretty much stunk

[Eagle60]

Eagles Wake-Up Call: DeMeco Debunks Tempo Theory

By Sheil Kapadia | January 13, 2014 at 6:30 am



NFL: Detroit Lions at Philadelphia Eagles

DeMeco Ryans played more snaps than any other inside linebacker in the league during the regular season.

Connor Barwin held the same distinction among 3-4 outside linebackers. And Cary Williams played more snaps than any other cornerback.



While cleaning out his locker last week, Ryans was asked if that’s just the expectation going forward playing for Chip Kelly and his up-tempo offense.

“I hate to say that because that’s not the plan,” Ryans said with a laugh. “It’s definitely not the plan to play those many snaps.”

A popular theory (and one we’ve tackled before in this space) goes like this: The Eagles’ offense moved fast. It didn’t always score, and when it did, it scored quickly. As a result, opponents got more possessions per game than they otherwise would have. And that’s why the Eagles’ defense was on the field so much.

The only problem? The numbers don’t back up the theory.

Football Outsiders keeps track of such things. The Eagles’ defense was on the field for 190 possessions during the regular season. The league average was 186. Said in another way: On average, defenses faced 11.6 possessions per game last season. And the Eagles faced 11.9. Eleven other teams faced as many possessions as the Birds.

So then, if the Eagles’ up-tempo offense wasn’t to blame for the defense playing so many snaps, what was the reason?

“I think it really ties in to us defensively, with us being able to stop people,” Ryans said. “Just because our offense scores doesn’t mean we have to go out and play a 10-play drive. We can go out and get a three-and-out and get off the field or get a turnover. Then our snaps are limited and we can give our offense a chance to play more snaps. So I think most of those snaps fell on us defensively and not our offense and their quick tempo, them scoring quickly. It was moreso us and not getting off when we had favorable third downs, not getting off the field.”

The man speaks the truth.

Getting off the field was a major issue for the Eagles’ defense all season long. Opponents averaged 6.17 plays per drive against them, the second-worst mark in the league.

The Eagles forced three-and-outs 18.9 percent of the time; that ranked 30th. And opponents converted on 41.15 percent of their third-down opportunities against the Eagles’ defense (24th).

Overall, the defense showed great improvement throughout the course of the season. But a priority going into 2014 will be to do a better job of getting off the field and giving the Eagles’ offense even more opportunities to score.

[musicman]

As they grew together they got a bit better. Remember 5 of the back 7 were new to either the team or their position. It was a new system to all and I'm still not sure if Graham and Cole are ever going to play the OLB position at a high enough level. Add a few pieces (pass rushing OLB ,a GOOD S and a tree stump up front ) and we will do well IMO.

[MDFAN]

"The Eagles forced three-and-outs 18.9 percent of the time; that ranked 30th. And opponents converted on 41.15 percent of their third-down opportunities against the Eagles’ defense (24th)."

IMHO, THE single biggest reason this team was not ever a serious (winning) playoff contender.

[FairOaks]

Yep, definitely agree. Some of those stats were earned in the early games (Denver/San Diego/Kansas City), where the defense was completely atrocious. They improved, so I don't think they were a bottom-of-the-barrel defense at all (like they were in 2012), but that is different than being a good defense. They did pretty well at not giving up points later in the season (Minnesota excepted) but they did not get off the field quickly enough. Our offense is really good, but it still needs at least an average defense at least to be a real contender I think. We're not there yet.

[FRESH]

Agree as well. It seemed to me that we were a bend don't break defense where we allowed a lot of lengthy drives, yet did a fair job in the second half of the season of holding teams out of the endzone. that, along with getting some turnovers were the positives out of this unit. RARELY did we stifle an offense.