Eagles-Commanders Film Review: Analyzing the weirdest defensive performance

This was the weirdest defensive performance I have ever tried to analyze. What defense gives up five passing touchdowns and has five turnovers? It’s unheard of. I’ll do my best to analyze this one, but it was a weird game.

Defense

Like the offense, the Eagles’ defense came out flying in this one. The first few drives were as good as it gets. I thought Fangio was in his bag early on, and he was getting a bunch of free rushers and speeding up Jayden Daniels’ process, who looked uncomfortable. This was a great 5-man rush, giving Nolan Smith a lot of space to work with. He makes the Washington tackle look silly by beating him with speed and athleticism. Look at Jalen Carter moving the guard to the right to create a lot of room for Nolan Smith, too. The Eagles’ defense was lights out early on.

Jordan Davis didn’t play much due to an injury, but he had some outstanding reps in run defense early on. Washington gave up running on the Eagles and resorted to throwing it nearly every time because the run defense was so good. This is one of Jordan Davis’ best reps of his career. Washington wants to run it on 4th and 1, and Davis blows through the double teams and hits the running back in the backfield. This is an outstanding rep. Josh Sweat does well, too, as he comes crashing down quickly but keeps his body position square, so Jayden Daniels isn’t sure if he is coming down or playing the quarterback. If Sweat was too aggressive, Daniels would have kept this and picked up the 1st himself.

Jalen Carter is entering that superstar stage where he makes a ridiculous play every week. This is absurd. It was cool to see him point out the pulling guard pre-snap, and he has clearly been working hard in the film room. However, recognizing the pulling guard is one thing. But having the athleticism to fly past the center and punch the football out is absurd. What a second season he is having.

This wasn’t far away from being a pick-6. Here’s another example of Fangio winning. The Eagles send 4, but Washington expects pressure from the opposite side. Washington slides protection to the right, and the Eagles get a free rusher from the other side. Fangio is the master at sending 4 rushers but getting a free rusher. This is outstanding. The Eagles’ defense was dominating early on.

After the Kenny Pickett interception, the Eagles’ defense came crashing down to earth. I moaned about the refs last week, so I can’t be bothered to do it again this week, but the Washington’ offense was given a lifeline by a short field and a ridiculous penalty on Milton Williams (that was not a penalty).

However, the issue with the Eagles’ defense this week was their route distribution in their zone match coverages. We all know by now that Fangio runs a lot of zone match. Its ability to distribute routes and communicate effectively makes this defense so special. One of the reasons why many Fangio disciples struggle is because this style of defense is difficult to run. It is hard to execute and requires all defenders in coverage to be on the same page. Sadly, they were not this week. Here’s a great example. I can’t be certain without being in the defensive room, but I am pretty sure that C.J. Gardner-Johnson is at fault here. He bites on the flat route, and the receiver faking to block initially confuses him.

It’s worth pointing out that the Eagles’ defense is quite predictable with its pass coverages. This is not a flaw. If the Eagles communicate and distribute routes effectively, it can almost be impossible to beat. However, Washington deserves a lot of credit for running a number of different concepts that tested the Eagles’ route distribution. They didn’t make it easy on the Eagles’ defense this week.

How many teams have two defensive tackles as good as Jalen Carter and Milton Williams? I can’t imagine the Eagles can afford to keep Williams next year, and I’m going to be sad watching him ball out for another team. He’s exceptionally talented, and this is a hell of a play. I thought he had a great game.

The Eagles’ defense had some problems with their route distribution in this one, but they also just made some incredibly dumb mistakes. Quinyon Mitchell has had a fantastic rookie season, but this is rough. I’ve got no idea what he’s doing here. The Eagles bring 5, and it works as they get a free rusher. I guess Quinyon expects a post or an intermediate route because he leaves the vertical route wide open. Earlier on, on the same drive, Darius Slay was also beaten deep. This Eagles’ defense doesn’t usually give up big plays, so it’s weird to see the two best cornerbacks give up big plays on the same drive. Let’s hope this is a one-off.

I spoke earlier about Jalen Carter being that kind of talent that has a special play every week. Zack Baun is also in that category. He’s a superstar. He was everywhere in this game, and this turnover came at a vital point. He’s one of the NFL’s best linebackers, and we need to realize that he will be paid like one this off-season.

This was the worst play of the game for the Eagles’ defense. The Eagles likely win if they get off the field on 4th and 11. The Eagles never spy opposing quarterbacks, but I don’t mind because they usually play zone matches, so they have eyes on the quarterback. The rush lane integrity isn’t brilliant here, but it’s also 4th and 11, so the defensive line would argue that they shouldn’t worry about the quarterback scrambling too much. The Eagles have 3 defenders in front of the first down marker, but Tristin McCollum takes a terrible angle, takes our Zack Baun, and allows Daniels to pick up the 1st down. This is brutal. Whatever your thoughts on whether CJGJ deserved to be kicked out of the game, there is no doubt that the Eagles missed him.

Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to kick a defensive player out for something he’s said. However, he needed to stop talking once CJGJ had already received the 1st penalty. He let the team down.

This is yet another example of Washington testing the Eagle’s route distribution and the Eagle’s defense not being good enough. The Eagles are 4 over 3, but Washington runs another really clever route concept to test the defensive match rules. I’m pretty sure that McCollum is at fault here. However, it’s not good enough just to discredit this because it’s backup making the error. Firstly, the other guys in the secondary were all starters. Secondly, a very fair criticism of Fangio’s defense is that it is not easy to run with backups. I’m not sure McCollum is ready to play in this defense, and if a safety is injured in the playoffs, I’m wondering if the team needs to look at other players to come in rather than McCollum.

What can I say about this one? It’s a complete disaster. The only positive I have about this one is that; hopefully, it’s one of those errors that happens once in a season and then never happens again. If you make mistakes like this in the playoffs, then you don’t deserve to win.

Say whatever you want about the Eagles’ defense in this one, but they should have won the game with this interception. Darius Slay had some poor moments, but I thought he was outstanding for most of the game. This is a great pass breakup, and Reed Blankenship does well to react quickly. This should have ended things.

I don’t think Fangio called a bad game at all, and I blame the players for making mistakes rather than the plays that were called. Despite this, I didn’t like the final drive of the game. I know Washington started with good field position, but the Eagles played soft coverage and made it too easy for Washington to march down the field so easily. I chose this play as a good example to highlight my point. This is 3rd and 1. The Eagles’ run defense is good enough to stop Washington from getting a 1st down. However, the Eagles play a very light box and give up the 1st down. I would have liked to see some more aggression on the final drive.

Here is the final play. Firstly, Washington’s concept is fantastic. Washington knows that the Eagles are going to be 3 over 2 and they run a great concept to test the Eagles match zone rules. Ideally, Baun should have anything inside, Blankenship should take anything Vertical, and Cooper DeJean should take anything outside. Washington switches the receivers at the line of scrimmage, which gets a receiver on Baun. Washington runs a vertical route combined with a deep in which is a great call. DeJean has outside leverage, so he will struggle to cover the deep in. Therefore, both Blankenship and Baun get distracted and try to help out on the deep in. Daniels reads this perfectly, recognizes that no one is covering the vertical, and throws a dart. I don’t know how the Eagles coach this, but I would like Baun to take the vertical route and Blankenship to drive down on the deep in.

Credit Washington for a fantastic play call. If teams will challenge Fangio’s match zone coverage rules as frequently as Washington did this week, I wonder if Fangio will start running some more man coverage in these situations to be less predictable. I would have liked some more cover-1 man with a robber to give Washington something new to prepare for.

Well, what a disappointing Sunday. Luckily, I don’t think this one matters too much, as the Eagles were likely to end up the #2 seed regardless. But I can’t lie; I was very annoyed watching this one live. This one hurt. I want a rematch in the playoffs at the Linc.

Thank you for all the kind words this year. Merry Christmas, and Go Birds!

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