Eagles Film Analysis: Depressing defense takeaways from the loss to the Falcons

Buckle up, Eagles fans. This is not a positive article. Sorry. The Eagles ‘only’ gave up 22 points to the Atlanta Falcons, but I thought the defense was pretty pathetic all game long. Let’s get into why.

In last week’s article, I spoke at length about the Eagles’ bad run fits. I hate being negative, especially with a new defensive coordinator, but the warning signs were evident last week. The film against the run this week is brutal. It was the same thing over and over again. The Falcons repeatedly ran outside zone, from under center, had a receiver coming across the formation in motion, and left the Eagles’ weakside EDGE defender alone. The Eagles repeatedly played a 4-man front with only 6 in the box, resulting in a 6v5 in favor of the offense. The Falcons guard Chris Lindstrom went after Zack Baun and was able to cut him repeatedly. The Eagles continued to slant a defensive tackle (look at Milton Williams here), which rarely worked. I am not kidding; I saw this same play repeatedly. It was incredibly frustrating.

I thought the Eagles were fine in pass defense (except for the last drive), but they got away with one earlier. I felt sorry for Reed Blankenship because he was repeatedly coming downhill from a very deep position, which meant he was always vulnerable to play-action. This is just football 101. Run the ball well and then throw a shot from play-action. The Eagles were lucky this wasn’t a 70-yard touchdown. I know many of you will comment about the lack of a pass rush, and I will get into it, but I blame the Eagles’ EDGE defenders more than the interior pass rushers. Jalen Carter did not have a good game against Chris Lindstrom, but he was doubled a few times, and the Falcons were willing to leave a tight end on Nolan Smith and Bryce Huff. Smith is blocked by a tight end here, allowing the Falcons to use a guard and tackle on Carter. This is not a good sign.

Oh, look, it’s the same play as earlier. Listen, the players deserve blame. Milton Williams was blown up by double teams a few times. Moro Ojomo struggled against double teams. They did not play well against the Falcons’ outsize zone run scheme. But they were not helped by their coach. The Eagles refused to play 5-man fronts with Jordan Davis as a nose tackle. 5-man fronts can be outstanding against outside zone as they give players one-on-one matchups and prevent the offensive line from getting to the second level. If you stick Jordan Davis at nose, you make it a hell of a lot harder for Lindstrom to get to the 2nd level and take out Baun as he does here, again. But the Eagles did not adjust and continued to run these 4-man fronts out. I know playing a 5-man front can give you issues in pass coverage because you lose a defender, but I don’t care. Nothing else matters to me if you can’t stop the run on early downs. I think the entire defensive line is better suited to a 5-man front, too, as players like Milton Williams and Moro Ojomo are better suited as a 4i technique (think of the 2 defensive tackles next to Jordan Davis) rather than a 3 technique as you can see above.

Another stunt, just what I needed to see when watching the film. This time, Josh Sweat decides to jump inside (which I assume he is being told to do because it is not the only time we have seen EDGE defenders do this) but nobody is able to get out there to set the edge so it results in the biggest hole you will ever see. It’s the same play over and over. Under center outside zone. The Eagles looked like they had never seen anyone run it before. I understand Fangio runs a complicated scheme, and I expect to see some problems in the early part of the season, but this is just basic stuff. You need to at least compete in these situations. It was consistently so easy for the Falcons.

I had completely lost my head by this point of watching the film. I always look for the positives and understand the coach’s point of view, but I need someone to explain why the Eagles are continuing to slant their defensive tackles. This time, the Falcons cleverly use motion to the same side they are running to, so I am guessing Carter is told to slant to the right, expecting the run to go the other way. Baun had a fantastic week last week, but he wasn’t aggressive enough in these situations for me. Nakobe Dean appears to be running to set the edge, but Darius Slay is also blitzing the edge, so I assume that is another mistake as by someone. Lastly, there has been a lot of talk about Bryce Huff’s and Nolan Smith’s inability to rush the quarterback. This is true. But as it stands, I am playing Nolan Smith on every single early down and not letting Huff see the field until an obvious passing situation. Smith is a good run defender. Huff was borderline unplayable on early downs in this game.

The Eagles were forced to use a 5-man front on the goal line or in short-yardage situations, and they had some success! It leaves Nakobe Dean free because the offensive lineman can’t quickly get to the 2nd level and allows the defensive tackles to have one-on-one matchups. This has been an incredibly depressing read so far, so let me focus on a positive. Thomas Booker IV was excellent. He didn’t play a lot of snaps, but he was legitimately good. He played the run well, moved well, and looked stout. He deserves more snaps next week. Look at him get after Lindstrom here! This was not the only time he looked this good either. I was impressed.

Here’s another clip where Jalen Carter is getting doubled by a guard and a tackle while the Falcons block the Eagles’ EDGE defender (Bryce Huff this time) with a tight end. You can’t win like this. Carter did not play well, and I have been disappointed by his start to the season, but you can’t put the lack of a pass rush on him. The EDGE defenders need to step up. If Huff can’t rush the quarterback, what can he do? Is he healthy? Is there something going on with him off the field? This isn’t the same player I watched in the off-season.

In the words of Albert Einstein (apparently), ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ Yes, the Eagles mixed it up a little bit from time to time. But it wasn’t radically different. Just play a 5-man front! It cannot get worse. I think, in hindsight, this isn’t Bryce Huff’s fault if he is being coached to jump inside, but I still maintain that Nolan Smith is a dramatically better run defender.

Another positive play! Milton Williams didn’t have a good game, but he did show what he could do here. I thought the Eagles’ pass coverage in the red zone was excellent. Philosophically, I hate the ‘bend but don’t break’ approach of giving up easy rushing yardage and being stout in the red zone. To give Fangio credit, up until the final drive, the Eagles were good in the red zone. However, I really struggle with this philosophy when we see what happens later…

Thomas Booker! Look at how much better he moves laterally than Jordan Davis against outside zone. Also, check out Nolan Smith setting the edge but still getting off his block. Jordan Davis was not the Eagles’ problem in this game. But he was not a solution either. If you play him as part of a 4-man front, he will struggle to move laterally against an outside zone run game. I do not think it is a hot take to say that Booker should take snaps off him this week against the Saints, who run a lot of outside zone (if Fangio sticks to his 4-man fronts).

I expected Fangio to do a lot more of this. Playing a five-man front doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice a linebacker because you can just use Baun as an EDGE defender! We saw this last week, and it worked. The Eagles move Baun up here and push Graham inside, which creates a five-man front and leaves Carter one-on-one. He wrecks the guard and forces the incompletion. I do not understand why we did not see this more.

Right, here is my big problem with this play. I do not mind defensive coordinators being aggressive. I wish Fangio was more assertive in this game. But, if you are going to play a lightbox all of the time and give up long runs frequently, don’t run a Cover 0 blitz! If you are going for a bend but don’t break approach, then commit to it. Don’t play passive all game and then suddenly give up a 40-yard touchdown because of a Cover 0 blitz. Despite being killed by the run all game, the Eagles hadn’t given up many points. You could argue their approach was working. But this play is exactly what you can’t do if you are going to play a passive style. You can’t give up huge plays like this. This isn’t a great play by C. J. Gardner-Johnson, but it’s also a difficult cover. You expect a short throw when you send a Cover 0 blitz and not a deep route like this one. Credit the Falcons for being aggressive.

This play should have won the Eagles the game. This is a ridiculous play, considering CJGJ is not a physical run defender. It doesn’t get much better than this in run defense, and it deserved to give the Eagles the victory. I’m gutted that we aren’t celebrating this play more.

OK, it’s time for the last drive. This was brutal. I have too much to say on this. Firstly, the Eagles started the drive with a front 4 of Huff-Ojomo-Carter-Sweat. I love Ojomo, but is he your answer at defensive tackle in a pass-rushing situation? He played the WHOLE drive! Why not Brandon Graham at DT? The Eagles got no pressure despite having 2 minutes to pin their ears back and go after an immobile quarterback without worrying about run defense. This is the dream situation for a defensive line. And they got no pressure at all. Kirk Cousins had an average time to throw of 2.96 seconds, and no one got close.

Then we get onto the coverage. The Eagles call what I think is Cover 6 here (Quarter-Quarter-Half), which means Blankenship is the only deep defender in one half of the field. I assume that because it is the last drive, Quinyon Mitchell is supposed to carry the receiver vertically and help out his safety. But I can’t be certain. The Eagles end up with 3 defensive backs over the top of 1 wide receiver, and no one is close to him.

I know it’s not as easy as Madden, but why can’t you just run Cover 2 man? Kirk Cousins can’t run. Why not run quarters/Cover 4 with 4 deep defenders? I don’t understand how easy the Eagles’ defense made this for the Falcons. This wasn’t an unbelievable drive with Cousins making ridiculous throws and the receivers making ridiculous contested catches. This was easy.

Of course, the Eagles’ best and most experienced cornerback has an awful rep with the game on the line. By this point, it felt like the Eagles were just broken. It felt like a question of when the Falcons would score rather than if they would score. Ugh.

My goodness, that was a depressing article. Apologies, but I had to get some things off my chest. The offensive version is a lot more positive!

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and ask any questions. If you enjoyed this piece, you can find more of my work and podcast here.