PHILADELPHIA — The weather forecast for next Monday in Seattle, where the Eagles oppose the Seahawks in a critical game, is for light rain and a temperature around 44 degrees at the opening kickoff.
Brutal for most, yet for optimists like Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai, an assistant coach in Seattle last season, the perfect opportunity to heal after being shellacked in back-to-back games by the hard charging San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. All are 10-3 and battling for the top playoff seed in the NFC.
Desai, 40, was figuring out how to help his players move on from giving up 75 points over consecutive games. And then it hit him. In victories over the Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs and a month ago, the Cowboys, the Eagles played shutdown defense in the second half.
“The bright spot, and I know sometimes it’s hard for you guys to see the bright spot, but we’ve been there,” Desai said Wednesday at his weekly news conference. “We played some really good football games and really good parts of games and done really good against some offenses. The last two weeks is not our standard, and we accept that and know that. We’re going to lean back into what we really believe about ourselves and our standard and we’ve got to go back and achieve that from a coaching and a player standpoint. It’s going to be all of us working together, and I think we got the guys and the leaders in this building to help us do that.”
Turning this defense around is a formidable challenge considering the lack of talent in the secondary and at linebacker.
Only four teams allow more points (24.7) and passing yards (259.9) per game than the Eagles, who rank 21st in yards allowed (353.9), and sixth (94.0) in rushing yards allowed. The Eagles have given up 29 touchdowns through the air, second-most in the league and have allowed a filthy, league worst 48.1 percent conversion rate on third down.
Lesser coordinators have lost their jobs for those sins. Eagles defensive coordinators from recent years would have had a tough time finding anything to spin positively about the current defense.
Jim Schwartz, the Philly defensive coordinator from 2016-20, would have spent his news conference giving a ridiculous baseball analogy that would make reporters smile but shed little, if any light on how his defense would dig out of the hot mess. Schwartz would brag afterward about how he provided nothing useful. That wouldn’t work now.
Billy Davis, who had the title of defensive coordinator when Chip Kelly was Eagles head coach from 2013-15 would say something like “Our third down has been terrible. If it was one thing you could change it. It’s different breakdowns.”
Unfortunately for the transparent Davis, Kelly’s buddy Jerry Azzinaro was the de factor defensive coordinator and more often than not the reason those defenses crashed and burned.
Jonathan Gannon, who was Nick Sirianni’s coordinator the previous two seasons would walk into his news conference and say “Happy Wednesday, let’s go.” His pressers that were less enlightening than Schwartz’s. Now head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, Gannon is in a tanking battle for the first pick in the draft with the New England Patriots, the teams nursing 3-10 records.
None of those coordinators, not even Schwartz, who is enjoying a stellar season with the Cleveland Browns could do anything more with the defense than Desai.
Even the late great Bud Carson and Jim Johnson, who are perhaps the greatest Eagles defensive coordinators of all time would have trouble stopping the opposition with the current collection of linebacker and secondary personnel that gets exposed week in and week out.
In tandem, cornerbacks Darius Slay and James Bradberry are a liability.
They’ve been thrown at more than any starting duo since the start of 2022.
Good men, but they just don’t run like they used to. Rookie corner Kelee Ringo has seen an increase of snaps but is learning painfully on the job. He may be the first Eagle to be charged with face mask and pass interference penalties on the same play.
Now we know why 31-year-old nickel corner Bradley Roby was available. Imported safety Kevin Byard, 30, makes a lot of tackles, but too far down the field. Safety Reed Blankenship is plagued with injuries.
The bottom line is the Eagles secondary is so porous and allows so many receivers to get open that the opposition cannot — to borrow a Schwartzism — wait to take their swings at it.
This week it’s D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, possibly with quarterback Geno Smith returning from a groin injury for the Seahawks (6-7). The Eagles might as well be 3-10 considering all the criticism and second guessing they’ve received.
“When you play a couple games the way we have, not the performance or the standard we want to, that’s going to magnify and amplify,” Desai said. “I get it. That’s OK. Everybody, fans, you guys, everybody is entitled to their opinions. What we have to do is just lean into each other and really focus on our process and getting better. At the end of the day, from what we want to what everybody else wants in this city, is to win, right? And we found ways to win to get us to the point where we are. We’re not where we want to be. We’re still growing to get where we want to be. We feel good about doing that and working together to achieve our goals still.”
Contact Bob Grotz at rgrotz@delcotimes.com
Source: Berkshire mont
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