Number One

Jayden Daniels, meet Vic Fangio. And Jalen Carter and Zack Baun and Quinyon Mitchell. The electric rookie quarterback looked powerless against the surging Eagles defense on Thursday night.

After the win over Washington, the Eagles have the number one defense in the NFL in terms of yards allowed. The Eagles haven’t finished a season number one since Gang Green back in 1991. Heck, I don’t know the last time the Eagles were number one in the middle of a season. We’ve seen a lot of good defenses since 1991, but being #1 is special. It will be fun to see if the guys can keep it up.

One of the complaints some people had is that the Eagles hadn’t played many good offenses. Washington is a Top 5 scoring team even after the Eagles loss. They had scored 27 or more points in 6 of the 10 games leading up to Thursday night. Washington had all their OL back. They had RB Brian Robinson back. What they didn’t have was an answer for how to solve the Eagles defense.

This was a short week so Fangio didn’t put together a complex gameplan. He figured out something that he thought would work against the Commanders offense and then relied on his players to execute it.

Fangio went on a bender with a lot of straight Quarters coverage last night. Every week is something slightly different from the back 7 based on the way the offense structures their pass game and Washington uses quite a lot of deep drops. Daniels had more 7-step drops from Gun… pic.twitter.com/5NSDiodl59

— Honest NFL (@TheHonestNFL) November 15, 2024

The Eagles have a good enough back six/seven that they can trust those guys to cover well. By playing zone, defenders kept their eyes on the offense and could see if Daniels tried to run. Man coverage can leave you vulnerable to QB runs (something the Eagles offense is good at exploiting). The Eagles pass rush posted 3 sacks, but was regularly disruptive. Between the outstanding coverage and the effective pass rush, Daniels didn’t look comfortable very often. He threw a lot of short passes, mainly to TEs and RBs. His WRs had 28 yards for the game. That’s insane. Even crazier, Reed Blankenship caught the same number of passes from Daniels that Terry McLaurin did…one. Yikes.

Jayden Daniels throwing the ball tonight.

What a day for Vic Fangio and the Eagles’ defense. Quinyon Mitchell erased Terry McLaurin. Downfield windows were non-existent. Couple big catch-and-runs from the backs but otherwise a stifling performance. pic.twitter.com/fciubA7BNZ

— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) November 15, 2024

This defense isn’t getting lucky. This isn’t a fluke. Fangio has a sound scheme. He’s been around long enough that he has a good feel for what will work against the offense the Eagles are facing.

The real magic has been in player development. Zack Baun played 660 snaps on defense in his four years with the Saints. He has played 584 defensive snaps this season and is playing at an All-Pro level. Nakobe Dean is playing the best football of his young career. Nolan Smith has taken a big step forward this year. Rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean are playing like stars. Fangio and his staff are getting the most out of their players.

Eagles defense over the last 6 games:

12.6 points per game
211.3 yards per game
6 total offensive touchdowns
1st in EPA/play

Vic Fangio, take a bow. pic.twitter.com/NYn1hfz1b4

— Brenden Deeg (@BrendenDeeg_) November 15, 2024

The Ravens will be a huge test in a couple of weeks. That is a dynamic offense with a ton of weapons. That could be a matchup of the #1 offense and the #1 defense, which would be really cool.

I was happy when the Eagles hired Vic Fangio. I was hoping for a Top 10 defense, which would pair with an explosive offense and help the Eagles get back to playing good football. The defense playing at such a high level has helped the Eagles win 6 games in a row and elevate itself to being one of the top teams in the league.

*****

Not every game has been a blowout during the winning streak, but you can see the Eagles are dominating the yardage battle.

During their six-game streak, the Eagles have outgained their opponents by a combined 1069 yards. pic.twitter.com/2hnBUQgBIN

— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) November 15, 2024

If not for some fluke plays, the final scores would look better. There was the blocked FG in CLE, the fumble/non-fumble vs JAX and allowing the garbage time TD to WAS. If the Eagles can clean some things up, this team could really start to open some eyes.

*****

The Eagles run game has been amazing this year.

1st in Attempts
2nd in Yards
1st in TDs
4th in Yards per Attempt

They have run for at least 113 yards in every game. They have run for 144 or more yards in 8 of 10 games. They did that 6 times last year and 5 times in 2022. I think we can call that the Saquon Barkley effect. D’Andre Swift and Miles Sanders played well the past couple of years, but Barkley is on another level. His combination of speed and strength makes him a special player.

It also helps that Kenny Gainwell and Jalen Hurts have run better since the bye week. Gainwell has had a run of 10 or more yards in 5 of the 6 games. Hurts has run for 9 TDs in that span and has a run of 12 or more yards in 4 of the 6 games.

_