Let’s Get Physical

In the lead up to Sunday night’s game with the explosive Dolphins offense, someone asked Sean Desai about how you deal with their speed. It was a question a lot of people had and for good reason. The Eagles back seven isn’t full of sprint champions and they were going to have to deal with some dudes who can really fly.

Desai had an interesting answer.

“We are going to have a long discussion about that today as a staff. I wouldn’t say it’s a mismatch but one thing that we always want to pride ourselves on defense is playing physical. And in my experience, even going back to my days at Temple and coaching special teams, speed can hurt you, but physicality can hurt speed. We want to be able to counteract that and we want to be able to swarm the ball carriers and run and make sure we are around the ball as much as we can be, and bring in a lot of bodies around the ball and try to get back to create some turnovers and getting the ball out as well.”

Be physical with them.

It didn’t occur to me before the game, but this was somewhat the approach Bill Belichick took when facing the Rams dynamic offense in the Super Bowl back in 2001. He focused his gameplan on Marshall Faulk, but overall he wanted to slow the Rams down by beating up on them when they had the ball after the catch. Take away big plays and then pound on them when they catch the short stuff.

Desai’s plan was smart because it fit his personnel. They aren’t special athletes, but they can hit and tackle. I wondered what Desai would do at LB. Zach Cunningham is the least athletic of the trio so I thought he might only play in special situations. Oops. Cunningham played all 49 snaps on defense. Desai wanted his size, physicality and tackling ability to help with the run game and the short passing game. Cunningham didn’t do anything special, but it helps you to understand what Desai wanted on the field.

There were a couple of other keys. Desai wanted to take away Miami’s running game. They came into the game #1 in the league in rushing. They had five straight games with 140 or more yards. Desai wanted to shut down the run and force Tua to beat them. Miami finished with 45 yards (and 21 came on one carry!). They only had 12 runs in the game.

https://twitter.com/EaglesXOs/status/1716927544489107474

Once the run was gone, the next step was to slow down Tua. He gets the ball out quicker than any QB in the league. The goal was to make him hold the ball just a bit longer before throwing. The Eagles did some creative things to make him hold the ball and that allowed the pass rush to be a factor. Tua had been sacked 6 times in the first six games. The Eagles got 4 sacks on Sunday night.

https://twitter.com/EaglesXOs/status/1716879805784994050

Shout out to Sean Desai and the @Eagles defensive plan#nfllive pic.twitter.com/i6PbjIqqKt

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) October 23, 2023

Desai put together a good plan and his players did a great job of executing it.

*****

After a slow start to the year, the Eagles defense has played well in 4 of the past 5 games.

TB – 11 points – 174 yards
WAS – 31 points – 365 yards
LAR – 14 points – 249 yards
NYJ – 20 points – 244 yards
MIA – 17 points – 244 yards

Those point totals should be even lower. The offense has hurt the defense with turnovers that turned into easy points. Both the Jets and Dolphins got 10 points from the Eagles offense.

This is even more impressive when you consider the injuries. Jalen Carter missed a game. Fletcher Cox missed a game. Nakobe Dean missed multiple games. The secondary has been a revolving door.

*****

Speaking of Carter…

It has been Myles Garrett, Jalen Carter and everyone else in terms of pressure production so far this season. Dexter Lawrence & Micah Parsons are the next two most potent rushers right now.

— Brandon Thorn (@BrandonThornNFL) October 24, 2023

Brandon grades every pass rusher in the league. He wants to know who is really getting quality pressures. Carter is tied with Myles Garrett for the top spot in the league. That is insane. You just don’t see rookie DTs doing that.

Carter only played 19 snaps vs Miami. He still had an impact in the game.

https://twitter.com/TSV__1/status/1716253698064826848

This is such an insane throw to make with Jalen Carter in your lap. Carter just blows right past Lester Cotton and somehow Tua lays this in the perfect location for Waddle. BIG TIME THROW. #FinsUp pic.twitter.com/bSddqztyKh

— George Forder (@GeorgeForder3) October 24, 2023

Wow. Carter is a special dude.

I never thought replacing Javon Hargrave with a rookie would lead to an upgrade. But here we are. Think about how dis-heartening that must be for SF. They got all excited about stealing the Eagles stud DT who had 11 sacks last year. Now the Eagles have a rookie DT who is even better than Hargrave. And I don’t say that lightly. Hargrave is still a terrific player. But Carter is on another level.

And he should keep getting better.

*****

Micah Parsons is still ticked off that the Eagles got Carter.

https://twitter.com/brgridiron/status/1716939216352133536

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