NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
In Roob’s Eagles Observations: How red-zone defense saved the day in opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
A deeper look into what went right and what went wrong for the defense, a crazy Nick Sirianni stat a lot of Eagles fans won’t like and why not playing the starters in the preseason was absolutely the right thing to do.
Here’s this week’s batch of 10 Random Eagles Observations after the Eagles’ seventh straight September win.
1. A lot of issues showed up on defense Friday – lack of pass rush, tackling, stopping the run – and the field condition could definitely have something to do with all of them. But there’s one thing the Eagles did exceptionally well on defense and that was deny the Packers in the red zone. The Packers had four red-zone drives and scored one touchdown and the Eagles’ defense near the goal-line – especially on the Packers’ first two drives – was the difference between a win and a loss. The Packers ran 20 offensive plays inside the Eagles’ 20-yard-line and netted 24 yards. Add in penalty yards and the Packers had seven net yards on 20 plays – about 12 ½ inches per play. Critically, the Eagles hounded Jordan Love into 0-for-3 passing on third down in the red zone (although Avonte Maddox’s DPI also came on third down) and Josh Jacobs ran six times for seven yards inside the 20. Last time the Eagles faced at least four red-zone drives and only allowed one TD was a 2022 win over the Steelers at the Linc (TD, INT, FG, FG). I thought Zack Baun in particular was tremendous down at the goal line. He’s credited with an incredible five of his 15 tackles inside the 20 alone. Obviously, you’re not going to win a ton of games giving up 414 yards and a bunch of big plays. But taut red-zone defense can overcome a lot of problems, and Friday night it sure did.
2. Considering this was Cam Jurgens’ first NFL start at center and Mekhi Becton’s first NFL start at guard, all things considered the offensive line played…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/roobs-eagles-observations-red-zone-123431024.html
Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia
Publish date : 2024-09-09 12:34:31
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
