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Eagles’ defense shows off its identity in win over Ravens originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
BALTIMORE — Cooper DeJean was honest.
“I didn’t really expect to pick him up like that,” the 21-year-old rookie said.
Yeah, no one did. Of course they didn’t. You don’t just pick up a 250-pound freak of nature and pummel him into the ground. No one does that to King Henry.
But DeJean did.
On a 3rd-and-11 in the fourth quarter, Lamar Jackson dumped the ball off to Derrick Henry in the flat and DeJean made a play that will live on the highlight reel for a long time.
“I was kind of just doing my job, coming down to make a tackle,” DeJean said after the 24-19 win. “Trying to run through him. He’s a pretty big dude, though. I felt it a little bit, for sure. But a lot of adrenaline running. I was just playing my coverage, came down to make the hit.”
That was just one highlight but it embodied what this Eagles defense is all about.
In one word? Physicality.
This is a physical Eagles football team. On offense, they beat you up in the run game and on defense they punish you for stepping foot on the field. The Eagles were facing the best offense in the NFL on Sunday afternoon and Vic Fangio’s unit turned in another stellar performance.
“Yeah, our identity is (being) physical,” linebacker Zack Baun said. “And if you’re going to challenge that, then we’re going to show up and be more physical.”
The Ravens ended up with 372 yards on offense Sunday and that looks like a lot. But the Eagles’ defense was pretty dominant. They gave up a last-second touchdown that made this game look closer than it was and they held the No. 1 red zone offense to a 2-for-5 performance on Sunday.
But what stood out most was that physicality on all three levels. Up front, Jalen Carter, Milton Williams, Josh Sweat, Nolan Smith, Jordan Davis all had big games. At linebacker, Baun and Nakobe Dean were flying to the ball. And on the back end, DeJean, Quinyon Mitchell, Reed…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/eagles-defense-shows-off-identity-120000467.html
Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia
Publish date : 2024-12-03 12:00:00
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