Deeeee-fense! (Originally posted on November 27, 2006)

The Eagles took a beating last night, and if this were a normal season, their playoff hopes would have all but vanished. However, the NFC has been horrible this year, meaning that the obsessive and foolish among us must cling to that strand of hope that the Eagles can somehow right their ship. A more merciful league would put us out of our misery, but the NFL with its blessed parity lets us linger...until when? Week 12? Week 14?

And so, deluded as we are, we're forced to seek out the bright spots in last night's carnage. And there were some. Jeff Garcia played like a bona fide NFL quarterback. Solid, not spectacular, but better than anything we've seen from a quarterback not named McNabb since ol' Ty Detmer's heyday in the mid 90's. Brian Westbrook was great. Passes were evenly distributed. Even the gameplan was mostly good - Garcia wasn't forced to do anything that he was not capable of. Except, of course, for the disastrous pass by receiver Hank Baskett, which killed any chance the Birds had of keeping pace in the first half. Still, taking into account Akers' missed field goal, the Eagles offense played well enough to score 24 points, enough to win most games.

So what was the problem? Unfortunately, it's the defense. The defense has gone from a team strength to a weakness. Admittedly, they were playing against the nearly unstoppable Colts, so last night's sample is a bit skewed. And a look at the stats show that they aren't THAT bad, ranking in the middle of the league in many categories - total defense, 3rd down conversions allowed, etc. So again, what's the problem, especially given that their ranks include 5 former Pro Bowlers?

#1) Lack of fundamentals: John Madden made an excellent point last night - he noted that the Eagles used to be good tacklers, but not any longer. How often have we seen a defensive player anticipate the play, make an excellent first move the break up the play, and then carelessly fail to wrap their arms, allowing a 3 yard loss to turn into a 4 yard gain? Those yards add up, especially in the 4th quarter. (I'm looking at you, Matt McCoy.) Brian Dawkins seems like the only sure handed tackler, which is a good thing, since he seems to be making all of them by himself.

#2) Lack of pass rush: since Javon Kearse was lost for the year, except for the Cowboys game, there has been no pass rush whatsoever. There is no one on the Eagles defensive line that demands more than one blocker, so teams are able to run a "normal" offense against them. Even the blitz packages are no longer working - how often have we seen the Eagles rush 8 players this year, only to see the quarterback loft the ball almost carelessly over Sean Considine's helplessly outstretched fingers into the arms of the waiting receiver?

#3) Most importantly - time of possession: The Eagles defense is on the field for an average of 31 minutes and 50 seconds per game, the 4th most in the league. Even the best defense will become worn down with that kind of work, and the Eagles have been in a time of possession hole for most of the last 5 years. It follows that #1 and #2 are the direct result of #3.

More later.