September 20, 2020
The Eagles' defense turned in a miserable first-half performance against the Rams on Sunday, and Philadelphia heads into halftime of their home opener down just 21-16 thanks to a late-half turnover from Los Angeles.
Here's what I saw.
• He had a few throws that sailed on him, including a few inexplicable misses at the end of the half, but I though Carson Wentz came out and played a relatively strong first half on Sunday. The problem is another half like that might end up with the the Eagles losing this game by two touchdowns anyway.
The biggest thing that stood out compared to last week's disaster class was Wentz's quick delivery of the football. Most expected Aaron Donald to have a field day against Philadelphia's offensive line, and while they didn't keep him out of the backfield altogether, Wentz did well to get the ball out of his hands with Donald closing in on him. If not for a Miles Sanders fumble on the opening drive, perhaps we're talking about this as a much different ballgame, and about the sharpness of the QB's reads in a game where they desperately need him to bounce back.
Alas, that's not the reality we live in. At the very least, his growing connection with Reagor bodes well for the future — the rookie already appears to be quite in sync with Wentz, which should open up the playbook as the season wears on.
(A nice wrinkle we saw in the first quarter Sunday: Reagor getting the ball in space with room to run. On Philadelphia's second drive, Wentz hit him on a shallow drag route and let Reagor do the rest himself, scooting past a few Rams defenders for a first down. Team speed isn't just useful for deep throws, and with Pederson liking these sort of plays in years past without the proper personnel to take advantage, let's hope these looks are here to stay.)
• We had our first Jalen Hurts sighting of the season on Sunday afternoon, and it came off beautifully, deep in Rams territory. With Hurts lined up in the backfield to Wentz's right, the Eagles used a double pump-fake from Wentz to hit a wide-open Goedert for the first down in the middle of the field. The Rams were almost completely unprepared for it, as you might expect a lot of teams will be for two-quarterback looks.
Not sure that's going to be enough to feel good about the pick with all the rest of the holes this team clearly has to fill, but I am still intrigued by the prospect of developing Hurts and using him as a unique gadget alongside (and sometimes without) Wentz.
• The Eagles owe Cooper Kupp a thank you card for his inexplicable fumble in the final two minutes of the half on Sunday, which allowed the Eagles another opportunity to get it into the endzone before halftime. T.J. Edwards hasn't done much of note otherwise, but stripping Kupp deep in Rams territory is enough to get him on the good list.
Thankfully, they did not waste the opportunity. On the second play following the turnover, the Eagles got great push up front (most notably from Nate Herbig) and Miles Sanders burst through the line for his first score of the season.
• The honeymoon period for Sanders did not make it through the first drive of the game. Philadelphia was riding Sanders early, a nice change of pace after the pass-heavy offense floundered in Washington, and all looked to be going well until Sanders put it on the turf and gave the Rams the football on the Eagles' half of the field.
In what is quickly becoming a theme of the season, Philadelphia's defense was asked to defend a short field and absolutely crumbled, letting Jared Goff and Co. march right down the field for six points. Nate Gerry was especially poor on the opening drive, which feels like something we've been saying about him on 75 percent of every drive he has played in an Eagles uniform.
If you can't hold onto the football, you're going to struggle to win games. That's especially true if your defense is completely incapable of bailing you out after mistakes are made, and that has been the case for the Eagles through 1.5 games.
• JJ Arcega-Whiteside will be better suited as a depth option for the Toronto Argonauts. Looking like another huge draft miss by Howie Roseman at the moment.
• How do you follow up a poor defensive performance on the first drive of the game? Getting absolutely torched on a longer second drive, if you're the 2020 Philadelphia Eagles. Sean McVay is absolutely working Jim Schwartz through the first 30 minutes of football, and a second-half turnaround doesn't look to be in the cards without dramatic changes.
The focus will likely drift to Jared Goff's hot start (12-for-12, 145 yards and two touchdowns on the opening three drives) and the number of third-down conversions the Rams made in the opening quarter, but the problems started for Philadelphia on early-down plays. L.A. averaged nearly nine yards per play on first down on their first two possessions, which makes them a much more dangerous team on second and third-down plays. Even after losing starting running back Cam Akers to a rib injury early in the game, nothing much changed on that front. The Rams got good push up front, and they made a mockery of the Eagles in the middle of the field.
That last bit is at least partially on personnel. The Eagles have systemically ignored the linebacker position for what feels like my entire life, perhaps never more so than they did coming into this year. When you're up against a team that thrives on quick-hitting plays over the middle, that's a recipe for disaster.
Even that's an oversimplification of how bad their coverage was and how deep the problem went. There wasn't a single guy who stood out in coverage on Sunday, and they made Cooper Kupp and Tyler Higbee look like Hall of Famers in waiting. An absolutely pathetic performance from every guy on defense to start this game.
• Before we let the boys up front off of the hook, let's make sure we save space on the hit list for the defensive line. When Goff faces pressure, he struggles to progress through reads and move the ball down the field, but he operated from a clean pocket for most of the first half, making it a heck of a lot easier to get on a roll. For a team that continually invests premium resources on defensive linemen, rarely have you watched an Eagles game in recent years and felt like the defensive line controlled the game.
When they're stopping the run, I suppose it's easier to let them off the hook for not coming up with more sacks and QB pressures. But they didn't do much of anything well in the first half, and that needs to change fast.
• I'm inclined to believe when a team gets beaten this soundly on one side of the ball, a lot of the blame has to fall on the coach/coordinator running the show. The Eagles have plenty of guys that are NFL-caliber players, if nothing else, and they weren't even coming close to being in the right position to defend the Rams on Sunday. You're telling me every single guy on this defense is too dumb or not athletic enough to make a play? I refuse to believe that.
Schwartz needs to come up with answers, and he needs to come up with them quickly.
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