Eagles Film Analysis: Defense takeaways from the win over the Packers

Well, this was a sort of bizarre defensive performance from the Eagles in their win over the Packers. I thought there were some fantastic individual performances, some excellent defensive calls in the red zone, some awful examples of zone coverage, and some disastrous fits. There is a lot to talk about. Let’s do it.

(Previously: Eagles-Packers offensive film analysis.)

Defense

I’m pretty sure I could write a whole article on how much I enjoyed Quinyon Mitchell’s performance. He did not look like a rookie at all. He looked exactly as he did in college, and the moment was not too big for him at all. After going against DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown in practice every week, Quinyon wasn’t scared of the Packers wide receivers. This was a fantastic rep for a number of different reasons but nothing made me happier than how he stared down Christian Watson after this rep. Elite cornerbacks need to be over-confident, and Quinyon Mitchell was undoubtedly that in his debut. Tougher tests will come, but this was a great start.

I didn’t talk about him at all in the thread, so I wanted to give a shout-out to Darius Slay before moving on. He had a really good game, and the Packers didn’t even bother to test him. It’s always exciting to talk about the young and new defenders, but Slay moved as well as he ever has.

It’s time to talk about Zack Baun. This performance was even better on the rewatch than I expected. It wasn’t just the individual performance but the versatility that he showed. He lined up in so many different positions, and the Packers’ offense really struggled to figure out how to handle him. The explosiveness of this pass rush jumped off the film. This was a fantastic simulated pressure call by Fangio, too, and there are lots of cool elements to look at. Firstly, lining up Baun as wide as he does makes him really hard to be picked up by the tackle. Dropping Brandon Graham is not what the offense was expecting. And lastly, keep an eye on C. J. Gardner-Johnson playing the slot. This is why you need a safety that can cover the slot in this system.

Right, I have some stuff to get off my chest. There were specific calls like the one above that I absolutely loved. I thought Fangio was fine overall, and the defense made some clutch plays in clutch moments (especially in the red zone). But my goodness, I was not too fond of some of the run-fits in this game. People rarely criticize Fangio for being too aggressive, but I thought he was in this game. He kept using this slant/stunt technique where the defensive tackles would try to get up the field quickly (rather than the usual gap-and-a-half technique), but he called it too frequently, and it didn’t work. The Packers figured this out and had some excellent play calls designed to get a puller on a gap-scheme concept into the exact void the Eagles’ defensive tackles have left. Yes, it’s fair to point out that CGJ could do better here, but this is not how I would ever use Jordan Davis. I want Jordan Davis to be an anchor, not to be used like this.

Here is another example, although I don’t think this was as bad as the previous one. Still, look how aggressive the defensive line is. Nolan Smith has obviously been told to get upfield quickly, but the Packers just run right past him, and he’s completely taken out of the play. Jet sweeps are a very effective way of attacking 5-man fronts, and running it away from Zack Baun, who is lined up as an EDGE here, is very smart game planning by the Packers. The Packers had 0.247 EPA per rush this week, ranking 2nd highest throughout the league. This is despite the fact that I thought the Eagles’ linebackers had excellent games. That’s not something you want to see become a theme throughout the season.

Apologies for the negativity, but it is just one week, and I hope Fangio looks at his run fits and, in particular, how he uses Jordan Davis. Anyway, moving on, for now, let’s just look at Quinyon Mitchell again. That will cheer us up! This is a hell of a play for a rookie to make in his first-ever game. Look at his ability to gain depth and read the quarterback in zone coverage. Some veterans could make this read but then lack the athleticism to make the play. Quinyon has the brains to read this and the athleticism to flip his hips and go up and knock the football away with perfect timing. Oh yes, this is exciting.

Oh no, I’m going to get negative again. Sorry! I genuinely have no idea what was going on with the Eagles zone coverage in this game. The Eagles ran standard Cover 3 multiple times. Straight up Cover 3?! When has Vic Fangio ever run Cover 3 without any match principles?! It was utterly bizarre. I’ve watched a lot of Fangio, but I’ve never seen it. The Eagles kept running Cover 3, the Packers kept running deep crossers, and the Eagles continually could not cover these deep crossers. It was so weird. It was like going back in time when Sean McVay realized you could just run Cooper Kupp on deep crossing routes against single-high defenses repeatedly. One of the big reasons why the Fangio scheme has taken off in recent years was to stop these crossing routes! After thinking about it, there are 3 potential reasons for this.

1. The field was so bad that Fangio decided to change up his calls to make it easier for his defensive players to drop to a zone. However, surely he must have practiced this before the game and during the off-season, as you can’t just randomly call standard Cover 3?
2. Due to the number of new starters, he wanted to keep things simple. However, Reed Blankenship, Darius Slay, Avonte Maddox, and CGJ have all played in a Fangio-style defense before. So why do you need to change it?
3. Fangio has decided to run standard Cover 3 without match elements. However, this just doesn’t make sense! His whole philosophy is based on match principles.

So, basically, I have no idea why the Eagles kept running standard Cover 3. It didn’t work, and I’m confused.

I’ve realized now I haven’t really broken down what went wrong on the play. The reason why is I don’t know. Without being in the defensive meeting room, I don’t know who is supposed to help. Slay may be meant to drop further back. But you can argue Cooper DeJean needs to cover the flat better to allow Slay to fall back. You could argue that Nakobe Dean should cover the crossing route, but is he supposed to? The only thing I would say is that while it’s easy to blame CGJ for missing the tackle, this is a tough tackle to make in the open field. And CGJ isn’t a great tackler. So I’m not too fussed about that.

Oh, look. It’s another deep crossing route against Cover 3. And no one knows what to do. I’m a little confused still.

Let’s move on from the Eagles Cover 3 because I haven’t read or heard any real explanation for what happened. But I will be keeping a close eye on it moving forward.

Let’s talk about the Eagles’ most underrated defender and possibly the Eagles most underrated player. Reed Blankenship! Someone tell me what Reed doesn’t do well? He may not be able to line up in man coverage in the slot, but not every safety needs to do so. He is excellent in zone coverage and understands his match responsibilities. He is fantastic in run defense and is quick to come downhill as well as being a highly controlled yet physical tackler. This was a game-changing play by Blankenship, and he does such a good job reading the throw and picking it off. Vic Fangio also deserves credit for a really cool design where the Eagles drop both the EDGE defenders into coverage and Zach Baun does well to drop quickly and prevent the tight end from getting in front of the safety. This was a big-time defensive play.

I think I’ve said enough about Zack Baun, but here’s another fantastic play that shows off his athleticism and instincts. He obviously won’t have 15 tackles and 2 sacks every week, but if he continues to look this good throughout the season, the Eagles might actually have good linebacker play all season. How exciting is that? Huge credit must go to Howie Roseman and Vic Fangio for looking at Baun’s profile and projecting his fit in this defense.

I know I’ve already gone on about bad run fits, but come on. What is this? This is on 1st and 10! The Eagles have Nakobe Dean follow the motion (I assume by design, and if not, it’s a big mistake by him), and this results in there being no off-ball linebacker due to Zach Baun lining up at EDGE. Due to Baun playing at EDGE, Josh Sweat kicks inside and is playing at 4i technique. Finally, due to the Nub TE (a TE with no receivers on his side of the field), Quinon Mitchell is forced into the run fit. If you put all this together, you have 6 defenders in the box and 6 blockers. All you need to do is leave the EDGE opposite the run unblocked, and you have 6 blockers vs. 5 defenders. That can’t happen on 1st and 10. You can’t have absolutely no off-ball linebacker. Josh Sweat gets doubled, so he doesn’t stand a chance. I would love for Jordan Davis to do more here, but I just don’t think he moves laterally well. Throw in a bad missed tackle from CGJ, and you have a bit of a disaster.

We are back to Cover 3, failing to cover deep crossing routes. I think this one is Cover 3 Match, and I think Quinyon Mitchell is at fault, but it still highlights that the defense struggled to cover this stuff all game.

Anyway, enough of run fits and Cover 3. The Eagles won! And is there any other way to end the article than showing Moro Ojomo winning his one-on-one matchup and forcing the incompletion? The Eagles’ EDGE defenders were underwhelming in this game and the Eagles might need Ojomo to step up as an interior pass rusher this year. The big knock on Ojomo coming out of college was his pass-rushing ability, which was wicked to see.

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and ask any questions. If you enjoyed this piece, you can find more of my work and podcast here.