Eagles-Cowboys Film Review: Defensive takeaways

NFC East Champions! What a fantastic season. I couldn’t think of a better end to 2024 than the Philadelphia Eagles dominating the Dallas Cowboys.

Defense

The Eagles weren’t perfect on the first drive, and I’ll get into some of my concerns later on. But we have to start here. I think this is a much better play than it looks. Watching live, I assumed that the Eagles were in cover 1 man coverage and C.J. Gardner-Johnson was playing the ‘robber’ position (essentially free to roam over the middle of the field), and Cooper Rush just made a terrible throw straight at him. However, I think it’s a little cooler than that. Vic Fangio often allows his defenders to ‘swap’ responsibilities depending on the leverage. I think Zack Baun or CJGJ could end up as the robber here. It looks like CJGJ is covering the slot receiver pre-snap, but he passes him off to Baun when he runs inside. One of the biggest issues with playing man coverage on slot receivers is that they can go both ways. You can negate that issue by having two defensive backs read the receiver’s release. Cooper Rush doesn’t see this switch, so he wrongly assumes he has the quick slant open as he expects CJGJ to follow the inside receiver over the middle of the field.

Milton Williams gets immediate pressure upfront and helps to force Cooper Rush into a poor decision. I don’t think this interception would have happened without the pressure from Williams. This is a great defensive play for several different reasons!

Right, let’s get into Quinyon Mitchell. Quinyon has had an unbelievable rookie season at a position where rookies often struggle badly. He could be the Defensive Rookie of the Year, and no one would complain. However, he is beginning to get targeted a bit more, and we can see some technique issues crop up. Teams are noticing this and starting to throw at him more. He struggled in a few different ways in this game. I think he is better when closer to the line of scrimmage (as he is below), and he is in a good position to make a play on the comeback, but he turns his head the wrong way. I’m unsure why he does this, but he should be focusing on the receiver’s hips. He’s actually facing the quarterback when the throw is made, which means he has no idea that the receiver has stopped. He may be too focused on getting his first interception, or he was expecting a deep throw here. Either way, I’m not overly concerned about this error; I think it’s a pretty easy fix.

The Eagles’ run defense was a little up and down in this one. I think the Eagles missed Nakobe Dean, and they didn’t play as many 5-man fronts as I thought they would, considering they struggled a little early on against the run. However, the Eagles did have some fantastic plays against the run, including this one below. Moro Ojomo can get forgotten as the Eagles’ 4th defensive tackle, but he’s a good player who has had a good 2nd season.

I mentioned a technique error with Quinyon earlier, but I don’t think this is a mistake. I think this is a great throw and catch. I do think it’s fair to point out that Quinyon is not brilliant at the catch point. This may be weird, but I wish he had been tested more this year. I think his coverage has been so strong at times that teams have ignored him, and I’m not sure that’s been great for his development. If I were an offensive coordinator going up against the Eagles, I would test him with some 50/50 balls early on to put pressure on him. This is not a terrible rep, but I think he could play football better in the air. I don’t blame him for not getting his head turned around here, but he could play through the receiver’s hands better and make this a tougher catch.

This is the play that concerns me more than any other play. This play highlights a technique error he has had a few times this season (think back to the end of the Falcons game and the Terry McLaurin touchdown last week). He is getting out of his pedal too early and flipping his hips too early when playing off-coverage. He must stay square longer to react better to the receiver’s movement. He’s very suspectable to double-moves and anything in-breaking from this position. Quinyon is lucky that he has elite recovery speed, so he can afford to give up a step, but he’s beaten pretty badly here.

Again, I’m not worried about Quinyon in the long term. He’s been fantastic. But I expect him to be tested a lot in the playoffs. I’m excited to see him go to work and react to a couple of poor performances.

For what it’s worth (before someone complains about me letting him off the hook), Darius Slay wasn’t great in this one, either. You can see he is beaten at the bottom of the screen, too! He also gave up a big play last week. The Eagles need their two outside cornerbacks to get back to form in the playoffs or this defense will not be as good as it has been.

I can’t express how much I love this play. This is so good by so many different players. The communication and instincts on show by so many members of the secondary is awesome to see.

Let’s start with the concept. The Cowboys are running a variation of a 3-level stretch that includes a short route, an intermediate route breaking to the outside, and a post route. The deep out and post combination is designed to take advantage of the exact coverage (cover 4) that the defense is playing here. You will see the post thrown against cover 4 all the time. The deep out is supposed to take away the safety on that side (CGJG), which leaves the outside cornerback playing outside leverage on a post route. I can see why Cooper Rush throws this ball.

However, the Eagles’ defense is not fooled. Firstly, it all starts with Cooper DeJean. He gets fantastic depth and manages to make the out route very difficult to complete because of his depth. He does a good job being close to both the short and intermediate routes. Secondly, Reed Blankenship does a great job realizing that the defense could be in trouble vs. the trio of receivers, so he points at CJGJ, telling him that he will help out against anything vertical. Thirdly, Quinyon is in a great position to make this play as he stays close to the receiver.

However, this play is all about CJGJ’s instincts. CJGJ should cover the out route behind DeJean. This is what Cooper Rush is expecting him to do. You can see him run forward before realizing that the Cowboys are targeting him on this play. He flips his hips and sprints in the opposite direction. These are just fantastic instincts. Yes, it sucks that he took the interception away from Quinyon, but this is such a good play by CJGJ. I love it!

The Eagles have forced a lot of fumbles of late, and I don’t think it’s an accident. They are clearing coaching the second defender to the ball to punch the ball out. It’s working! The Eagles have caused several fumbles over the past month that all look very similar. That’s a sign of good coaching. Turnovers could be the difference in a close game in the playoffs. This defense has done a great job of taking the ball away over the past month.

I don’t have much to say about Oren Burks in this one. He was fine. He wasn’t bad against the run, and he did just enough in coverage, except for this rep, where he was fooled badly by the fake toss! Overall, Nakobe Dean has been excellent this year, and I think the Eagles missed him in this game. However, Burks is a decent backup considering what we have seen at linebacker over the past few years.

Speaking of decent backup linebackers, how about Jeremiah Trotter Jr. here! This is a great rep by Trotter. It was good to see Thomas Booker VI get some action towards the end of the game, and he had some excellent reps, just like the one here. It’s good when your 5th defensive tackle can fight through a double team.

I don’t like ending on a negative, but we have to talk about Bryce Huff. He was bad against the run. I know he’s coming back from an injury, but you never want to see your EDGE defender blocked to the ground by a tight end. I don’t think we will see him on early downs very much in the playoffs. I would save him for obvious pass rushing situations.

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.