Eagles-Cowboys Film Review: Jalen Carter is flying under the radar

Well, it appears that this Philadelphia Eagles defense is awesome. This was another fantastic performance, but you have to put a huge asterix next to it because Cooper Rush and this Dallas Cowboys’ offense were absolutely awful. They were not competitive. How bad must Trey Lance be?! Anyway, despite the weak competition, I enjoyed this one a lot. Let’s get into why. (Previously: Eagles-Cowboys offensive film review)

Defense

I was very critical of C.J. Gardner-Johnson last week, so it’s only fair that I credit him this week. He bounced back and played really well. The first play of the game set the tone for the rest of the game. One thing I really like about this Eagles’ defense right now is the aggresiveness in the flat. They aren’t giving up easy yardage and they are trying to defend every single inch of the field. This is a big difference from previous iterations of this defense.

Here’s another example. Cooper DeJean has turned this defense around. He’s the perfect modern day nickel cornerback as he looks like he could play cornerback, safety, or linebacker. He flies downhill with real intensity and aggression and blows up this play in the backfield. However, he does miss the tackle. Rallying to the football is one of the best traits of basically any good defense. Look at the hustle that Nolan Smith and Zack Baun show here to get to the receiver. How good is it to see 3 young athletes combining to make the play. I love this play!

This play is going to be my ‘Concept of the Week’ this week, so I’m not going to get into the design of the play. I will, however, point out the absolute star that is Quinyon Mitchell. Defensive rookie of the year? Although it’s really hard for a defensive back to win it without any star plays, real analysts will recognise that he should absolutely be in the conversation. He is going to go up against Terry McLaurin a lot on Thursday night, and a big performance will increase his national profle. He’s been so good. There’s no obvious weaknesses with him and he seems to do everything well already.

I don’t know what else to add about Zack Baun. He’s awesome every single week. The Eagles need to sign him as soon as possible because the price tag is increasing. I like to think that I am a realistic, rational sports fan, and I understand the business involved in sports. But I will be furious if Baun ends up on another team next year. The Eagles must pay this guy. I’ve been dreaming of a linebacker like this for years!

I’ll get to Jalen Carter later because he’s also awesome, but it’s worth pointing out that he is frequently being double-teamed, and offensive linemen are struggling to get to the second level. This makes it much easier for both Baun and Nakobe Dean to excel. If you think back to the Falcons game, the Eagles were slanting Jalen Carter, which allowed the guards to get to Baun immediately. That isn’t happening right now.

Carter doesn’t have the huge sack numbers that other defensive stars do, so he is going under the radar. However, he’s playing extremely well. He was fantastic against the run in this game. Whenever the Cowboys tried to block him with one man, they failed. He blew up multiple runs, and it looked easy for him at times. He’s a star. When the sack numbers start to reflect how good he is, people are going to talk about him a lot more.

People often think Fanigo’s defense is easy on the outside cornerbacks, but that is not true. When they play standard quarters (quads/cover 4) coverage against a 3×1 set, the weak safety will always look out for crossing routes from the strong side (this is known as Trix). This means the weak side cornerback and linebacker will also end up one-on-one. In addition to this, there is a lot of room for safety and linebacker coverage. Quinyon Mitchell doesn’t seem to care, though. He covers this well, and I love how aggressive he is at the catch point. He plays the ball so well.

This is an outstanding rep. Fangio teaches the gap-and-a-half technique, where the defensive tackle has his main gap but also keeps an eye on the gap next to his. He needs to use this because, with two deep safeties, he needs to ‘cheat’ a gap. Carter plays his perfectly here. Jordan Davis uses a different way of shutting down a gap by just shoving the tackle back into the A-gap! Davis hasn’t taken another jump yet and is pretty much just an early down run defender at this point, but he’s doing it well. He still has a valuable role, even if it’s limited.

The route distribution in this game was excellent. I don’t care if you are playing Cooper Rush or Patrick Mahomes; you can still see how the route distribution looks from the All22. In the first month of the season, the Eagle’s route distribution from their single-high zone defense was awful. Remember when they just couldn’t cover a crossing route? These issues seem to be resolved now. Fangio’s defense is complicated and it can take time to perfect, but it feels like this current secondary are running it at at a very high level now. He obviously teaches it very well, to his players and his coaches! It must be very hard for opposing quarterbacks because every single coverage looks identical pre-snap. The Eagles ability to stop the run with a 4-man front is enabling them to line up with this split-safety look pre-snap every single time.

The Bryce Huff stuff is interesting. I watched Fangio’s press conference this week and he was adamant that Huff isn’t playing as much because he is hurt. Fangio rarely lies in his press conferences so I am inclined to believe him. It seems clear to me that Huff isn’t happy with his role and you could see his lack of a celebration after this sack. However, I haven’t given up hope. I think if he can be a productive pass rusher still. He has been an outstanding pass rusher for such a long time I just can’t see him suddenly becoming useless. I mean, look at this rush! It’s exceptional. I think the Eagles gambled on Huff being a full-time player and they got it wrong. That seems clear to me. Despite this, he can still be very valuable as a 3rd down pass rusher. I hope we see more reps like this. The Eagles will need him down the stretch in big games.

I may get a few comments about him, so I’ll just touch on Jalyx Hunt performance. He was fine. He looks comfortable dropping into coverage, is still raw as a pass rusher and was fine as a run defender. He was moved once or twice but there was nothing major to see.

Let’s end with the player I started with; C.J. Gardner-Johnson. As I mentioned, I was very disappointed with his performance last week but he made numerous plays this week. This is a terrible throw, but it’s still a good play from him. It was good to see him show range as the single-high safety too as I haven’t see a play like this from him for a while.

That will do this week. Huge game on Thursday! We will get to see this defense challenged by a serious offense.

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.