Eagles-Panthers Film Review: Takeaways on defense

Well, this was an interesting watch on defense. Bryce Young and this Panthers’ offense played well. But the Eagles only gave up 16 points, so it’s hard to be too critical. There was some good and bad this week. Let’s get into it. (Previously: Eagles-Panthers offensive film review.)

Defense

Two weeks without Brandon Graham and two weeks with increased use of 12 personnel. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. The Eagles did kick Josh Sweat inside a few times this week, but it’s not the same as kicking BG inside. I would expect to see more 12 personnel the rest of the season which is a shame because it does result in Cooper DeJean on the sideline. I would expect teams to throw from 12 personnel against the Eagles’ base defense over the next few weeks. Disappointingly, the Eagles had a few poor reps against the run this week, where the defensive linemen were pushed back in this game. It wasn’t the best game from a run-fit perspective. This was a game when the Eagles missed BG on defense. I don’t think it will be the only time they miss him, sadly!

I thought C.J. Gardner Johnson had an excellent game (when he was on the field). This is an outstanding rep of half-quarter-quarter. HQQ means the Eagles have a ¹⁄₂ safety to the passing strength and two ¹⁄₄ safeties to the other side. CJGJ plays this perfectly by covering the offenses’ receivers inside to out and then laying a huge hit on the receiver. This is outstanding. My only issue with CJGJ is that he is hitting too hard of late! I’m a little worried about his health if he keeps hitting this hard because he isn’t the biggest guy. He can be a little reckless out there.

Ah, Zack Baun is now blitzing and beating guards one-on-one. What a ridiculous season this guy is having. The Eagles sent a lot of pressure this week and played a fair amount of man coverage. Adam Thielen was open here, so credit Baun for an important rush. How many off-ball linebackers have the ability to beat offensive linemen one-on-one when blitzing? Baun had another fantastic game. He’s a special talent.

(I posted the wrong play on my thread; it was supposed to be this one)

We don’t need to overreact, but Cooper DeJean got worked in this game. As always, some out was down to context and some was just bad play. The Eagles sent quite a lot of pressure in this game and played a few more heavy fronts. This leads to more single-high coverage and less split-safety coverage. Single-high coverage often leads to more man coverage or one-on-one coverage, whereas split-safety coverage is usually more about route distribution and communication. DeJean’s ability to distribute routes and communicate has been exceptional, but we haven’t seen him really tested in close coverage until this game. Thielen is a savvy veteran, and he beat him pretty cleanly throughout the game. In DeJean’s defense, Thielen beat Darius Slay in the above clip, too, so you know that Thielen was feeling good out there. There’s not much to worry about yet, but it’s worth noting how much he struggled in man coverage.

I can’t speak about how good Jalen Carter and Zack Baun are every week. But I’ll give them a mention or two. Carter was dominant once again. The play before this one, he tossed aside the guard and nearly made the tackle in the backfield. The Panthers’ offensive linemen didn’t learn their lesson because he did this on the very next play. My word. What a superstar we have. He did get a few snaps off in this game, but I do think he looked a little fatigued out there. I’m not sure he can carry this heavy workload every week. Despite this, I expect him to play a hell of a lot this weekend against a good Steelers team!

This is the kind of stuff we haven’t seen much of from this defense over the past couple of months. All NFL defenses will get beat. I don’t mind giving up a touchdown on a pick play; it happens all the time! The Eagles ran pick plays successfully against the Panthers’ defense; it happens. However, you expect the defense to play this better. They aren’t even close. You either need to Banjo this (both the defensive backs pass this off to one another and swap receivers) or CJGJ needs to come downhill a lot quicker. The broadcast cut to Vic Fangio after this play and he was furious. I can see why.

Vic Fangio threw a lot of different looks at Bryce Young in this game. While the defense was hardly perfect, I appreciate having a defensive coordinator who is willing to try and confuse opposing quarterbacks. The defense seems to have a different game plan each week ,which is cool. This was a unique look where the Eagles lined up Baun at EDGE and dropped him and Nolan Smith into coverage whilst sending Nakobe Dean as a blitzer. The pressure didn’t get home, but I think Young is a little confused by what he’s looking at, and he makes a bad throw. CJGJ does excellently to read this and make the play on the football.

The Eagles got lucky at the end of the game with a dropped pass that should have resulted in a touchdown. But they got really unlucky here. This is a great play by Jalen Carter. It’s a really heads-up play, and it would have been an outstanding stop on 4th down.

I’ve said this for a while, but the Eagles effort was outstanding on defense. I thought Nakobe Dean had a great game. The effort from both Dean and Moro Ojomo here is outstanding. You can have a great dernsive scheme and talented players; nothing will ever top outstanding effort on every single play. This Eagles’ defense continues to bring it even when things are not going their way.

I can’t quite believe how good Bryce Young was in this game. If we are criticizing Jalen Hurts for playing conservatively, Young was the exact opposite. To be fair to him, he seems to have no pressure on him at all. He’s on a losing team. He’s been benched. He’s just playing with a sense of freedom which is awesome to see. Sometimes, as a defense, you have to give the offense credit for making some fantastic plays. You can criticize Josh Sweat for not bringing down Young here, but there’s nothing else the rest of the defense can do.

I think the Eagles really missed Brandon Graham and Bryce Huff in this game. Jalyx Hunt is not a good pass rusher at this career stage. However, how good is this?! I knew he was an outstanding athlete for an EDGE defender, but this is a ridiculous play to make in the open field. Bryce Young ran away from Nakobe Dean earlier on in the game, and Dean is super athletic, so this gives you a sense of how fast and athletic Hunt is. He may not be a pass rusher at this stage, but having an EDGE defender who can drop into coverage and do this is great to see.

So it appears that at the end of games, Vic Fangio wants to blitz the hell out of the opposing offense to make sure that the Eagles’ offense gets the ball back with enough time to score. This has happened a few times this season. Whilst I do not mind this tactic and in many ways I think it’s the right idea against a really good offense, I felt this week it was a little bit too aggressive. Considering the Panthers offense has not been brilliant all season long, I feel like Fangio could have trusted his defense to prevent the touchdown. This message may be coming from Nick Sirianni, too. The numbers back up the fact that the Eagles blitzed the hell out of the Panthers too. On the final 8 plays, 7 of them were man coverage and the Eagles blitzed a linebacker on every single one of the 8 plays.

I felt the Eagles were a little bit lucky at the end of the game to not come away with the Panthers scoring as they did make a few errors when blitzing. For example this blitz here leaves Tristin McCollum one-on-one with Adam Thielen which is always going to be an impossible cover for him. This is too easy for the offense.

Similar to the above play, this play does not work out very well, and this should be a catch and a touchdown for the Panthers. As I said above, whilst Fangio’s blitzing may have given the Eagles’ offense enough time to respond if the Panthers had scored here, I would much rather the defense play a normal style of defense at the end of the game to try to close this one out. If I’m playing Patrick Mahomes and there is 2 minutes left on the clock, I don’t mind blitzing to try to end the game or give up a touchdown with plenty of time left on the clock. I’m not sure it’s needed against the Panthers,

Let’s end it here with a top play from Darius Slay. Bryce Young goes on another magic scramble, although there was a penalty on the Panthers, but Slay does a brilliant job running across the field with Thielen and breaking up the pass. Good stuff!

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.