Eagles Film Analysis: Defense takeaways from the loss to the Buccaneers

My Philadelphia Eagles defensive reviews this year have been absurd. I’m either being extremely positive or extremely negative. Last week was great, but I did warn you that I didn’t think everything was fixed because the defensive game plan was specific for the Saints.

It is worth pointing out that the Saints play a very different style to the Falcons. The Saints made it easier in some ways for the Eagles to get to their 5-man fronts by playing a lot of 12 and 21 personnel.

Apologies, but this week is a negative one. This defense was awful against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and I think Vic Fangio deserves a lot of blame. The whole game plan sucked. Let’s get into it.

Defense

First play of the game. As a defense, you want to set the tone early. Send a message to the opposing team that you are a physical, tough defense to beat. Or you could just come out and give a 31-year-old Mike Evans 10 yards of cushion despite having a safety over the top. If you want to send a message that your defense is soft and will give you easy throws all day, then this is how you want to start. I cannot fully explain how much I hate this style of defense. This is not an anti-Fangio scheme take either. You can run the Fangio scheme and not line your cornerbacks 10 yards off. You can run a Fangio scheme and still play press coverage. But in this particular game, the Eagles were way too passive, and it cost them. It also annoyed me immensely.

Fangio admitted in his press conference that this game plan surprised the Eagles. At least he’s honest.

Still, if everyone at home could see this, I have no idea why the Eagles didn’t adjust or do anything different. I could count on one hand the amount of press coverage I saw from the Eagles’ cornerbacks.

I could have taken ten clips from C. J. Gardner-Johnson from this game. I’m unsure if something was up with him, but he was abysmal in this game. I will rarely ever question someone’s effort on the field, but if I am really honest, he had plays where he looked disinterested in tackling or coming downhill. If Sydney Brown was healthy and on the bench, I would have asked for CJGJ to be benched. He really did not play well. This is another example of the Eagles’ cornerbacks being too far off. Avonte Maddox is so far off that it’s easy for the Bucs to check it down to the slot receiver, and the tight end can easily come across and block Maddox. CJGJ has to get downhill quicker here. Nolan Smith saves a touchdown here with a very athletic play.

I’ve watched a lot of Fangio’s defenses over the past few years. I do not recognize this defense. It just does not look like a typical Fangio defense. Fangio typically wants to be +1 on each half of the field. I know this is a huge oversimplification but just think of it like that. If you have 3 receivers on one side of the field, Fangio will probably want 4 defenders on that side distributing the routes. Now, compare what I have just said to this clip. The Bucs only have 3 receivers out on a route here. The Eagles have 4 defenders on that side of the field. But there is no distribution of routes. No communication. If you think the Fangio defense is about playing two-high safeties, then watch this film. The Eagles frequently rotated to single-high and were useless when they did. They ended up with plays like this where Blankenship attempts to cover Mike Evans. This isn’t good. It is not what I expected to see at all, either.

Another thing I found disappointing about this week was the amount of confusion. There were many snaps where players looked around confused post-snap and complained to one another. Whatever you think of the Fangio style, it is not good enough for it to be week 4, and players still being confused. If the scheme is too complicated, then simplify it. If the players are making mistakes, then you need to coach things better. I don’t get why it’s happening, but I know it’s not good enough. CJGJ is clearly playing as a split safety here, which leaves the middle of the field open, but Slay is playing with outside leverage.

I have repeatedly said that I hate these defensive line stunts. It works here, but I still don’t like them. They are very aggressive and frequently do not work, but when they do work, they look awesome. The Eagles did not rush the quarterback well in this game, but I blame the scheme more than the players. It’s hard to rush the quarterback when the cornerbacks are playing 10 yards off the receivers and giving up easy throws. If Fangio was going to be more creative in this game, I wish he ran more simulated pressures and creepers rather than these defensive line stunts. Even though it worked beautifully here!

Shall we pause the negatives to talk about a positive for a second? I think Quinyon Mitchell was the best Eagles’ defensive back in this game (I appreciate that isn’t saying a lot). This is as good as it gets against Mike Evans in the red zone. Evans excels in these contested situations, and this is an outstanding rep from the rookie. He wasn’t perfect, but he’s had an excellent start to his Eagles’ career.

OK, no one can accuse me of being negative now I’ve given you a positive! So, let’s get back to the negatives. What the hell is this?! It’s 4th and 1, and the Bucs run a standard read-option. Brandon Graham does the right thing and comes crashing down on the running back immediately, which causes Baker Mayfield to keep it. Reed Blankenship must know the situation and come downhill on the quarterback immediately. He has to be aggressive here. Even if he misses the tackle, that’s better than what he does. There is absolutely no point in tackling the ball carrier low on the 1-yard line. It is a complete and utter waste of time. If any play epitomizes the Eagles’ passive approach to playing defense, it’s this play. I believe that Blankenship was not feeling great and didn’t last the full game so I’m not personally criticising him, but aggressiveness in short yardage situations is something the coaches need to stress.

Hey, another positive! I don’t think I will speak positively about any players in this article except for Quinyon Mitchell and Brandon Graham, and I think that’s pretty fair. I can’t believe I’ve made it this far and haven’t spoken about the Eagles’ missed tackles! I have quite a controversial take on that, so let’s do it now because I haven’t got another play in the thread that shows a missed tackle!

Here’s my controversial take: I think the missed tackles resulted from the Eagles’ passive scheme rather than individuals being rubbish. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of Eagles’ defenders who were terrible in this game. But there were so many missed tackles because Eagles’ defensive backs frequently have to fly out in the flats from 10 yards deep and tackle running backs. If you allow the offensive to just check the ball down to running backs in receivers in the flat, then your defense will miss a lot of tackles! I’m not excusing the Eagles’ players, but the scheme did not put them in a good position to succeed. That’s the whole point of a coaching staff and a scheme.

Here’s yet another error. I obviously can’t be certain without being in the meeting room, but I’m almost certain this is another error from CJGJ. It looks like a 5-man rush with a fire zone coverage behind it. This would result in CJGJ being responsible for the flat, which he doesn’t cover here. However, just be careful that I don’t know exactly what the call is.

This was the play when I fully lost. I can understand why, against a certain motion or late shift, a great offensive mind may force one of your EDGE players to drop into coverage. I don’t have a problem with dropping an EDGE and rushing an off-ball linebacker. But not like this! The rush has to be disguised. There is absolutely no disguise here at all! It’s incredibly obvious to anyone pre-snap that Nolan Smith is in coverage, which will likely result in a linebacker rushing the quarterback. You almost can’t make it any easier for the Bucs here. The only positive is that Nolan Smith actually does a pretty good job covering Chris Godwin, or this would have been even more embarrassing for Fangio.

I don’t know if this is a player or coach issue, but it must stop. There is no scenario when Quinyon Mitchsell should be giving this much cushion to any wide receiver. Let alone Sterling Shepard on 2nd and 12. Fangio frequently speaks about how the players decide whether to press or not but at this point, the coaches need to make the decision for them. I don’t care if Quinyon or Darius Slay are more comfortable in off-coverage. That’s irrelevant. You cannot give this much space to any wide receiver and expect to have any success. I’ve seen this way too many times the past 3 years.

Just to finish us off, let’s look at some more miscommunication. It is pretty clear here that Avonte Maddox and Kelee Ringo are not on the same page at all. Maddox is furious after the play. There also appears to be some confusion as to who is rushing the quarterback as Zack Baun ends up as a sort of quarterback spy, which you do not need against Baker Mayfield on 3rd and long. You can’t give up plays like this because your defensive backs are not on the same page. This is not the preseason anymore. It’s week 4, and these games matter.

Finally, I hate the use of personnel here, too. If I am going to play some DIME and bring in Kelee Ringo, there is no chance I’d put him in the slot. Ringo needs to be outside and playing with physical press coverage. There’s nothing good about this play. Nothing.

I apologize for the negative rant again, but I can only say what the film shows me. I was not fond of this game plan at all. I think Vic Fangio really needs to take a hard look at this defense over the bye week and needs to come back with a new identity, or this could be a long, long season.

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.