Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott was on the defensive yesterday at his weekly news conference. He had to explain why the San Francisco 49ers scored a couple of touchdowns late in the game to make the Eagles sweat through their third victory of the season.
Of course the Birds defense did force an interception which sealed the win but he still had to explain those late touchdowns. He was asked whether his defense has the killer instinct.
“It is important that we stay on the throttle, and stay aggressive as I mentioned earlier to Jeff”, McDermott replied. “But within that, you’ve got to execute and then you’ve got to play smart football, and know the situation you’re in knowing that they’re in a one-dimensional phase at the point in the game, pretty much being pass only. So, we need to do a better job in those areas.”
I can understand highlighting the late scores by the Niners, but we can’t forget that it was the defense which played a major part in putting them a head.
McDermott is going to battle with a rookie starting at one of his safety positions and another rookie splitting time at a key defensive end spot. He has a second-year linebacker with virtually no experience starting on the strongside and another rookie playing quite a bit at one of the corner positions.
When you consider that the Eagles defense played a major part in beating the Niners, I don’t think McDermott should be on the defensive at all.
First of all, the defense stopped Frank Gore and the Niners outstanding running game and it was a key to the game. After letting the Redskins running game beat them, they stopped San Francisco’s ground game and forced to put the ball in the hands of Alex Smith.
“Well, I thought we played better up front”, McDermott commented. “I thought our tackles gave us a point up front, played square in the hole. When you do that, you have a chance to be a good run defense”.
They forced five turnovers in that football game. Count em’, five turnovers. If they did that in every game the rest of the season and playoffs, this team would be in the Super Bowl.
Every time a defense forces five turnovers, they get a pass on the rest.
They scored one touchdown with one of those turnovers and put the Eagles in position to kick a field goal with another. I look back at that game and give the Eagles defense credit for scoring ten points. They gave up 24 and scored 10. That’s like giving up 14-points. I’ll take that any time.
Yes this defense has its deficiencies but you can’t deny they played a major part in beating the Niners.
Now this week they’ll really face a tough test.
They still let a stuggling offense score 2 TD’s in the 4th Quarter to get back into the game..
But a win is a win.. If TE Celek catches a couple of those passes in the 3rd/4th quarter, the game would have been over but his drops forced some Eagle punts which gave the 49ers a chance
But overall, they played a pretty good game taking RB F Gore out of it..
McDermott neds a better idea on who to cover the Athletic/Elite TE’s in passing situations for it doesn’t appear the Bradley is the guy to cover one-on-one down the field
Pman – i think Davis is listed as having 4.4 speed. Take a look at the catches by Davis and where Bradley was in relation to Davis when he made those catches – – – – Bradley has some wheels. I don’t think outside of a young healthy Derrick Brooks there is an LB in the league that can run with Davis on that route.
Birds flat out got caught in what looked like cover 2 and ran the right route against it (seam). Eagles tried to do the same thing with Celek and Willis got away with Pass interference (watcht he replay, he grabbed Celeks left arm)
Honestly, I couldn’t agree less. Yeah, we got 5 turnovers but counting on that every week is rediculous. The Niners gashed us every-which-way but lose and we catch a break with a fumble. Not every team we play this year is going to cough it up that much. And tell me again exactly how many points did we turn those turnovers into?
A team like ATL is looking at our film and must be thinking that it’s going to be a field day running against this D, espically late in the game around mid 3rd qtr when it appears that the tank has gone dry.
ATL might be 4-1 but there as solid as they come in the NFC right now and I’m sorry for all the Negative Norman here but it doesn’t look too good from where I’m sitting.
Who knows, maybe the Birds throw up a gem this week and pull one outta the hat. I’d love a win as much as the next fan but I’m not getting my hopes up. I think I could come up with a game plan at this point to beat the Eagels D.
Yeah but it was the 49ers so he can’t be relaxed either G. I mean I’m glad the D did what they did and hope they continue but that still doesn’t remove the question marks. Just like people cried about how bad Jacksonville was and Detroit is, it was frickin Alex Smith and the 0-4 49ers. If that’s the case, why didn’t you give the defense credit when they shut down the Jags, who are supposed to be a bad team but have the same record we have and beat the Colts? I can see if the 49ers have been on a ball, but even with the good skilled position players they do have, they still haven’t been playing well. They’ve been struggling to score all year so to me I feel the same as shutting down the Jags. I like it, but I want it to be consistent and make plays against good teams. We can always make good plays against bad teams but the turnovers are nowhere to be found against the good ones. That’s what I’m looking for. So, good but he doesn’t need to be on the defensive especially with Andy Reid looking like he was more active in the defense playcalling and adjustments.
To Navy,
I realize that TE V Davis is a super Athlete playing the TE position,
but why not have the OLB (Fokou or Sims) chuck him at the Line of Scrimmage to slow him down and to not allow him to get a free start and then pick him up with a Bradley or better yet, FS N Allen a few yards down the field and then run with him, but as a cover guy, you have to have your head on the ball to see where and when it’s coming from, running down the fiueld with your backed turned is not going to get it done and I think Braadley was caught in this same position (back to the ball) on every route…
It was the special teams that screwed up NOT the D
That is true RCP.
Special teams Coverage units are about the worst in the NFL this year and it’s going to cost this team
1-2 games before this season is over, which is going to knock them right out of playoff contention because of it too… .
Good points on the defense G. Anytime the defense forces 5 turnovers and takes on back for a TD they deserve a pass on everything else.
G how can you get 5 turnovers and only win by 3 to a 0-4 team.
It’s easy daggolden,
Watch the the game over and you’ll see 3-4 dropped passes by TE Celek which could have led to
1-2 more TD’s and put the game away early in the 4th Period..
G:
I hate to admit it,but it’s the DT’s job, in a 5-3, to absorb the punishment and funnel plays to the LB’s. Did I mention that I hated to admit it? The stats are clear. Nice job by the DT’s last week.