The Eagles defensive line needs to dominant on Sunday against the Bucs. That means winning the individual one-on-one battles. Game after game we’re not hearing enough from Fletcher Cox and nose tackle Isaac Sopoaga. The Buccaneers are going to try to outmuscle the Eagles with three tight end formations and unbalanced lines with extra offensive tackles in the game. The Eagles defensive line needs to take their big boy pads down to Tampa Bay this weekend.
The Eagles defense has done a good job against the run so far this season, but part of that success has been their inability to stop the pass. On Sunday that run defense is going to get seriously tested by second-year running back Doug Martin, who ran for 1454 yards a year ago in his rookie season, and he is very capable of taking over a game.
I think this is going to be a low-scoring game, so the Birds defense needs to perform at their best.
If the Birds defensive line can win the battle at the line of scrimmage and the linebackers, they’ll be able to focus on putting pressure on rookie quarterback Mike Glennon.
Winning the battle at the line of scrimmage starts with the Birds defensive linemen, then the linebackers.
On this past Sunday there was a play in which we saw the kind of domination, which we need to see more dominating play we saw by Birds defensive end Cedric Thornton.
On one play, with the Giants backed up near their goal line, Thornton overpowered Giants right guard Dave Diehl and drove him into the backfield. New York running back David Wilson didn’t know what to do.
Diehl was getting driven into the backfield by Thornton. Should Wilson try to cut back or should he keep going outside on the play? Both of his choices were bad, since Thornton had thrown Diehl off of him and was closing in him. Wilson scrambled away from Thornton when the big defensive end tried to tackle him.
There was only one big problem for Wilson. He was now in the end zone and in jeopardy of being trapped for a safety. He tried to cut to his left, then he tried to go to his right, then was tackled by Thornton in the end zone.
Thornton continues to outplay Cox, who was the first round pick, and supposed to be the best defensive lineman on this team. We need to see Cox driving offensive linemen into the offensive backfield. We need to see him overpowering offensive linemen. Tampa Bay would be a good place for him to start.
Stand the Buc’s OL and almost forece a wall where Martin has to side-step and get moving East/West instead of North/South which is his strength..
If Eagles DL are too agressive, and get undiscpline in there gap repsonsibilities, then this allows Martin and the other backs (Brian Leonard & Mike James) larger holes to run thru.. Concentrate on standing up the Buc’s Blockers while staying somewhat level with each other as far as depth goes along the D/Line which would force Martin to the outside where LB’s Barwin,Cole,Kendricks and Safety Help can get to him.. This would be my plan of attack on Rushing Downs.. Now on Passing Downs, I would BLitz and Pressure the hell out of Glennon right from the get go and do not allow him to get comfortable in the Pocket.. Get in his face, up the Center/Guard Gaps with LB Blitzes and take the step-up area of the Pocket away and have him attempt to throw while on the move which he really struggles with…
Eagles against the run have been pretty solid this season…I don’t expect they fall off against a TB team with a rookie QB…I think they will stack the box and dare the rookie QB to throw the ball…that’s the most logical thing I see. Hopefully we see better coverage in zone by the LB’s…In my opinion what kills us in pass coverage is the LB coverage and the S play…CB’s haven’t been great but I think they’ve been ok…
The Problem with teh LB Pass Coverage is that the Eagles continue to use Conor Barwin who really should be rushing the QB, but Kendricks has still struggled a bit in this area.. Ryans and T Cole are not Coverage LB’s so then end up using Barwin for he is th best at the bunch of dropping back in Pass coverage when he could be helping out the Pass-Rush if he were able to blitz in at the QB..
agreed
good points, I didn’t look at it that way before but your making sense
No surprise that a defense article gets no love on this site….
Thornton had a safety, that should have been called a safety.
what was Thornton an undrafted free agent?
The eagles need to bring the house against this rookie qb , Boykin has shown he’s capable without support
The problem will be the run and Martin
Shut down the run, make the rookie beat you , simple but difficult with this defense
But if foles and this offense does what it’s capable of the bucs offense will be a non factor, look for a Big eagles win
I agree. If the birds Defense can step up they should give Foles a short field. Or more possessions preferably both.
I think Cox is playing ok not great but he will come on as the season starts. Its tough as a you DL coming into the NFL, its even tougher when you find yourself year one only to change pos again and schemes year 2. I think he has played through his early struggles pretty well and made some plays here and there. You also have to consider how bad they were to start the season on the back end.
he is playing way below average. The defense was being built around his versatility and he can’t even handle basic DL play.
On obvious Passing Downs, I would line up as a 4-3
And stack the Line with Thirnton & Cox on the inside with Cole & Curry on the outside Nd I would line up both Thornton & Cox over the Center and Right Guard to force penetration and make Rookie AB Glennon have to move to his left from the Pocket, you end up cutting off half the field as far as his vision goes and protect CB Cary Williams getting beat deep on the Right side since WB Goennon would be forces to move to his left..