The 'Iggles' Defense

For week two of the NFL season, I will be looking at the Eagles defense. I would like to thank the folks at iggglesblog.com for their great work. A lot of my research is based on what has been posted there, especially regarding how new defensive coordinator Sean McDermott’s defense works. As always, comments, question and especially suggestions are welcome!

This week the Lions will play the Philadelphia Eagles that are really in a transition state on really both sides of the ball. We all know about the why the Eagles are in a transition state on offense: new starting quarterback, new starting runningback, inexperienced wideouts, etc, but they are also in a transition state on defense too. The Eagles had legendary Jim Johnson coaching their defense from 1998 to 2008. In that ten year tenure, the Eagles registered the most sacks of any NFL team with 342, the fourth fewest points allowed at 17.6 points per game, and second in the league in third down efficiency with a 34.3% conversion rate. Since his passing in early 2009, Sean McDermott has taken over the defense and has started to change a few things on the defensive end.

Under Jim Johnson, the Eagles ran what could be called a zone blitz scheme, although his defense didn’t always follow the basic principle behind a zone blitz defense: show blitz with the linebackers, and then drop either one or more linebacker or defensive end into coverage. What Johnson used to do was blitz the linebackers and really leave the secondary to fend for itself. Thankfully, he had pro bowl corners like Lito Shepard, Sheldon Brown and Asante Samuels in the secondary. Not to mention, Brian Dawkins who really was the big reason the Eagles could do what they did under Jim Johnson.

Under Sean McDermott, things started to change last season. What McDermott runs is closer to a Tampa-2 than the zone blitz that Johnson used to run, but the roster (at least last season) was really equipped for Johnson’s blitz-happy defense. Being a former safety and secondaries coach, McDermott’s scheme is more interested in disguising the coverage instead of disguising the blitz, and focuses on linebackers that are able to drop back in coverage. That’s why the Eagles picked up former Lions Ernie Sims…with the belief that Sims, with his speed, will be a great coverage linebacker for them. (I think they will be in for a surprise). In addition, they picked up players that specialize in pass coverage like Nate Allen, and Marlin Jackson.

On the defensive line, McDermott likes high energy defensive ends like Brandon Graham and Trent Cole, who can provide a consistent pass rush. As I stated above, pass rush was a critical area in Jim Johnson’s defense, and really the Eagles defense lived or died by the blitz. Take a look at the graph below. It shows number of sacks per season and points allowed per game over the last ten years by the Eagles defense:As you can see, there is almost a direct correlation from 200 to 2008 between points allowed and the number of sacks registered. The more sacks the Eagles defense got, the better it was. When they didn’t get to the quarterback, like in 2005 when they only registered 29 sacks, there was a spike in points allowed with 24.3.

The interesting trend is at the end of the curves. Look at 2009, the year that McDermott took over. The Eagles only got four less sacks than the year before with 44, but they allowed three more points than the previous year (from 18.1 in 2008 to 21.1 in 2009). A lot of that has been blamed to the complex coverage schemes that  McDermott put into place and there are a number of fans who think that the players weren’t accustomed to the changes.

Now, I wanted to give a more visual example of the difference between what Jim Johnson used to do and what Scott McDermott did last season, so let’s look at some tape. The first video is from 2009 when McDermott ran the defense. Look at the play starting at 1:22. Note at pre-snap, how the linebackers aren’t really near the line; they are sort of backed up in coverage. Hit play and notice how number 54 almost comes away with the interception. This is pretty much what McDermott tries to do. Put linebackers and safeties in spots they are not suppose to be and come away with interceptions, which the Eagles did last season with 25, ranking them 4th in the league. The gripe about the defense last year was that it didn’t meet the really high bar set by the 2008 Eagles defense, which ranked 3rd in the league.

NFL Week 14, 2009 - Eagles @ Giants Highlights (via MattZaleski)

Now, look at the second play. This is from 2008 when Jim Johnson ran things.  Look at the play starting at 4:52. Note the immediate pre-snap difference between the previous play. The linebackers are all either on the line of scrimmage or very close to it. Now run the play. Notice that a couple of the linebackers blitz, but not all of them. One of them drops back in coverage; that is your textbook zone blitz.

Eagles Vs Cowboys Week 17 (via ARNOLDcHU)

Now for what we really care about: weaknesses.  Although the sack and interception numbers were higher (which is good for fantasy), the points allowed was pretty high too. The good news for Eagles fans and maybe even Lions fans is that those points were really given up at a bunch. In eight out of the sixteen games, the Eagles defense allowed over 20 points, and in four of those games allowed over 30 points. On the other hand, the other eight games, the Philadelphia defense only allowed an average of 13.5 points. If you’re curious, those seven games were against teams like Panthers, Chiefs, Redskins, Raiders, Buccaneers, Falcons, 49ers and Giants (probably the only good offense). 

In fact, 29 of the Eagles 38 defensive turnovers came against those lackluster offenses. To me, that tells a lot about the Eagles defense. It tells me that their defense was much worse than the 12th overall ranked defense and their pass defense was much worse than the 17th.  A particular interest in the Eagles rush defense, which ranked 9th against the run, but take a look at the following numbers:

 The Eagles defense for the whole season only allowed 104 yards per game, but the five games above show you that their run defense, which has become quite stout over the last few years is very much beatable, and you don’t have to be a very strong run offense to do it either. What makes their stats on the run defense side look as good as it does on paper is the next five games:

If you average out the ten games above, it comes out to 105.9 per game, which is pretty close to the 104.7 they allowed last season.  Again, the teams above, with the exception of Dallas, are pretty mediocre and they were either missing key players or had bad offensive lines.

Finally, what would the Lions offense have to do to be successful against the Eagles? Personally, even with all the stats and examples above, I think the Lions don’t match up well against the Eagles. Philadelphia has two high motor, fast, quick, relentless defensive ends, which really don’t matchup with our bigger, slower offensive tackles. They also have a stud corner needed to cover a receiver like Calvin Johnson in Asante Samuels. Personnel-wise, I think our tight ends will play a big role again. Tight ends against the Eagles put up a staggering 100 catches for 1076 yards last season. On a side note, the more I study our opponents, the more it seems to me that Schwartz, Mayhew and Linehan knew exactly how important the tight end position was going to be in 2010, which is why they traded basically a 5th rounder for Tony Scheffler.

Last week, Scheffler caught 6 passes for 43 yards, which doesn’t sound like much, but he has the leading receiver in terms of catches and two yards behind Calvin Johnson in yardage total. I think that trend will continue this week as I really don’t see a Philadelphia linebacker or safeties that can matchup with The Chef. I also think Brandon Pettigrew will really need to step up and have a good game both blocking and receiving.  Also, it goes without saying that if the running game can be effective, then it will be a huge boost for an offense that has so many pass catching threats.

All in all, I expect the Lions to be much better in this game than the Bears game. I expect them to continue trying to run the ball on first downs because that is a staple of Linehan’s offense, even though it is somewhat predictable. There are matchup problems for both sides. I don’t like our chances against Philly’s pass rushers, and Philly shouldn’t like seeing guys like Tony Scheffler and Calvin Johnson lining up opposite of their defense. With that said, I expect the Lions to score anywhere from 17 to 24 points and Shaun Hill to have a very solid game.