The Eagles gave up 468 yards on Sunday. That’s not good. But look inside the numbers. In the first 43 minutes of the game, the Eagles played good defense and limited the Rams to 7 points and 276 yards. In the final 2 minutes of the 3rd quarter and the entire 4th quarter the Eagles gave up 192 yards and 21 points.

Bill Davis cut back on the blitzing and played a more conventional style. He rushed 4 and had the DBs try to keep everything in front of them. The goal is to make the offense move down the field in short chunks and burn the clock. You hope a sack or holding penalty will put the offense in 3rd and long and that you’ll then be able to get them off the field. This if defensive football 101.

The problem is that the Eagles did a lousy job of playing that way. I’d love to blame one person or position, but this was a group issue. There were mistakes on each level of the defense and from a variety of players. I do think the absence of Mychal Kendricks really hurt the defense in that situation. The one thing you really want when playing like that is speed in the middle of the field. You need defenders who can fly to the ball.

I do think we also need to put some context on the situation. The Titans blew a 25-point lead on Sunday. Detroit and Chicago blew 14-point leads. Atlanta blew a 10-point lead. So did Dallas, but they recovered to win. Tampa blew an 11-point lead. We’ve seen this kind of stuff all year long. The Eagles have 3 big time comeback wins. Dallas trailed the Rams 21-0 a few weeks back and won that game. The Seahawks juggernaut defense couldn’t protect a late lead over Denver and had to go to overtime to win the game. This season has been all about comebacks.

Teams throw the ball better than ever. Getting behind isn’t the scary proposition that it used to be. It also seems like WR play is better than ever. Brian Quick made a really tough catch for the TD against Bradley Fletcher. The week before, the Niners had a handful of incredibly impressive catches. Did you see the grab that Dez Bryant made on Sunday? He made a spectacular sideline grab on 3rd/long. There is no way that catch should have been made.

Defensive backs can be in good if not great position and still get burned. Receivers are just doing insane things this year. You wonder if this is a result of the emphasis on illegal contact and defensive holding. We saw a ton of flags this summer. Players have adjusted since then so we aren’t seeing those penalties called over and over, but the lack of downfield contact might be a factor in why WRs are playing so well. They are running free down the field.

Bill Davis said he and the players went over the 4th quarter mistakes very carefully. They covered every detail. That will help with some of the mistakes, but will that make a substantial difference?

The Eagles will have another big lead at some point. It will be interesting to watch a couple of things. Do the Eagles execute better and play smarter? Also, does Davis use the same style or does he decide to keep blitzing and take his chances? I also hope Kendricks is back on the field for the next big lead.

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Here is Bill Davis’ PC from Tuesday. Always great to listen to him.

He staunchly defends the CBs, which will upset some folks. I don’t think Davis is being delusional. He explains things in a logical way. And one of his key points is something I touched on above…the Eagles played good defense for most of the game. That final 17 minutes was a disaster and no one denies that. The point is to fix the 17 minutes and not the overall game.

This ties in to something Chip Kelly talked about. Kelly got defensive when discussing the CB situation because the pass defense was a huge problem late in the game…when the Eagles were almost exclusively in Nickel and Dime. You can’t put Boykin at LCB if he’s already on the field in the slot.

The Eagles need better CB play. There is no question about that. But let’s be fair in assessing the CBs. Bradley Fletcher was awful vs the Skins, but played better the next 2 weeks. Cary Williams was awful awful in the season opener. He’s been up and down since then. Theses guys have their good moments. They do make some plays. They were close to receivers on most of the catches on Sunday. They just couldn’t break up those passes. As Chip Kelly pointed out on Monday, the corners need to make those plays. Getting into position is only half the battle. You have to play the ball or the receiver at the moment of the catch. That’s when you can knock the ball away or get the hands/arms of the receiver and prevent him from making the grab. Williams and Fletcher need to start doing a better job of that if they want to have a chance to start anywhere in 2015.

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The Eagles are 28th in yards allowed. They are 25th in points allowed.

There was a Twitter argument about whether or not the Eagles had the worst defense in the league. That led to this response.

Eagles allowing 15th most yards per play and 15 most points per play. Rank 16th overall in defense DVOA. Worst defense in the league IMO. — Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) October 8, 2014

Just a tad bit of sarcasm there at the end.

I don’t see how anyone can think there is a worse defense than the Jaguars this season. They have been just dreadful.

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