You didn't have to watch much of Thursday night's 28-23 win over the Panthers to realize that the Eagles run defense was playing out of its mind – as it has much of the season.

In the first half alone, the Birds stopped the Panthers for no gain or behind the line of scrimmage five times. They did it another four times in the second half. And we're only talking about running plays here, so that's not even counting the two sacks by the Eagles defense (or the time Fletcher Cox hit quarterback Cam Newton's arm and forced an interception).

When the dust settled, Carolina finished the game with 25 carries for a total of 80 yards, 71 of which came on Newton's 11 carries and another eight came on one carry from wideout Curtis Samuel.

No, that's not a typo. Panthers running backs finished the game with ONE YARD on the ground ... on 13 carries.

For those of you keeping track at home, that means their three running backs – Jonathan Stewart, Christian McCaffrey and Fozzy Whittaker, who left the game injured after just one carry – averaged a whopping 2.77 INCHES per carry.

CARRIES YARDS LONG C. McCaffrey

4 8 4 F. Whittaker

1 -3 -3 J. Stewart 8 -4 3





That's actually hard to do.

The Panthers ground game minus Cam Newton had been pretty abysmal to begin with, with their running backs averaging just 2.84 yards per carry on the season and just 60 yards per game. When you add in Newton's numbers, the production jumps to a less embarrassing 95.5 yards per game on 3.4 yards per carry.

In other words, before heaping all this credit on the Eagles, it's worth noting that the Panthers have been awful running the ball this year.

But that doesn't change the fact the Jim Schwartz's injury-plagued unit turned in yet another masterful performance on Thursday night, not only playing defense against Newton and the Panthers but against referee Pete Morelli and his crew as well.

"As I said after the game, it's just a credit to the players, the coaching staff for getting those guys ready to play," head coach Doug Pederson said on Monday. "I don't think I've been a part of a team that's had as many injuries on the defensive side, or at least one side of the ball that's the next-man-up mentality. Guys are filling in and stepping in, and doing a nice job. We've got some young players that are playing a lot of minutes right now.

"Then, in Nigel's [LB Nigel Bradham] case, I felt like [that was] probably his best game to date. He and [LB] Mychal Kendricks both, going back and watching the tape, those guys are flying around, they're making plays. That's what we have to have out of that group."



And on Thursday night, that's exactly what they got.

If this was an outlier performance, maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal, but the fact that they've been able to consistently win the battle at the line of scrimmage has been a major key to the Eagles' 5-1 start. In short, they've been dominant.

That number includes all rushing yards allowed by the Birds, but if you just look at running backs, they've allowed just 240 rushing yards to them through six games.

But their most recent performance against the Panthers was by far their best.

Here's a look at each of those nine previously mentioned plays in which the Eagles D stopped Carolina at or behind the line of scrimmage (not including their two sacks or the pair of passing plays they snuffed out in the backfield).

PLAY 1 – Good night, Fozzy