[Editor's note: Promoted from the FanPosts] --- Welcome to Issue #4 of the Amateur Hour, Eagles Film Breakdown!

By: Shark Fighter & jose.cereza

Welcome to the Amateur Hour Eagles Breakdown! This week, by the request of wild_eagle, we will be looking at the Eagles defense, specifically what the Eagles and Jim Schwartz are doing to overcome the loss of Jordan Hicks. There’s no question that we lost a valuable leader and talented player when Hicks suffered a ruptured Achilles, so we hope to provide a detailed analysis of how the Eagles are handling the situation.

As always, if you enjoy the article, please give us a rec, we really appreciate it! And comment below if you have any suggestions on what players/positions/groups you’d like to see a breakdown of in the future.

Feel free to review some of our previous posts:

Last week Fran Duffy did an excellent breakdown of the in-game changes our defense did to deal with the loss of Hicks in the Washington game. We were going to go back and look at that game as part of this analysis but seriously, his article is awesome and you should just read that.

So we’re going to keep our attention and focus on the Niners game. After reading Duffy’s article, we wanted to get an idea of how often the Eagles would be using their Base, Nickel and Dime packages and what personnel they are using.

Base 4-3 Defense

Joe "Uninspiring" Walker is now manning the middle linebacker position in our base defense. In case you forgot, Walker was drafted by the Eagles in the seventh round, 251st overall, in the 2016 NFL Draft. He sat out all last year with a torn ACL that he sustained in the 3rd preseason game. Up to that point, I thought that Walker played well in the preseason and would make the roster.

Fast forward to now, Walker has indeed made the 53 man roster as our backup MLB and looks every bit his draft position. He struggles to get off his blocks in the run game and and is a liability in pass defense. He’s flashed some ability at times but nothing consistent enough to make me comfortable when he’s in.

But it’s not time to panic just yet.



The strength of our defense has always been, and is still our line. Our front four are monsters that prey on foolish offenses that think they can withstand our winged might.

Regardless if we’re in base defense...

Nickle...

Or Dime...

This line will EAT. In short, the line doesn’t care what is going on behind them or who is doing it, they are good at what they do.



However, this, of course, doesn’t let the linebackers or secondary off the hook. Our defensive line has an attack-first mentality. They’re not trying to plug gaps and read the play. Their responsibility, in this defense, is to get downhill as fast as they can and then find the ball. The linebackers have the responsibility of filling the gaps left behind. This requires them to shed any blockers that come looking for trouble and plug any running lanes that open up. When executing designed run plays against the base defense, the 49ers averaged 1.7 yards per attempt, which is staggering.

Walker and Bradham need to either work through those blocks or plug the gap with their bodies. Instead they get pushed out of the way, creating a huge cutback lane for Hyde who picks up 8 yards on a 2nd and 10. I saw this several times throughout this game; our linebackers got easily pushed out of the play like this. Right now I’m more inclined to think that this was just a poor game by them but we’ll see.

Side note: I don’t know what the hell Walker’s little hopping thing is before the snap.

Another strength of our run game is our secondary, which just sounds funny to say, but it’s true. Our corners and safeties have done a tremendous job this season of making tough tackles.

In this play, all of our linemen and linebackers are completely walled off and Carlos Hyde has a fullback in front of him and a lot of green grass. However, Robinson does a great job of taking out the fullback and running back. I’m not even sure that he was trying to take Hyde down as well because in these situations sometimes the best thing that you can do is to take on the blocker and allow your team to finish off the ball carrier. But Robinson is able to accomplish both. Jenkins does a good job fighting across his block. You can see how he keeps the guy away with both hands until he knows where the ball is going and then uses one hand to keep the blocker off of him as he works towards to ball carrier. This is a great job by our DBs and saved us a good chunk of yardage.

Base Percentage of Total Plays in Defense 43.08% Total Yards Gained 91 Avg Yards Per Play 3.3 Percentage Pass Plays 54% Avg Yards Per Pass Play 3.9 Percentage Run Plays 46% Avg Yards Per Run Play 2.5

Nickel Defense

As was expected, Kendricks has taken Hicks’ role in the nickel defense. Patrick Robinson was injured in this game with a concussion and was replaced by Dexter McDougle. Wow, talk about one of the least intimidating names of all time, Dexter McDougle. Sounds like an accountant or something (JC: Not cool man, accountants are people too. He sounds more like some nerdy programmer to me). Thankfully, he plays better than his name sounds (at least I think so). He was only targeted once. Not necessarily because his coverage was good, but because Beathard was constantly under pressure and never had any time to throw. McDougle is no Pat Robinson, though, so expect him to get some more opportunities to impress/disappoint if Robinson doesn’t make it back in time for this week’s game against Denver.

This is a well-executed run by the 49ers, but if there is blame to put anywhere, it’s on Allen, Bradham, and Kendricks. None of them can shed their blocks and Cox can’t crash down the line quickly enough to stop this from getting into the third level. Notice Jenkins is lined up in the hybrid LB/S position that he’s been occupying regularly since Hicks’ injury. This look has been impactful for us, as Jenkins can do so many different things so extremely well (coverage, stop the run, etc). However, in this play the right guard easily takes him out of the play.

This time CJ Beathard tries to take a shot deep on Rasul al ghul Douglas. What a fool. The Eagles are playing Cover 3, 3 deep over top and 4 down low.The line does a good job getting pressure and Douglas reaches up and knocks the ball away. I know that Douglas has had his rookie moments this year, but overall I’d say he’s played pretty damn well.

Overall the nickel defense played very well, only giving up 3.6 yards per play and 3.3 yards on pass plays

Nickel Percentage of Total Plays in Defense 36.92% Total Yards Gained 86 Avg Yards Per Play 3.6 Percentage Pass Plays 70% Avg Yards Per Pass Play 3.3 Percentage Run Plays 30% Avg Yards Per Run Play 5.6

Dime Defense

The Dime package drops Jenkins down to the CB/LB hybrid roll and brings in Corey Graham at safety. Of course this package is for obvious passing situations, only facing a run 1 time out of 15 plays (not including QB scrambles).

This play is a great example of how our defensive line can impact the game without getting a traditional hurry or sack. It’s 3rd and 7, we only rush 4, yet they still go with a max protect look, keeping both the tight end and running back in to block. This means we have seven defenders (6 of them defensive backs) dropping back into zone coverage. Mills is playing the flat and keeping his eyes on Beathard, and easily jumps the route to make the pick. I left in the rest of return because it’s beautiful and you should appreciate it in all it’s glory, as many times as you can.

Yet another example of how an elite front four is like a punch in the mouth. You can game plan all you want, but there’s little you can do once they come for you. It makes our nickel and dime packages so much more effective. Cox and Co. almost devour the QB and the play was over almost before it began. (SF: Not that my fantasy team’s defense needed any more points but another sack plus a safety would have been awesome).

Dime Percentage of Total Plays in Defense 23.08% Total Yards Gained 46 Avg Yards Per Play 3.1 Percentage Pass Plays 80% Avg Yards Per Pass Play 2.2 Percentage Run Plays 20% Avg Yards Per Run Play 6.7

Conclusion

Please note that this data is not meant to be completely comprehensive. It doesn’t take into account down and distance for example. This is just a fun exercise to show you guys what the Eagles are doing and how effective they are at doing it.

DC Jim Schwartz, so far, has utilized a mixture of Joe Walker, Mychal Kendricks, and Malcolm Jenkins to replace Jordan Hicks. And while I don’t want to diminish Hicks’ impact on the team from an on-the-field output or leadership standpoint, this combination has done the job just fine. The real reason, as we all know, that this defense is elite is the defensive line. They give Schwartz and the other defensive coaches so much more freedom to let their position groups play loose and aggressive. And, for the most part, the entire defense has been elevated by the 8 studs up front. This team has been built the right way, and is being coached the right way, and we are enjoying the fruits thereof. So, to answer the question of how do we replace Jordan Hicks, I would answer we don’t. This defense will go as far as our front four will take us. And I, for one, believe that they can take us far.

Feel free to view the data that we gathered if you’re interested.

Bonus Breakdown:

In case you want to know how badly we screwed over the Dolphins.