One of the keys to playing good defense is knowing what defense is called and what it is designed to do.
A good smart football player knows where his help is and uses it to help him do his job.
At times the offense will make the perfect play against a certain defense and there’s nothing the defense can do to stop it, but this wasn’t the case on the play that beat the Eagles on Sunday night.
It was late in the game and the Cowboys were in a third and long.
Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott had the perfect defense called.
The Eagles had cornerback Sheldon Brown covering Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin with help from Quintin Demps sitting inside in front of the slant.
All Brown had to do was to sit outside, take away the out route and cover the deep route.
It was the perfect defense to stop the double move, expcept Brown’s discipline collapsed.
Despite having help inside, Brown bit off the inside fake as Austin started out like he was going inside on a slant.
Brown knew he had Mikell inside to take away the slant, yet he bit on the fake any way. This is undisciplined play which will get you beat every time.
This wasn’t a physical mistake, this was a mental mistake.
It was made at a key point in the game and it was made by one of the Eagles most experienced and usually disciplined players.
Defensive coordinator McDermott has to feel awful about this play because he had the perfect defense called, yet watches Austin score the winning touchdown.
