“Will the Eagles defense be ready to handle the Rams dynamic offense come week 1?” That was the question people were asking before the season’s first game.
The Birds answered some of these types of questions this weekend in their 31-13 victory against St. Louis. Yes, the same defense that includes a mix of savvy vets and inexperienced position players were able to hold the Rams average offense to just 13 points.
Are spectators still wondering how this bolstered secondary with three Pro Bowl corners will coexist and put a solid product on the field. I think they gave fans some reassurance as they showed their ability to lock down the Rams below average group of receivers.
But the key to the defense’s success was the overwhelming pressure that the D-line put on the 2010 Rookie of the Year. If Bradford wasn’t throwing ill-advised passes to heavily covered receivers, he was spending most of the day on the ground piled up under any lineman that the o-line absolutely could not contain. In fact, Bradford was sacked four times including three times in the second half which left him finishing the game on the bench.
Castillo said that his D would come out fast and aggressive, but he didn’t mention the fact that his team would 
punish the Rams offense to a point where their three major parts on offense end of the game watching from the sideline. In addition to Bradford’s wrist injury, Steven Jackson’s thigh, and Danny Amendola ended the game riding the pine with injuries as well. I know they meant to come out hard, but not leave the Rams with no playmakers on the offensive side of the ball.
Of course the injury to Jackson was the key to the game. The Eagles haven’t shown that they can stop a good ground attack, so you know what the future opponents are going to do.
Outside of giving up a first play of the game touchdown run to Jackson, I give the Eagle’s D on Sunday a B as they simply took the Rams by their horns and gave them no stage to show off their “up and coming” offensive threat. Early on the Eagles seemed like they would be in for a long day, but after shaking off the early game jitters this defense really started to click and started to really show glimpses of how capable this group of pieces are going to be all season.
Castillo let his players know that it was just one play and that it is four quarter game. The players responded to the message and their play showed. Former Seahawk, defensive end Darryl Tapp started the shift of momentum by forcing a fumble that was recovered by defensive end Juqua Parker. The Eagles did not look back from that point on.
Defensive line coach Jim Washburn has to be thrilled with his core group of guys, as the D-line really set the tone and did the most damage in the game. On the other side it was truly a game of chess for offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. He had to throw the football when the Rams fell behind. Then, when McDaniels goes with the pass, Bradford had to worry about throwing picks to already blanketed receivers while seemingly 101 lineman are breaking through their O-line as if Moses was departing the Red Sea. Either way it was a lose-lose situation on the day.
Although giving up a healthy 156 yards on the ground, the Birds seemed to be all over the Rams passing attack with some help from the Rams receivers, who dropped six or seven passes. The Eagles linebackers, Casey Matthews, 
Jamar Chaney and Moise Fokou must do a much better job of attacking the line of scrimmage. They’ve got to engage offensive linemen then get rid of them and make tackles.
Jackson knew the huge cutback hole was going to be there on the first run. “Cadillac” Williams ran for 91 yards on 19 carries and you could imagine what Jackson would have run had he been healthy. The Parker play and the Jackson injury changed the game or we might have been looking at a Rams team running the ball 50 times for over 200 yards. Teams are going to try exploit the Eagles run defense in the future.
Castillo did a good job of mixing and matching his packages as well as cycling through his deep list of defenders that could be first stringers for a number of other organizations. Barring injury this is a luxury that Castillo can work with all season. Defensive end Jason Babin spoke on how deep their defensive attack really is. Such length on the bench keeps players fresh and when that fourth quarter comes the Eagles will still be jumping gaps with a head full of steam.
But one thing to keep in mind is that this is an extremely humbled group that takes nothing for granted. As a team they understand the process of getting better every day, so look for the D to only go up from here. I this defense has their best performances in front of them.
On Target G,
This Defense will only get better adn better and in another month-6 weeks should be a much improved unit for the hme stretch.. DT’s must stay healthy
I wanna see Dixon and Jenkins.
I think the fact that the Falcons lost Sunday only makes them more dangerous. We man handled them last year with Kolb but it will be interesting to see how they defend Vick this game as its his first ever game against his old team.
Nmandi against Roddy White will be the must watch in this game
when its said and done I think we’ll have a very high scoring game
37-29 Eagles.. Player of the game Michael Vick.
The most important player on the Defense to me is DT Cullen Jenkins,
If he were to get injured, this Defense is in trouble as he is the most difficult to replace and anchors the middle of the Defense..
Nmadi will shout down White, who does not have the deep speed, but you have to be physical with White from the get go and establish a physicality that Nmadi brings to the table.. I am a little concerned about TE Gonzales and WR Harry Douglass who work in the middle of the field on those 8-12-15 yard routes versus the LB & Safeties… Should be a great game and that Georgia Dome will be a rockin’ for most of the fanss down there still love M Vick so many will be pulling for him personally but of course want the Falcons to win.. Falcons cannot afford to go 0-2 against 2 NFC Conference opponents that they most likley will be competing with for a playoff spot.. This will be very close to a playoff game atmoshpere for the Falcons so if the Eagles can withstand the initial 10-15 minutes and just maintain their composure and protect the ball and not give up any cheap plays, then they will find their groove and should be fine and should wear this Falcons Defense out by the 2nd half and pounce on them with some big plays…
Another important area is the Falcons Coverage Teams on Special Teams is pretty weak and look for D-Jax/Kick-off Return to have good chances for big plays..(The Falcons Returnman Jaquiz Rodgers is also very dangerous and probably has open field speed to rival D-Jax’s)
I see that letting Bunkley go was the right move…That D got lit up in the run game.
The type of Defense the Eagles have is going to struggle against the run regardless…Before people say our linebackers are trash do they even watch the games and see the holes that an opposing RB has to run through with this wide 9 D…Our linebackers could def be upgraded dont get me wrong but their going to give up big plays against the run all year so get over it…The strategy is to get ahead in every game this year so teams will have to abandon the run so that our D-lineman can just go all out for a sack..
If they can jump on Atlanta that will be huge…I dont see the home crowd being such a factor like it was in St. Louis. Their prolly going to make more noise when Matt Ryan is on the field. I see the O-line playing well in this game since Atlanta doesn’t have the best pass rush (got 4 sacks against Bears who prolly have the worst line in NFL).
I can’t see Vick loosing this game…esp since Kolb destroyed them last year. (imagine if akers would of made his FGs and if we had Djax for the whole game it would of been a lot worst). 31-24 Eagles
Regarding the Birds defense the other day and our fears that they can be ran on: Many teams should be able to run the ball against them but not any team. The Patriots for example wouldn’t be able to run that well. The Cards or Seahawks or Niners will not be able to run that well. Those teams either do not have great backs or a good O line. And running the ball is always relative. Running the ball always depends on having enough time left in the game relative to the score. If you are down 21-10 in the third quarter, you will run far less than in a tied game. If teams want to run, they will be able to do that with some success, but they have to defend first. If they can’t slow down our offense, they can’t run. It is really as simple as that. Teams can only run to the extent that they have a close enough game and that depends on their defense.
As far as concerns on the O line. These have been completely over blown. First, only Andy Reid and Dave Spadaro think Castillo was a great O line coach. He is not even in the same class as Mudd. If Mudd cannot fix this than they need to just give up. If anyone could fix this line, this is the guy for the job. So the coaching is definitely better. Next lets start with Herremans. I almost fell off my chair laughing when they said on FOX that Winston Justice would start when he came back. No way Herremans is losing his starting job at RT to Justice unless he gets hurt or Mathis gets hurt. Herremans is already an upgrade over Justice in his first week. And he will only get better. Mathis appears to be fine thus far. And well what can you say about DeVan, anyone is an upgrade over MJG and Nick Cole who flat out suck. Now lets talk Kelce. If you look at the centers under Andy, Kelce is the first one that was even drafted!! All the rest were undrafted free agents. So he is more accomplished than any of them coming out of college just by the fact that he was actually drafted. Second, he is clearly more athletic and effective at the point of attack than Jackson. We are talking about a 325 lb man that can’t move a DT on third and inches! Is Kelce a better option than Jackson right this minute? No. But only experience will make him better. And by November we will all like our center better than Jamal Jackson and we will be in better shape come playoff time. This O line is in flux but it will be one of the better units we have had here by playoff time if we stay the course, stay healthy and be patient. And it will undounbtedly be better than last year’s line. I could argue that it already is.
Pheags…I tend to agree. If you note above I said the same as you about teams being able to run. Atl is very over rated because defense wins titles and it takes brass balls for the national media to question our D while ignoring the fact that theirs is mediocre. They will run early like the Rams and then they will get behind. Vick will play very well in this game. It is emotionally significant to him whether he lets on or not. So Atl will be behind by halftime and then there goes their running game. They also lost Harvey Dahl so who says they can run the way they did before anyway? And Ryan has to remain upright to throw to his good receivers. Nnamdi will be covering Gonzo in the RZ to make sure that when they get down there they come out with three not seven.
jbird – thanks for bringing some balance to this! The run defense thing, as for the Oline is vastly exaggerated. Fans have been crying that the Eagles can’t stop the run for years – and it really hasn’t been the case. There will be times for every team in this league where opposing running backs get big runs. But I really donnot believe that the Eagles will lose games this year due to not being able to stop the run. Even if it happens once, it wont hurt them significantly unless it happens in the playoffs. But we sholdn’t worry about the playoffs now. For now, win games.
Schill… the best O line we ever had was the 2006 line. I think this will be the second best by the time the year is over. Peters and Herremans will be as good as Thomas and Runyan at the tackles. Kelce will be better than Jackson as the center. Now the guards won’t be as good because we had Andrews in his prime back then. But Mathis figures to be better than Herremans was back then in his second year and first as a starter. Maybe Watkins gets out there by the end and is ready to replace DeVan. We will have to see. This line will be as good as what GB and Pitt had last year if not better. The days of having to have a great O line to win championships are over. See last year’s Packers and 2008 Steelers. If the QB does his job the line doesn’t have to be great. They just have to be good enough and I have no doubt this line will be good enough come playoff time.
The D is built to win in the playoffs. Ther run defense will be good enough come January and the pass defense will challenge any QB in this league. And it is a passing league so stuffing the run is not what wins playoff games. Pressure and coverage wins playoff games and we have that. Lets just see how it all unfolds. I will be cautiously optimistic.
JBird my friend allow me to shake your hand sir.
Stan Walters, Guy Morris and Jerry Sizemore made a pretty good core back in the day.. I forget the others that played along with them in late 70’s.. anyone remember the other 2 Starters along the OL during the Vermeil days..
woody peoples and petey perot
Woody Peoples was obtained from the 49ers I believe and I completely forgot about Ross Perot’s athletic Brother Petey..