It’s time for this Eagles’ defense to be great. It’s time for this defense to carry the football team.
When you look at the Eagles’ first month, the offense’s struggles are understandable, to a great extent.
Every receiver other than Nelson Agholor and every running back other than Wendell Smallwood has been hurt. There was a quarterback change two weeks into the season. The offensive line is injured and struggling. There were two very significant coaching changes.
Defense? No built-in excuses.
The Eagles have been largely healthy on the defensive side of the ball, although they’ll miss Derek Barnett Sunday. They have everybody other than Patrick Robinson, Vinny Curry and Beau Allen back from last year’s Super Bowl unit. With a couple big-time additions.
Same players, same scheme, same coaches.
This should not be an average group, but a month into the season that’s exactly what it’s been. The defense was very good in both home games, especially in the red zone, and very bad in both road games, giving up too many points, too many big plays, not getting pressure, not creating turnovers.
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This is a 2-2 team and a 2-2 defense.
“I don’t think anything is up to our standard,” Jordan Hicks said this week. “It’s a combination of everything. We have to work together to get this thing going.”
It might be a while until the offense is at full strength.
Carson Wentz is playing really well, but it’s clear his timing with the offensive line isn’t there. It’s an adjustment going from blocking for a pocket passer like Nick Foles to a guy who’s always on the move, like Wentz.
Which running backs and receivers are available varies game to game. We’ve seen only brief moments of the explosiveness of a year ago. Big plays have been sporadic. Pass protection has been poor. The play calling has been uneven.
Simply, the Eagles aren’t there yet on offense, so it's up to the defense to be exceptional until they get there.
Nothing's come easy for this Eagles team, and when you’re the defending champs and everybody’s gunning for you, that’s what happens. You’re everybody’s Super Bowl, and when that’s the case you need both sides of the ball to function at a high level to win football games.
So far, neither side of the football has done that, and until the offense finds its way, the defense has to figure out how to be great or this season could get away from the Eagles very quickly.
That means when you’re facing a 35-year-old journeyman quarterback with a career record 23 games under .500 playing for his seventh team, you don’t let him throw for 400 yards and four touchdowns. That means when it’s 4th-and-15, you find a way to get a stop. And when you’re up 17-3 in the second half, you find a way to finish.
This defense was built to carry the football team. It's being paid to carry the football team.
And it's not.
And it better start at 4:25 p.m. on Sunday against the Vikings and Kirk Cousins, who has the highest passer rating ever at the Linc and has thrown more passes than any quarterback in NFL history after four games.
It is still early and 2-2 isn’t the worst place to be, and Doug Pederson is right when he says the sky isn’t falling.
But this is a critical time for the Eagles. The schedule is rough, the injuries are mounting and it’s time for this Eagles' defense to play the brand of football we expect from it. The brand of football it demands from itself.