Billy Davis is long gone, but the Eagles’ defense looked a lot like the 2015 version on Sunday.
Missed tackles, bad angles and gaping holes from the Eagles led to 230 rushing yards for Washington in its 27-20 win — and it really wasn’t that close — over the Eagles at FedEx Field.
If Eagles fans were disappointed in the defense’s performance on Sunday, they’re not alone.
“I would agree that we got our tail kicked up front this game,” head coach Doug Pederson said on Monday. “That’s obvious. It’s a pride thing. It comes down to each man taking ownership in their jobs, in their assignments. As coaches, we have to make sure that players are in the right positions to make plays. And at the end of the day, it’s each man to himself collectively, and then as a group, coming together and making plays.
“It’s surprising that a team could run the ball for that many yards against us with the way we play and attack on defense. But at the same time, I will give the Redskins credit for getting after us up front, really on both sides of the line of scrimmage.”
The 230 yards the Eagles gave up on the ground Sunday was by far a season high. In fact, coming into Sunday, the Eagles had allowed just 293 rushing yards combined in their first four games.
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The Eagles gave up 230-plus yards twice in 2015, but before then, they hadn’t had an opponent rush for that many yards in a game against them since 2006. Now they’ve done it three times in the last 12 games.
And Washington picked up its 230 yards on just 33 carries, an average of 7.0 yards per carry. The last time a team gained that many yards on that few carries against the Eagles was in 1985.
We heard all offseason that Jim Schwartz’s wide-9 scheme was different than the one Jim Washburn once ran in Philadelphia. And through four weeks, it looked like rush defense wouldn’t be a big problem. But on Sunday, we saw some of those wide gaps and missed plays in the second level.
“Sometimes linebackers get caught behind blocks,” Pederson said. “Sometimes we don’t get the penetration we need up front. Guys began to two-gap a little bit more than Jim teaches and Coach (Chris) Wilson. And we pride ourselves on getting upfield — that’s when you can disrupt blocks, is by getting upfield. And it creates space for your linebackers to come downhill and flow. And when that’s not synched up all the time, that’s when you can get behind blocks and that’s where your big running lanes can come from.”
In total, the Eagles gave up 493 yards of total offense on Sunday. Those kind of numbers became much more commonplace over the last three years when Chip Kelly was the head coach. In fact, there were seven such games in those three years.
During Andy Reid’s 14-year tenure as head coach, the Eagles gave up 493-plus yards just twice.
So for all the talk of Schwartz’s defense getting back to the success the Eagles had under the great Jim Johnson for nearly a decade, the Eagles looked more like a Billy Davis defense on Sunday.
“There’s no panic. No panic whatsoever,” Pederson said. “I talked to [Schwartz] this morning and we went through it and I watched the defensive side of the ball. And listen, it just comes down to players making plays. And the guys are disappointed, the players are disappointed. They know how they played and they felt it after the game.
“And the guys that have been here already this morning know and it’s just ownership. But by no means have I, or will I, at this point, make any decisions on that side of the ball right now.”
