It was supposed to be the strength of the team. It was supposed to be one of the most ferocious groups in the NFL. It was supposed to be a lot of things.

Instead, the Eagles’ defensive line has gone quiet as a supposedly elite pass-rushing crew.

After recording 20 sacks in their first six games, the Eagles have just six in their last five games.

Only one team — the Texans — has fewer sacks in its last five games than the Eagles.

These Eagles don’t have a lot of elite units. They need their defensive line to dominate. 

Now we’re seeing what happens when they don’t.

The first six games of the season? When they were pressuring quarterbacks consistently and recording 3½ sacks per game? The Eagles were 4-2, allowing an average of 13.5 points per game.

The last five? 1-4, allowing an average of 25 points per game.

This is the first time since 2012 that the Eagles have had six or fewer sacks in a five-game stretch. 

And consider this: Of those six sacks over the last five games, one was courtesy of Destiny Vaeao and another was Marcus Smith (for no yards). That means the starting defensive line has four sacks in the last five games.

Brandon Graham had three sacks the first three games and has two in the last eight.

Fletcher Cox had four in the first four games and none since.

Vinny Curry has half a sack the last seven weeks.

Connor Barwin has three in the last 10 games.

Graham leads the Eagles with five sacks, which ranks tied for 34th in the NFL. Barwin and Cox have four each, which is tied for 49th. Curry has 1½.

Those four defensive linemen are earning more than $13 million combined and count $24.449 million against the cap. And the big salary numbers don't kick in for Cox and Curry until next year.

In all, the Eagles have 26 sacks, their seventh fewest after 11 games since sacks became an official stat in 1982.

The Packers game Monday night was the second this year in which the Eagles didn’t record a single sack. They also went sack-less at Washington.

I tried asking Eagles coach Doug Pederson a few different ways if he was disappointed in the overall performance of the team’s pass rushers and why their production has dwindled. But I didn't get much back.

“What we're seeing in games is obviously teams know we have a good defensive line,” Pederson said Tuesday, a day after the Eagles fell to 5-6 with a 27-13 loss to the Packers at the Linc.

“We have a good pass rush. They are keeping tight ends and backs in. Some teams are using two tight ends in protection. Seven-man protection, six-man protection. They are chipping our defensive ends which secure your ‘A’ and ‘B’ gaps. And then your pass-rush lanes become a little tighter. 

“It's just something that we keep working games, you keep working pick stunts, you keep working all the things that you do to try to free up these guys, whether it be linebackers and tackles, tackles and ends, ends and tackles, and just keep working at it. 

“We do the same thing a lot with backs and tight ends, trying to add an extra element of protection, knowing that a team has a good defensive line. This is what we're seeing. This is why good defensive lines in the NFL get this type of attention. 

“We’ve got to keep working. It's tough. They know it. We just keep working on a daily basis.”

But you can’t double-team everybody. When Cox — or whoever — does get doubled, everybody else is singled. And in theory when you have a Graham, Curry and Barwin singled, somebody should be getting pressure on the quarterback.

And Jim Schwartz hates to blitz, electing instead to rely on pressure from his front four. 

The Eagles have only four sacks all year from non-linemen — one each from safeties Malcolm Jenkins and Rodney McLeod and linebackers Jordan Hicks and Nigel Bradham.

Three of those four were against the Vikings, when Schwartz blitzed a lot.

Asked specifically if he expects more from the defensive line, Pederson said yes but then said he expects more from every position group.

“To answer your question, I would say yeah,” he said. “Should your quarterback hit an open receiver? Yeah. Should a receiver catch the football? Yeah. We get paid to do that, you know?"

But aren't expectations higher for this loaded defensive line than, for example, a wide receiver group with two undrafted rookies and another guy the Eagles acquired for Dennis Kelly?

“If you've never played that position or played this level of football, I think it's easy to speculate and see, you know, what's going on," he said. "But at the same time, these guys are working extremely hard to get to the quarterback. It's not that they don't want to. The effort is there. The determination is there.

"Again, when you are a good player, you are going to get a lot of double teams. You are going to get a lot of chips. It just slows down. I preach it to our offensive guys all the time. Slow down the pass rush. How do you do that? You do it with chips. You do it with double teams. You do it with extra tight ends in the game. Sliding your protection. 

“It's difficult. It is tough. The thing is, how fast did Aaron Rodgers get the ball out of his hands? How are you going to get to the quarterback when he gets it out of his hands so fast? It's tough. It's extremely hard.”