Five takeaways from Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz's chat with the media Tuesday afternoon:
What Schwartz hears from fans
Schwartz is notorious for hating to blitz. In his perfect world, the front four would generate enough pass pressure on a regular basis that he'd rarely have to blitz. But that does give him the element of surprise. When the Eagles do blitz, it can really catch an offense off-guard, especially when he does it in a situation where he rarely calls a blitz.
Eagles fans, on the other hand, love blitzing, and Schwartz said he hears from fans all the times that he should blitz more:
"Every time I step on to the field or come out of the tunnel, all I hear is, ‘Schwartz, you've got to blitz every play, you've got to bring it every play.' And I understand, they mean you have to pressure the quarterback, which we're all for, but there is some risk inherent to that."
Don't blame Mills
The combination of a Ronald Darby blitz not getting home and Malcolm Jenkins inexplicably vacating the middle of the field left Mills alone with DeSean Jackson on the first play of the Tampa loss Sunday, and that's a mismatch for any cornerback.
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Schwartz made it clear it's not fair to blame Mills for D-Jack's 75-yard touchdown. The play broke down on a couple levels, and there aren't many cornerbacks who can cover Jackson without any help.
"It's very rare that it's one person's fault when you've got 11 guys trying to do a job, and I think that that play is a good example of that," Schwartz said.
Mills has taken an unfair beating from Eagles fans this week. He's 24 years old. He was a starting cornerback for a Super Bowl champion. He's a really good player. And he's going to keep getting better.
‘We didn't look like ourselves'
That's a great way to put it. The Eagles did a lot of uncharacteristic things in Tampa, and the heat is no excuse. This is a defense that rarely allows big plays - they only allowed eight TD passes over 15 yards all last year. A defense that generally gets steady pass pressure. That's very good at tackling.
They struggled in all those areas Sunday in Tampa, at least early in the game.
"We didn't look like ourselves a lot of times," Schwartz said. "There were some times where running backs and wide receivers were dragging us for two and three extra yards, and you generally don't see that from us.
"Our tackling wasn't as good as it normally is, our technique wasn't as good as it normally is. Our pursuit and things like that got a little bit sloppy at times. We need to get back on track to playing physical football and tackling well."
The defense played better in the second half, allowing only one touchdown on a short field, forcing a turnover and limiting the Bucs to 20 rushing yards on 15 carries. But by then the damage was done.
I still think this is a top-5 defense. But it's important for them to not just bounce back Sunday against Andrew Luck and the Colts but to string together a series of sound performances, especially on the road.
The Eagles' defense allowed 20 TDs on the road last year and only 11 at home. The 11 is a really good number. The 20 isn't. It's something to keep an eye on moving forward.
Preparing for a healthy Andrew Luck
The veteran QB, who missed most last year with a shoulder injury, has completed 60 of 84 passes so far this year in a loss to the Bengals and a win this past weekend over the Redskins in Washington.
"He's still remained a very accurate passer, and he still has very good mobility," Schwartz said. "He hasn't been afraid to scramble around. He's taken some hits on his shoulder. That tells me he's feeling pretty good. He's not shying away from those kind of things."
Luck has completed 71 percent of his passes, but his 5.9 yards-per-attempt figure is fifth-lowest in the NFL so far the year, ahead of only Blaine Gabbert, Nick Foles, Mitch Trubisky and Sam Bradford.
He's also already thrown three interceptions, which is third-most in the NFL so far, behind only Case Keenum and Matt Stafford.
Luck is the kind of quarterback who plays right into the Eagles' hands. The Colts don't run the ball particularly well, and Luck isn't the type of guy who wants to throw the ball 40 times. The Colts are 11-18 when he throws 40 or more passes and 33-10 when he throws fewer than 40. That's a huge disparity.
Stop the run early and force Luck to throw and the Eagles should be able to shut this Colts offense down.
Coaching against an old friend
Schwartz and Frank Reich were together for two years and won a Super Bowl together as Doug Pederson's coordinators. Now Reich is head coach of the Colts, which creates an interesting matchup of wits Sunday.
"He would always bounce ideas off of me, I'd always bounce ideas off of him, ask, ‘Hey, what are you thinking in this situation," Schwartz said. "I would ask him to look at plays that we would run against the scout team and say, ‘Hey, is this a legitimate bluff? Or, ‘Did you believe that this was a blitz,' or, ‘Did this blitz fool you?"
These guys know each other so well, they're very good friends and now they're coaching against each other.
So both of them are going to try to throw off the other and surprise their counter-part. That's the game within the game. The chess match between two guys who spent almost every day working together for two years.
In the end, Sunday's game is going to come down to execution, but whoever wins the battle of wins between close friends is going to definitely have an edge.
