In Roob’s Eagles Observations: How red-zone defense saved the day in opener

In Roob’s Eagles Observations: How red-zone defense saved the day in opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

A deeper look into what went right and what went wrong for the defense, a crazy Nick Sirianni stat a lot of Eagles fans won’t like and why not playing the starters in the preseason was absolutely the right thing to do.

Here’s this week’s batch of 10 Random Eagles Observations after the Eagles’ seventh straight September win.

1. A lot of issues showed up on defense Friday – lack of pass rush, tackling, stopping the run – and the field condition could definitely have something to do with all of them. But there’s one thing the Eagles did exceptionally well on defense and that was deny the Packers in the red zone. The Packers had four red-zone drives and scored one touchdown and the Eagles’ defense near the goal-line – especially on the Packers’ first two drives – was the difference between a win and a loss. The Packers ran 20 offensive plays inside the Eagles’ 20-yard-line and netted 24 yards. Add in penalty yards and the Packers had seven net yards on 20 plays – about 12 ½ inches per play. Critically, the Eagles hounded Jordan Love into 0-for-3 passing on third down in the red zone (although Avonte Maddox’s DPI also came on third down) and Josh Jacobs ran six times for seven yards inside the 20. Last time the Eagles faced at least four red-zone drives and only allowed one TD was a 2022 win over the Steelers at the Linc (TD, INT, FG, FG). I thought Zack Baun in particular was tremendous down at the goal line. He’s credited with an incredible five of his 15 tackles inside the 20 alone. Obviously, you’re not going to win a ton of games giving up 414 yards and a bunch of big plays. But taut red-zone defense can overcome a lot of problems, and Friday night it sure did.

2. Considering this was Cam Jurgens’ first NFL start at center and Mekhi Becton’s first NFL start at guard, all things considered the offensive line played really well Friday. Jurgens has to fix his snapping issues – and make sure he and Jalen Hurts are on the same page with those snaps –  but as far as blocking? I thought the whole group was really good. The Eagles piled up 410 yards, kept pressure off Jalen Hurts for the most part (two sacks on 36 drop-backs), ran for 144 yards, put together three 70-yard touchdown drives and sustained that 67-yard, 7 ½-minute field goal drive to nearly end the game. The biggest question for me going into the season on the offensive side was the interior of the offensive line. How would it hold up with Jason Kelce gone, Jurgens moving from guard to center and Becton playing a position he had never even practiced until OTAs. One week in, some things to fix but overall an auspicious start.

3. The win certainly masked a few issues the Eagles have to address, and one of them is run defense. Yikes. The Packers only ran 21 times but for 163 yards, and that’s 7.8 yards per carry, which is absurd. That’s tied for the 4^th-highest rushing average ever recorded against the Eagles and the most rushing yards ever against the Eagles on 21 or fewer carries. It’s also 7^th-worst in NFL history on opening day. The Eagles are probably fortunate the Packers didn’t run more than they did. The Eagles have already allowed more runs from scrimmage of at least 30 yards (two) than they allowed all last year (one, by Saquon Barkley). What’s the issue? Combination of things. Way too many missed tackles, and maybe some of that was the field condition and lack of decent footing, but I thought the Eagles also got pushed around up front, and Josh Jacobs and the other Packers runners had some pretty big holes to run through. I don’t think Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis played poorly, but they didn’t dominate and they’re going to need to.

4. Friday’s game was the first in five years where the Eagles won after trailing on four separate occasions (6-0, 12-7, 19-17, 26-24). Last time that happened was Dec. 15, 2019, at FedEx Field, when they trailed Washington 7-3, 14-10, 21-17 and 27-24 but took the lead for good with 26 seconds left on Carson Wentz’s four-yard touchdown pass to Greg Ward. That was the first TD catch of Ward’s career.

5. I have a hunch Moro Ojomo may have earned himself a little more playing time with his performance Friday night. It’s tough to really evaluate pass rushers because the field was so bad and you could see those guys slipping all over the place. But Ojomo, a 7^th-round pick last year, did some good things in his 14 snaps, especially as a pass rusher. He lined up mainly inside but also got a few snaps on the edge and I thought he had a couple good pressures on Jordan Love. Ojomo has some juice. He’s pretty undersized to be a full-time interior lineman – they list him at 292 but he’s probably closer to 282 – but his effort against the run is very good and he has a good knack for finding his way to the quarterback. I like him in the rotation and it’ll be interesting to see how he’s used moving forward.

6. Curious to see what Vic Fangio and d-backs coach Christian Parker decide to do in the secondary if Isaiah Rodgers has to miss more time with that hand injury. Avonte Maddox had a rough time in the slot Friday night, and the Eagles have some options. Rookie 2^nd-round pick Cooper DeJean got six snaps in his NFL debut playing in the dime and Fangio has hinted all along that when DeJean is ready – after missing three weeks of training camp – he could slide into the slot. But is he up for the sort of workload the slot demands? Maddox played 60 of 67 snaps vs. the Packers. That’s a lot. They clearly want Quinyon Mitchell to stay outside, and after watching him Friday night that’s understandable. He’s terrific. The Kelee Ringo option is also out there – Kelee at outside corner and Q in the slot in nickel, with Q outside in base – but I’m not sure they’re ready to throw the 22-year-old Ringo into that role just yet. I like the DeJean option. Mentally, I feel really good with where he is. It’s just a matter of whether he’s physically up to that many snaps. If he is? That’s the way to go.

7. Going into Friday, Matt LaFleur had the highest winning percentage of any active NFL head coach at .675. Guess who passed him. With the Eagles’ win, LaFleur dropped down to .667 and Sirianni improved from .667 to .673 and now has the highest winning percentage of any active head coach. Overall, he’s got the 11^th-highest winning percentage of 227 coaches who’ve coached at least four seasons. And seven of the 10 ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame.

8. Should Nick Sirianni play his offensive starters in preseason games? In the Eagles’ four season openers under Sirianni, not only are they 4-0, they’ve averaged 388 yards and 33 points per game. They’ve scored at least 25 points in all four openers, the first time in franchise history they’ve scored 25 or more points in four straight openers. They’ve netted 434 or more yards in nine openers in franchise history – six times from 1933 through 2020, three times since 2021. Whatever occasional sloppiness or rust you get from not playing the starters in the preseason is more than balanced by getting A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert, Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts, Lane Johnson and the others to the starting line healthy. The Eagles are 8-2 in September under Sirianni – the best September record in football – along with that 4-0 record in openers. Hurts didn’t throw those interceptions Friday because he didn’t play in a preseason game a few weeks ago. He threw them because he made really bad decisions. Sirianni is absolutely doing the right thing protecting his star players from getting hurt in meaningless preseason games. It’s not going to change. It shouldn’t change.

9. Zack Baun had no sacks in his first 56 career games. He has four sacks in seven games since.

10A. Over the last four seasons, Saquon Barkley has been on a team that’s scored 34 points in a game as often with the Eagles as with the Giants.

10B. Barkley has had as many games with 100 rushing yards and three touchdowns as an Eagle as he had in six years with the Giants.

10C. Barkley played 43 games with Daniel Jones and had two TD catches of 18 or more yards. He had one 10 minutes into his first game with Jalen Hurts.

10D. Barkley already has as many touchdowns of 11 or more yards this year (two) as he had all of last year

10E. Barkley had more rushing yards (109 to 74), more points  (18 to 6) and more 30-yard plays (one to none) in Week 1 than the Giants.

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