Kobe Bryant, Good Health Has Spurred Javon Hargrave's Sack Attack

With five sacks in last two games the DT has taken over the team lead from Haason Reddick

Haason Reddick no longer leads the Eagles in sacks, and he’s cool with it.

Javon Hargrave surged past Reddick on Thursday night with his career-high three sacks. The defensive tackle now has six of them, five coming in the last two games.

“He’s hungry,” said Reddick, who has 5.5 sacks. “I’m proud of him and happy for him. I remember talking to him and he was a little frustrated because he had one sack for a little while, but now look at him over the last two weeks, five sacks.

“I knew he was a baller. Told him they would come for him and these last two games they have. He’s been working his butt off and I’m glad the results were there for him. I’m glad he’s had these last two games back-to-back. He’s a helluva player for us and I hope he keeps it up.”

Hargrave has had hot streaks like this before. Last year, he had six sacks in his first five games. He had only 1.5 over the final 11.

The Eagles pass rush will become even more dangerous if he can find some consistency.

The rush already has generated 26 sacks in eight games, a season after posting 29 in 17 games.

Maybe that stash of Kobe Bryant videos will help Hargrave find that consistency. Hargrave is a fan of the legendary NBA superstar.

“That’s my Dawg,” said Hargrave. “I look at Kobe every game just to get me going. During the week, when I’m down, just look at Kobe and it keeps me working and it keeps my mind right.

“I have crazy clips on my phone I watch every day. Or I watch the documentary of Kobe. It’s a little bit of everything. I just get into Kobe.”

Hargrave said in the postgame locker room that he feels healthy, that the bye week helped him overcome a nagging toe/foot injury that cost him some training camp time.

Hargrave, though, is like every player, never wanting to use injury as an excuse.

He credited some of his success against the Texans to lining up in different spots along the defensive line, including over center with Jordan Davis out.

“It gives you different looks,” said Hargrave. “Some people aren’t used to seeing me (over) center. It gives me better looks and I took advantage.”

Playing Hargrave over center, though, is a trade-off for the Eagles’ defense. While it allows Hargrave to use his speed to take advantage of being in the middle, he isn’t known as a great run-stopper because he’s a bit undersized at 6-2, 300.

That ferocious rush Hargrave is capable of generating, though, is worth the trade-off.

Reddick believes Hargrave will keep on trucking quarterbacks because Reddick sees them taking shallower drops. Instead of being seven yards or so behind the line, he sees them taking more three- and four-step drops.

“They know what we have on the outside,” said Reddick, “so they don’t want to go back there, and that helps guys like Hargrave and Fletch (Cox) and the others. It was important for him to have that kind of game. We’ll see what (QBs) do now.”

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.