Philadelphia Eagles Burning Midnight Oil Looking For Answers to 'Unacceptable' Defense

Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said the team is grinding for answers to ailing red-zone defense and third-down stops, but can the offense help, too?

PHILADELPHIA – The many windows that line the Philadelphia Eagles training facility begin to glow with lights earlier and earlier these days with darkness blanketing the Philly area sometime around 4:30 p.m.

When exactly do those lights go out? Well, maybe a little later than usual this week as the Eagles prepare to play the Dallas Cowboys.

Head coach Nick Sirianni and his defensive coordinator Sean Desai may be burning some midnight oil in search of answers for a defense that can’t get off the field on third down and can’t keep opponents from scoring touchdowns in the red zone.

“We'll be doing some different things this week, and we're continuing to try to find ways,” said Sirianni earlier in the week. “Obviously, that's unacceptable on our end. That's everybody. That's coaching. That's playing. We have to fix that. To say, ‘We're going to do this, this, and this,’ obviously I won't say that.

“I know it's going to be a long two days of us grinding through it and trying to get it right.”

Can Kenny Gainwell and the Philadelphia Eagles' offense help what ails the team's defense? / USA Today

Set to meet the Dallas Cowboys in primetime on Sunday night, the Eagles have to be better in both areas to find a way to win, and maybe the Philly offense can help with the third down part of it.

The inconsistency on that side of the ball has led to a large number of snap counts for the defense. Here are their snap counts for the last four games:

• 59 against the San Francisco 49ers

• 95 against the Buffalo Bills

• 79 against the Kansas City Chiefs

• 75 against the Cowboys

“Sustain drives, be more consistent,” said center Jason Kelce. “It’s difficult as a defense to defend consistently when you’re fatigued. I’m not making excuses at all. We have to be better on offense, defense, across the board, but I think that as an offense when you’re functioning you’re keeping guys fresh. 

"We can do a better job of keeping those guys fresh just by functioning better as an offense.”

The Eagles are 29th in the red zone defense, meaning opponents are basically operating on a short field, not needing to go 100 yards for a touchdown. All they have to do is get inside the 20 and a touchdown usually follows, much the same way the Eagles are in first-and-nine situations because of their unstoppable Brotherly Shove.

Opponents have entered the red zone 41 times against Philly’s defense and have scored 8 touchdowns. That’s a touchdown on 68.3 percent of those visits.

Dallas converts 53.7 percent of its red zone trips into touchdowns, which is 17th-best in the league.

“The defense is going to have their things they want to fix but the best way I can approach the next game is worrying about our offense, worry about being able to run the ball more effectively, eat up clock if we need to,” said Kelce. 

“Functioning at a more consistent level is inherently going to make our defense better and I know they’ll get even more better at making the improvements they’re worrying about.”

In third-down efficiency, the defense isn’t very efficient at all. They allow a first down conversion 47.3 percent of the time, which puts them at 28th in the league. Dallas is the best team in the league at converting third downs into firsts, doing it 48.5 percent of the time.

“It's about doing different things and looking at your own stuff of what's been working, what hasn't been working,” said Sirianni. “Obviously more hasn't been working than working.”

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