What's Behind Philadelphia Eagles' Second-Half Defensive Surges? 'The Players Respond!'
PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Eagles defense has been middle of the road during a 9-1 start for a second straight season, No. 14 overall in a 32-team league.
There’s been good and bad, starting with the No. 1 ranked run defense and the 28th best-passing defense, standings which got turned on their heads a bit during a 21-17 win in Kansas City this past Monday night.
While Jordan Davis and Co. allowed an uncharacteristic 168 yards on the ground, the maligned secondary held Patrick Mahomes in check as veterans Kevin Byard and Bradley Roby kicked off what the Eagles hope will be a second half of the season march toward competency.
The ever-evolving product in Sean Desai’s first season as defensive coordinator is not close to the 2022 unit when it comes to most of the raw numbers but it’s been well-received in most quarters.
The key to that can be traced to the success late in games when Desai has generally pulled the right cards to close games.
Three times this season a Philadelphia opponent has not scored on offense in the second half, including the Chiefs on Monday night. The same was true with Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams and the powerful Miami Dolphins while the Dallas Cowboys piled up yards but kept coming up short in the red zone.
For a team coming off a Super Bowl collapse in the second half to the Chiefs in February, that’s the kind of narrative that gets noticed.
“Adjustments” is a term neophytes cling to like it’s manna from their heaven and Desai has been christened as a rising star because he’s been adept at it.
Former Philadelphia DC Jim Schwartz, who is still teaching at a very high level in Cleveland after nominal thoughts of retirement when leaving the Eagles, would often scoff at the importance outsiders put on halftime adjustments.
The tweaks, according to Schwartz, come fast and furious and start after series No. 1 and continue throughout the game.
Eagles DC Sean Desai.
John McMullen/Eagles Today
A reactionary job by its nature, defensive football demands a constant evolution based on what an offense is doing each week and Desai and his staff have done an excellent job of game-planning and then shifting when need be.
“I think our players do a great job of understanding what’s happening, and the coaches, each of the position coaches, when they meet with the guys, they are meeting with them throughout the first half in between series, it’s just kind of getting everybody back to,’ hey, this is what we have to do to go win this second half,’” Desai said this week.
Communication is key and ideas can come from the players making the plan come to life to those position coaches and even head coach Nick Sirianni, who is demanding when it comes to situational football and what he wants accomplished.
“Whatever our plans are and tweaks that we have to make, we communicate as a staff and coaches with the players, and then the players respond,” said Desai. “It’s ultimately on them.”
Conditioning has also been a foundational principle of the organization.
“I think in terms of conditioning, that's a big thing, foundational thing that we really believe in is making sure our guys are conditioned,” said Desai. “We practice a certain way to help them get into shape and conditioned. They have to do their own stuff, too, to stay up with that. I think that’s a huge part in terms of guys going to finish games. I think our whole defense has really shown they've been able to do that.”
There is no denying that the Eagles have been a better second-half defense than before intermission.
There are many contributing factors to that but Desai won’t be accepting any flowers because of it.
The goal is always to play a complete game.
