Philadelphia defense leads the NFL in sacks
Sometimes it’s a matter of numbers. The Eagles will stack five or six players on one side of the ball, knowing an offense can’t block them all. They’re often right.
Sometimes it’s a matter of deception. The Eagles will use that same alignment, fooling an offense about their intentions. And they’ll blitz a corner from the other side. Or they’ll take a left defensive tackle and loop him all the way to the right side.
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“They’re both aggressive and creative,” Redskins coach Jim Zorn said of the Eagles’ defense. “One team might have three or four schemes to get to the quarterback. They might have eight or 10 schemes. They can do that because of their athletes and because they’ve been together for a while and it really shows.”
Through four games, Philadelphia leads the NFL with 17 sacks — nine coming in a 15-6 win over Pittsburgh two weeks ago. An NFL-high 11 Eagles already have recorded a sack, led by end Juqua Parker with 3 1/2 and end Darren Howard with 2 1/2. Their corners, Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown, are the only starters without sacks.
Because of the pressure, they’ve also caused nine turnovers. In some games, they’ve blitzed nearly half the time.
“It’s almost like they have a board and throw a dart at it and that’s what they’re doing,” Redskins center Casey Rabach said.
Meanwhile, the Redskins have allowed just seven sacks and haven’t turned it over yet on offense. They’ve slowed defenses with misdirection plays — end arounds, bootlegs, having Antwaan Randle El go in motion behind the running back at the snap one way and have the back carry the ball the other way.
And their success running the ball has kept defenses honest.
“We have to be patient,” Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell said.
Problem is, Philadelphia allows only 53.8 yards rushing per game and 2.6 yards per carry. The Eagles will do a lot of run blitzes, both with linebackers and safeties.
“They don’t really care what we’re doing,” said Redskins right tackle Jon Jansen. “They want to get to the quarterback before he has a chance to get it downfield. [On film] there are sometimes guys running free downfield, but the quarterback is laying on his back.”
The blitzing makes the line’s ability to communicate even greater. The Eagles will show one thing, then do another. They’ll send corners off the edge, linebackers up the middle and safeties from all over. Their ends will drop into coverage.
“They’re a really fast team,” Jansen said. “Once the ball is snapped guys are flying everywhere and that’s when you have to be heads up to who your guy is. You have to be alert.”
