The Eagles New Year’s Resolution Should Be More Man Coverage
As the calendar changes to the year 2023 and the 22/23 NFL regular season is coming to a close the Philadelphia Eagles have just one New Year’s resolution they should focus on… running more man to man coverage on defense.
After giving up 40 points to the Cowboys the team and defensive coordinator Johnathan Gannon need to look themselves in the mirror and figure out “why?”. A huge part of that sub par performance is surely the lack of tight coverage and the surplus of soft shell type zone looks that allow the short to intermediate passing game to thrive along with the run game if the front 4 does not get home. As a team with arguably the best combination of corners in the league with Darius Slay and James Bradberry on the outside and when healthy Avonte Maddox in the slot they certainly do not appear to trust these guys to win in one on one and press coverage.
Trusting your secondary to win opens up a ton of things to scheme up as far as blitzing and disguising coverages it also allows your front 4 some time to get home as opposed to leaving a short quick route open which allows opposing QBs to pick your coverages apart. Even with no help by the game planning and scheming by Gannon the eagles pass rush has certainly still found ways to win and get to the QB for a running total of 61 sacks to this point. This brings me to new Eagle sensation and hometown hero Hasson Reddick with a team leading 14 sacks this season he and fellow double digit sack teammates Josh Sweat and Javon Hargrave have been a bright spot on this defense, so bright in fact they hide what is an otherwise vanilla defense that would not be as effective as it is were it not for their ability to get to the QB.
I do not want to come across as someone who believes the sky is falling, however as the playoffs loom and opposing teams begin to imagine who they may play in the postseason they are certainly planning to take advantage of the shortcomings created by this lack of man coverage. Moving forward expect to see more of the same although the expectations should be much different this is Gannons philosophy to stop the big play but even that seems to allude this team as they gave up a horrendous 3rd and 30 conversion as well as a fairly big play to the ghost of T.Y Hilton.
In closing as we shift to 2023 lets hope the Eagles have a small change in scheme that should surely help them to complete the ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl.
-Shawn Campbell- Olde City Sports Network/ Sundays For The Birds
Photo Credit- NBC Sports