Eagles-Commanders Film Review: Analyzing the weirdest defensive performance

This was the weirdest defensive performance I have ever tried to analyze. What defense gives up five passing touchdowns and has five turnovers? It’s unheard of. I’ll do my best to analyze this one, but it was a weird game.

Defense

Like the offense, the Eagles’ defense came out flying in this one. The first few drives were as good as it gets. I thought Fangio was in his bag early on, and he was getting a bunch of free rushers and speeding up Jayden Daniels’ process, who looked uncomfortable. This was a great 5-man rush, giving Nolan Smith a lot of space to work with. He makes the Washington tackle look silly by beating him with speed and athleticism. Look at Jalen Carter moving the guard to the right to create a lot of room for Nolan Smith, too. The Eagles’ defense was lights out early on.

Jordan Davis didn’t play much due to an injury, but he had some outstanding reps in run defense early on. Washington gave up running on the Eagles and resorted to throwing it nearly every time because the run defense was so good. This is one of Jordan Davis’ best reps of his career. Washington wants to run it on 4th and 1, and Davis blows through the double teams and hits the running back in the backfield. This is an outstanding rep. Josh Sweat does well, too, as he comes crashing down quickly but keeps his body position square, so Jayden Daniels isn’t sure if he is coming down or playing the quarterback. If Sweat was too aggressive, Daniels would have kept this and picked up the 1st himself.

Jalen Carter is entering that superstar stage where he makes a ridiculous play every week. This is absurd. It was cool to see him point out the pulling guard pre-snap, and he has clearly been working hard in the film room. However, recognizing the pulling guard is one thing. But having the athleticism to fly past the center and punch the football out is absurd. What a second season he is having.

This wasn’t far away from being a pick-6. Here’s another example of Fangio winning. The Eagles send 4, but Washington expects pressure from the opposite side. Washington slides protection to the right, and the Eagles get a free rusher from the other side. Fangio is the master at sending 4 rushers but getting a free rusher. This is outstanding. The Eagles’ defense was dominating early on.

After the Kenny Pickett interception, the Eagles’ defense came crashing down to earth. I moaned about the refs last week, so I can’t be bothered to do it again this week, but the Washington’ offense was given a lifeline by a short field and a ridiculous penalty on Milton Williams (that was not a penalty).

However, the issue with the Eagles’ defense this week was their route distribution in their zone match coverages. We all know by now that Fangio runs a lot of zone match. Its ability to distribute routes and communicate effectively makes this defense so special. One of the reasons why many Fangio disciples struggle is because this style of defense is difficult to run. It is hard to execute and requires all defenders in coverage to be on the same page. Sadly, they were not this week. Here’s a great example. I can’t be certain without being in the defensive room, but I am pretty sure that C.J. Gardner-Johnson is at fault here. He bites on the flat route, and the receiver faking to block initially confuses him.

It’s worth pointing out that the Eagles’ defense is quite predictable with its pass coverages. This is not a flaw. If the Eagles communicate and distribute routes effectively, it can almost be impossible to beat. However, Washington deserves a lot of credit for running a number of different concepts that tested the Eagles’ route distribution. They didn’t make it easy on the Eagles’ defense this week.

How many teams have two defensive tackles as good as Jalen Carter and Milton Williams? I can’t imagine the Eagles can afford to keep Williams next year, and I’m going to be sad watching him ball out for another team. He’s exceptionally talented, and this is a hell of a play. I thought he had a great game.