By:  DR RAM

Defense – The Eagles took a pretty big gamble this year by promoting their offensive line coach of the last 13 seasons, Juan Castillo, to their defensive coordinator spot.  The Eagles play a 4-3 defense led by a group of strong cornerbacks and solid defensive ends.  The Eagles are starting a rookie middle linebacker, Casey Matthews from the Matthews clan.  Their defensive line is anchored by big Mike Patterson and free agent acquisition from the Packers, Cullen Jenkins.

Defensive line: Mike Patterson is back from the out of the blue incident where he had seizures on the field.  He is the meat of their D. Patterson is stout at the point of attack, but gets washed out easier than he should.  Cullen Jenkins was signed as a free agent from Green Bay, where he played in the 3-4.  He specializes in the pass rush; he will struggle against the run, as he did versus the Browns and Steelers in the preseason.  In both games the Eagles defensive line lost the LOS (line of scrimmage).  The Eagles reverted to shooting gaps to get penetration…it didn’t work, the Steelers just pushed them where they wanted to go, easily handling them and washing them away from the action.  The Browns starters had no problem dominating the Eagles line, which didn’t put any pressure on Colt McCoy.  DR’s rating: C-.

Defensive ends: Jason Babin had 12 1/2 sacks last year in Tennessee, but he never had more than 5 in his career prior, including 2009 when he was with Philadelphia, where he had 2 ½ sacks in 12 games.  Trent Cole is solid, but couldn’t get the quarterback in the preseason, Cole has been averaging about 11 sacks a season over his last four seasons, his best moves appears to be an inside spin move or speed rush, but he doesn’t overpower anybody.  DR’s rating: B.

Linebackers: Casey Matthews is their starting Mike backer and is smallish at 6’1 230 pounds, he is a 2 down backer who plays pretty well on running plays, he is a downhill guy, who reads and reacts pretty fast and fills.  He is susceptible to the play action pass and a liability in coverage. Another rookie, Brian Rolle, comes in for Matthews on obvious passing downs, he is pretty fast and athletic, but he’s small at 5’9 227 pounds.  I think this is an obvious weakness and attack point for Josh McDaniels.  I would put my rookie Lance Kendricks against their two rookies at linebacker any day of the week and more than twice on Sunday.  Moise Fokou, careful pronouncing that one, and Jamar Chaney are the other starters at the Will and Sam respectively.  They are both about 6’1 230-240 pound range.  They rely on speed and quickness.  DR’s rating: C -.

Cornerbacks: Nnamdi Asomugha is a three-time Pro Bowler and a four-time All Pro selection (2006, 2008-10), and unless you live under a rock, you know that he signed a huge deal to play for the Eagles.  Nnamdi is so good that QB’s just don’t throw his way very often.  The have Asante Samuel manning the other corner.   He is two-time Super Bowl champion and a four-time Pro-Bowler.  Last year, Asante led the NFC with 7 INT’s.  The Eagles also acquired Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie in a trade with the Cardinals. Dominique has 16 INT’s in 4 years of service.  Rodgers-Cromartie is their fastest CB, and will be playing the Nickel.   Andy Reid is trying to get Rodgers-Cromartie to be their blitzing corner, like Charles Woodson, but Rodgers-Cromartie, has never done that in his career.  Their corners are beyond talented and seem to communicate fairly well.  In the preseason game that I watched they seem to like to play off the LOS, and like to force you to throw underneath, hoping that you will lose patience and force a throw.  The weakness of their corners is that they don’t seem to want to tackle people with the exception of Rodgers-Cromartie. DR’s rating: B+.

Safeties: Nate Allen is trying to replace the void left by Quintin Mikell, and he can’t.  He got burned several times by peeking into the backfield too long, while letting his man run right across his face.  Jarrad Page, a journeyman 6th year player, seems to have supplanted him as the starter.  Second year player, Kurt Coleman is listed as the starting FS, he appears to have pretty good instincts and is a willing tackler.  He is a pretty decent athlete.   This is not a very strong group of players as a whole. DR’s rating: D.

DR’s Scouting Tidbits:

The Eagles had a hard time getting pressure on either the Steelers or the Browns quarterbacks, the defense was pretty vanilla, but bizarre at times, the way they lined up.  On several plays against Pittsburgh, the DL lined up having outside shade of the Guard and Tackle’s on both sides, leaving the middle wide open.  They did this several times, whether it was a running or passing down.  On one play, Roethlisberger, under center, just ran straight up the gut gaining about 9-yards.  DC, Juan Castillo looked perturbed after the play, but what did he expect?

The Eagles rarely dialed up blitzes, but when they did, they didn’t do a very good job disguising them and often got burned.  On a corner blitz from the left side, Rodgers-Cromartie half committed and Samuel just let the Antonio Brown run right by him for a touchdown.  There wasn’t even a play fake out of the shotgun single half back formation.  On another blitz, the Eagles brought their SLB and their SS from the same side, prompting an easy swing pass for the uncovered tailback for a huge gain.  Trent Cole seems to run himself out of a lot of plays.  On one running play to his side, the Steelers showed run, but Cole fired up field like it was a pass and the Steelers left tackle simply tossed him aside while Mendenhall ran right through the hole that Cole should have been pinching.  Coverage by the safeties was poor, they let the tight ends run free through the zones and got burned for it.  Linebacker coverage, however, seemed pretty good, they are small, but they can run, they did a decent job of sticking to the running backs out of the backfield.

DR’s Prescription to beat the Eagles:  The Eagles are small, quick and fast, so use it against them by hammering the ball off tackle and up the middle where they are the weakest.  The Rams offensive strong rushing side with Jason Smith and Harvey Dahl is the Eagles weakest with Cullen Jenkins at tackle.  Use misdirection and screen plays to keep the Eagles off balance and force Nnamdi and Asante to tackle our running backs.  Throw the ball underneath and in the middle to suck their corners and safeties in.  Spread them out wide and hit the underneath to Amendola.  Go to our tight ends often in this game and attack another one of their weaknesses, their safeties.  After we have beat them up in the middle, line up tight in a running formation, play action fake and release Kendricks to fly over the Eagles.

DR’s prognosis for winning: Good

The Doctor is Out…for now.