Your eyes confirm that the Eagles’ run defense hasn’t been very good through Week 2.

The numbers support your eyes.

From SportRadar:

  • defensive rushing average: 6.43 yards per carry (32nd)
  • defensive rush yards allowed per game: 157.5 (25th)
  • 3 runs of 20+ yards allowed (tied for 30th)
  • 16 rushing first downs allowed (middle of the pack)
  • 32.6 opponent rushing first down percentage (28th)
  • forced fumbles: 1 (middle of the pack, not just a rush defense stat, but worth sharing)

Nick Sirianni was asked midweek what’s wrong with the run defense:

“You know, I think it always starts with us putting players in position to make plays. But after that, you’ve got to — everything when you talk about run defense and when you talk about playing defense is going to start with: Do you get off blocks, can you play on their side of the line of scrimmage and get off blocks, and can you make the tackles when you get there?

Regardless of what the call is — do we have to put them in different positions and try different things? Yeah, and the defense was trying to do that. But regardless of what the call is, it’s going to be how we put our hands on people, how we knock them back, how we shed that block, whether it’s a cut block or whether it’s an up-high block, and how we tackle after that. We have to build on those fundamentals, and I don’t want that to sound like — we have to do that as coaches. We have to put them in positions as far as how to strike blocks.

So, there’s two aspects of this. It’s us as coaches putting them in position to make plays, but it’s also us teaching them how to put their hands on blocks. We’re going to make sure that we do our part as coaches and the players have to do their part of executing it when that time comes.”

If you look a bit further you’ll see that teams are successfully running against light Eagles boxes. The Birds have run 98 nickel snaps this season, which is 2nd most in the NFL. They’ve mostly stayed out of dime and quarter but with five defensive backs on the field, guys like Bijan Robinson and Josh Jacobs were finding a lot of success on the ground.


Sirianni talks a lot about block shedding in that quote, which gives us something to look for in Week 3, or if you’re a masochist you can rewatch the Falcons game and look for evidence. Regardless, they’ve struggled against the run now Alvin Kamara is up next.