Eagles

Trying to Decipher How Bad This Eagles Defense is

By Matt Schultz

Published: Sep 29th, 2026 · 3:00 PM EDT

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The Eagles defense looked like dogshit on Monday night. No takeaways, no sacks, the Bears running all over them, Case Keenum lighting them up for chunk plays, etc., etc. Bad stuff. And it has me wondering just how bad this Birds’ D is.

Weren’t they pretty solid through the first two games? Those numbers were good, right? Maybe the Bears game was the outlier? Or maybe the Washington and Tennessee offenses are just bad, and they made Philly’s defense look better than it is? There’s a lot to think about here. So I’m going to walk through it all as the thoughts come into my head/as I look through the numbers and stuff.

Eagles Defense Overall Numbers Stuff

Here’s where the Birds stood league-wide through the first two weeks of the season:

• Pass Defense: 4th in net passing yards allowed per game (166.0 YPG) and 5th in opponent completion percentage (57.4%).
• Total Defense: 11th in total yards allowed per game (293.0 YPG).
• Scoring Defense: 12th in points allowed per game (21.0 PPG).
• Third-Down Defense: 18th in opponent third-down conversion rate (39.3%).
• Rush Defense: 24th in rushing yards allowed per game (127.0 YPG).
• Pass Rush & Takeaways: T-25th in sacks (3) and T-30th in takeaways (0).

This all looks pretty good! 4th in passing yards allowed! That’s elite stuff!

And here’s where the Eagles rank league-wide in these same categories after the Bears’ whooping is factored in:

• Pass Defense: 9th in net passing yards allowed per game (193.0 YPG) and 11th in opponent completion percentage (62.5%).
• Total Defense: 13th in total yards allowed per game (320.3 YPG).
• Scoring Defense: 16th in points allowed per game (23.0 PPG).
• Third-Down Defense: 13th in opponent third-down conversion rate (39.0%).
• Rush Defense: 25th in rushing yards allowed per game (127.3 YPG).
• Pass Rush & Takeaways: T-28th in sacks (3) and last (32nd) in takeaways (0).

Very different numbers! Quite a dip across the board! The Eagles defense fell from 4th no 9th in passing yards allowed per game, from 12th to 16th in points allowed per game, 11th to 13th in total yards allowed per game, and 24th to 25 in rush defense. Also, after a game without getting a sack, they fell from 25th to 28th in total sacks (they only have 3 on the year) (!!!).

And worst of all, in my opinion, the Eagles still have not registered a takeaway this year, which leaves them in sole possession of 32nd in that category (dead last… alone at the bottom, here…)

Bad. Now I’m thinking we should take a closer look at the Week 3 numbers to see what the hell even happened:

Eagles Defense vs. the Bears

Simply put, the Birds’ defense was dominated. Third-string quarterback Case Keenum went 24-of-34 for 247 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions — and he did it mostly with short throws: 32 of Keenum’s 34 pass attempts (94.1%) were short passes, compared to just two deep pass attempts (1-of-2 for 22 yards). Meanwhile, the Eagles had 10 pressures, 7 hurries and 3 quarterback hits on the night, but they didn’t register a sack. The bottom line is that Keenum was way too comfortable all night long.

A part of this certainly was how quickly Keenum was getting the ball out. On Monday night, the Bears QB averaged 2.31 seconds from snap to throw, which ranked as the 2nd-fastest time to throw among all NFL quarterbacks in Week 3 (behind only Michael Penix Jr. at 2.19 seconds). This feels right eye-test-wise, too. Felt like the defensive line couldn’t get home because the ball was already gone.

That being the case, you’d hope the Eagles secondary would step up and provide solid coverage. They, of course, did not.

Containment and open-field tackling were brutal all night long. Philly missed 10 tackles on the night, with 7 coming from the secondary — including two missed tackles apiece by Andrew Mukuba, Cooper DeJean, and Marcus Epps, which enabled Chicago receivers to pile up extra yards after the catch. Some more nitty-gritty coverage breakdown numbers:

• Cooper DeJean allowed 4 receptions on 6 targets for 46 yards and a touchdown.
• Zack Baun conceded 5 receptions on 6 targets for a team-high 58 yards.
• Andrew Mukuba (2-of-2, 37 yards) and Marcus Epps (2-of-2, 29 yards) each allowed 100% completion rates in coverage.
• Quinyon Mitchell was targeted 7 times, allowing 4 receptions for 29 yards.
• Jihaad Campbell yielded 3 catches on 4 targets for 16 yards and a touchdown.

Bad! The Eagles’ rush defense was slightly better than the pass defense, but not by much. Philadelphia held Chicago to 128 rushing yards on 35 carries (3.66 YPC) and recorded 4 tackles for loss on running plays. They surrendered only one run of 10+ yards all night (a 15-yard carry by D’Andre Swift in the fourth quarter) and stuffed 7 carries for zero or negative yards. That’s pretty good. I’ll take that.

The problem, though, was that since Chicago led comfortably and controlled the clock (Bears’ time of possession was 36:53, compared to 23:07 for the Eagles), they started pounding the ball as the game was in hand. The Bears rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries (4.59 YPC) in the second half — including 82 rushing yards on 18 attempts in the fourth quarter alone — after totaling just 27 rushing yards in the first half.

Worthwhile exercise, here. Lot of good info. I feel ready to make my verdict…

My Conclusion (the defense is actually very bad)

It brings me no joy to say this, but I think what we saw on Monday night is closer to what this defensive unit actually is, and the elite Week 1 and Week 2 numbers are the fluke. The smoking gun for this theory is how bad Washington and Tennessee’s offenses are. The Commanders are 27th in pass offense and the Titans are 30th in scoring, 31st in total offense, and 30th in pass offense. Those are two bad teams, which is why the Eagles looked nice against them.

But when facing Chicago’s actually-good offense — which ranks 3rd in total yards (408.0 YPG) and 1st in rushing (184.3 YPG) — the Eagles got exposed. They had no pass rush, they couldn’t create turnovers, and they allowed Case Keenum of all people to sling the ball wherever he wanted. And sadly, these seem like foundational issues to me.

Through three weeks, the Eagles have no takeaways. They have 3 sacks. No need to overcomplicate it. That’s a bad defense.