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The Eagles’ Defense Has Held the Cowboys, Chiefs, Rams, Bucs, Broncos, Packers, and Lions to 17.8 Points Per Game
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They don’t ask how, they ask how many, and for the Eagles that’s eight wins and two losses despite the Birds offense not playing very well at all this season. It was another slog on Sunday night with Kevin Patullo’s unit putting up 16 points at home despite starting with great field position all game long.
What we saw from the Eagles defense, however, was 1985 Chicago Bears stuff. It was 2000 Baltimore Ravens stuff. They smushed Detroit over and over again, forcing five turnovers on downs and a 3-13 third down mark while conceding a grand total of nine points on the evening.
After giving up only a touchdown in Green Bay, the Birds moved 10 full spots up the board, from 18th to 8th overall in scoring defense. They’re allowing just 20.1 points per game:
There’s nothing statistically that screams “elite,” which is the curious thing. 20.1 PPG allowed is great, but other defenses have been better. They still bend, but don’t break, as evidenced by the 326.8 yards per game they allow. They don’t force a ton of turnovers and don’t log a ton of sacks. They’re actually in the top 12 as far as big plays allowed, which is what a Vic Fangio defense is built to prevent. On 62 occasions this season they’ve given up a run of 10+ yards or a pass of 20+ yards.
But when you get a little more granular, the thing that makes this defense elite is the schedule.
When you go through the 10 games they’ve played this year, you remove the Giants and Vikings, because New York stinks and Carson Wentz was backing up J.J. McCarthy in Minnesota. You look at the rest of the competition and you have five of the top 10 scoring offenses in Dallas, Detroit, the Rams, Kansas City, and Tampa. Then there’s Green Bay just outside of the top 12 and Denver in the middle of the pack. Seven of the 10 teams the Eagles have faced this season have scoring offenses in the top half of the league, the Birds have held those teams to 17.8 PPG total.
When you go back to the chart above, there are only three defenses allowing fewer than 17.8 PPG on the entire season, and the Texans, for instance, have played four of their games against the Titans and Jags. They’ve played the Ravens and Niners as well.
In the Eagles case, they held all seven of the Cowboys, Chiefs, Rams, Bucs, Broncos, Lions, and Packers below their season PPG totals. And every single one of those teams, save for the Cowboys, is .500 or better. Five of the seven have winning records, and the other is KC, which was a road win.
That’s elite defense. The stats don’t show it, but the schedule and the eye test confirm.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com