A Secondary Consideration

Rich Hoffman blames the secondary as the primary fix needed for the Eagles' defensive problems. And he references several sack and blitz stats like the ones posted here last week to make his case that the defensive line is holding its own. The nut graph.

If that is the case, then, what accounts for the overall drop in defensive numbers and the increase in the number of big plays? It was the coverage. It is no longer good enough to support such a gambling, aggressive defensive system.

It's obvious that Samuel plays soft and pads his INT numbers with route jumping picks. And that Sheldon Brown quietly put up another solid year while battling injuries. And, of course, the absolute mess at safety. But if you learned anything from this weekend's playoff games - particularly the Cowboys-Vikings game - is how important and incredibly game changing a strong front four pass rush can be. And it's not just harrying Romo. Put any pro bowl QB under constant pressure, and yes I include Brady, Roethlisberger, et. al in that category, and they just simply aren't as effective as when they have an extra second or two.

In recent years, higher level QBs have consistently beat the Eagles in large part because of the defense's inability to generate a good pass rush solely with the defensive line. So in addition to help in the secondary, a havoc wreaking D-lineman - who could take double teams away from Trent Cole and increase his effectiveness - would seem to be a top priority.