Jonathan Gannon has adapted his defense in Philly with big results
I’m high on the announcement pertaining to our new head coach hire, Jonathan Gannon. I’m going to do a lot of studying of the Eagles defense closely, but for now I wanted to give my quick thoughts on the hire.
I really like the hire looking at it from a leadership standpoint and I think that was ultimately the deciding factor. You are, after all, hiring a head coach for the team not just for one side of the ball. With that being said coordinators who become HC’s usually carry with them the scheme that made them successful in the first place. With the Cardinals currently still employing Vance Joseph, it’s a possibility that Vance will continue to be a part of the staff. We won’t know if he’s gonna remain as a DC or a specialist coach until the upcoming days or weeks.
One thing I have to acknowledge is the Eagles defense was stacked top to bottom with talent, but in the NFL talent alone can’t win enough games to make a Superbowl run. It is true that scheme is king and even talented teams fail if the scheme is bad.
So here’s my quick take:
The Eagles have basically changed the defensive scheme completely from what they were the previous year, doing so they found a balance and that gives me optimism. If Coach Gannon is overseeing the defensive scheme and philosophy, we can look forward to signing/drafting an impact nose tackle/run stuffer, and a good corner on the outside. The strength in coverage was the obvious pairing of James Bradberry and Darius Slay that really solidified the Eagles and allowed them to play Middle Field Open and Middle Field Closed at a balanced rate. They also hung back in coverage on 3rd downs opting to allow the front 4 or sometimes front 5 to get to the quarterback, while the added bodies in coverage made it difficult for opposing quarterbacks to find receivers open. Funnily enough, they blitz more often on earlier downs like 1st down primarily.
The criticism has been the run defense and contain, unfortunately, that’s the same criticism I have for the Vance Joseph-led defense. Because Gannon allows his front 4 to pass rush rush so often, they tend to have a higher percentage of fewer men in the box. As a consequence, this leads to a game script situation where if the offense isn’t ahead, then teams will attack them in the run game, and we saw that with Isaiah Pacheco gashing the Eagles for 76 yards and 5.6 yards per carry. Along with giving up contain to Patrick Mahomes who had 44 yards on 6 carries for a 7.3 average, these present the same problems we have had with Vance Joseph’s defenses being bad against the run and breaking contain.
I will say though, even with those problems there are great upgrades that I will welcome, like better discipline in coaching his defensive backs to have great communication when it comes to handling match zone coverages. He also runs a slew of stunts up front, and lines his defensive ends wide on the outside taking wide angles in order to force the quarterback back in the pocket, often leading to a sack by one of the defensive tackles.
When the Eagles did blitz, it was very effective, dialing it up on early downs, which is the complete opposite of what teams tend to do, becoming unpredictable and he often disguised his coverages and blitz packages, just what I like.
I will be looking at the games where the Eagles faced the Cardinals and the Chiefs. I have already seen a lot of film when the Eagles faced the Cardinals. (Just an FYI Kyler had his best game on film vs the Eagles.)
As Coach Gannon said, “Buckle Up We’re Gonna Have Some Fun, See You Soon!!”
Bird Gang.
We got our guy. pic.twitter.com/S9bB6Am347
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) February 14, 2023
