It starts with handling Lawrence, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2021. He’s blossoming with Pederson as his guide and through three games the 6-foot-6 Lawrence has been terrific with six touchdown passes and only one interception. He has a command of the offense in his second season in the league after coming into the NFL deemed a can’t-miss prospect.
So far this season, he isn’t missing much at all.
“We looked at some games last year and he might not have played as fast. I don’t really know why but I think he’s processing at a high level, he’s accurate, he’s got a big arm, he’s athletic,” Gannon said. “He’s tall and he can see. When you watch the tape of him, certain quarterbacks play real fast and he’s one of those guys.”
At the end of the day for Gannon and this defense, the metrics that stick out are limiting big plays and takeaways, the “double-positive” stats that Gannon will reference. Do both of those and the thinking is that points allowed will be up and the win probability will increase and the defense will be where it needs to be.
These last two weeks, the defense has been right there for Gannon. The Eagles limited Minnesota to 264 yards and took the football away three times in the huge Monday night win. On Sunday at FedEx Field, the Eagles sacked quarterback Carson Wentz nine times, took the ball away once that led to seven Eagles points, didn’t allow a play longer than 16 yards until the second half, and kept Washington out of the end zone until there were less than two minutes remaining in the game.
Heading into Week 4, Gannon hopes to build on the progress the defense is making.
“Any good defense does those two things,” Gannon said. “You want to be able to do that in different ways depending on who you are playing.
“I think the players know that we don’t put up a lot of stats. We’re through and through what the head coach preaches because we know those are winning stats. How the defense fits into those things, we talk about ad nauseam.
“I think they understand that. They go out and that’s on their mind. They know that they have to get that done for us to have a chance to win each game.
“Happy where that’s at, but know that’s a week-to-week thing and we have to continually improve on those things.”
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at News…