As the mini-bye week ends, some news and notes on the 8-0 Eagles, who enjoyed the last few days off before reporting back to work on Monday …
1. This is not luck. This is not good fortune. This is the Eagles stressing – starting the minute Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon walked into the NovaCare Complex last season – the importance of taking the football away. Say it, mean it, do it.
And the Eagles are certainly doing it.
They’ve taken the football away 18 times in eight games, the most for the team through eight games since the 2015 team recorded 20 takeaways. It is a mindset the team has and you see it every day in practice as the defense works on stripping the football, focusing on interception drills, and making it a daily obsession, not just one on gamedays (or nights, as we are seeing a ton this year).
“We live and breathe it,” linebacker T.J. Edwards said. “JG (Gannon) talks about it all the time. Our position coaches do as well. We work on takeaways at practice. It’s definitely a big part of what we do.”
Head Coach Nick Sirianni was asked on Friday – just hours after the team arrived home from the 29-17 win at Houston – if the turnover ratio model – takeaways, of which the Eagles have 18, and giveaways, the team has a total of 3 this season, was “sustainable.” Without hesitation, Sirianni launched into a lengthy answer.
“Our goal every week is to be plus two in that turnover category. I would say the Jacksonville game, I’m not sure that the five turnovers is sustainable, but we plan to take care of the football. Plus two is a goal for a reason, because we plan to take care of the football, and we want to get at least two turnovers during the defensive game, so we definitely think that’s sustainable,” he said. “The way we come after the football, the way we get pressure on the quarterback, and the way I feel like we have some DBs back there obviously in Slay (CB Darius Slay) and (CB) James (Bradberry) and (S) Chauncey (Gardner-Johnson) and (S) Marcus (Epps) and (CB) Avonte (Maddox) that can make you pay if you make a mistake. That’s always something that you’re aware of as an offensive coach, like ‘Hey, if I make a mistake, is this guy going to be able to make us pay?’ and we’ve got guys back there that can.
“Because of the playmakers that we have, I definitely think that’s sustainable. We obviously know that’s a big part of our success to date is the turnover battle. We think long and hard about that, and how we teach the…
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