Five Who Made the Difference in the Eagles’ Win in Washington

Fred Davis (TE/Redskins) – Davis is a stud at tight end. He’s physically imposing, and a much better option than Chris Cooley right now for the Redskins. He was frequently against the Eagles and both of Washington’s quarterbacks found him.

The reason I chose him was because the Eagles finally realized what I said in my preview-–that great coaches in the NFL take away one aspect of their opponents game-–and for the Eagles yesterday, that was the Redskins’ run game. The after effect of that was that Davis was open, but the Eagles were still able to limit the Redskins’ offense.

Everyone clamoring that the Eagles can’t stop tight ends has to realize that they don’t need to if defensive coordinator Juan Castillo can find a way to eliminate the run game. And I realize that the Falcons game disproved this a bit, but the Eagles never stopped Michael Turner OR Tony Gonzalez, so they lost. Point is, you can’t stop every player on the field. I think Juan Castillo has been trying to do that too much this year. If you can just take away one aspect, it allows the rest of your defense worry about their own assignments.

Kurt Coleman (S/Eagles)-– Have the Eagles found their starting safeties? It may be a bit premature to say that, but what I do know is that both Coleman and fellow safety Nate Allen played pretty good games yesterday.

They also took some gambles.

On Coleman’s second interception, he made a fingertip grab in font of Fred Davis. If he was one inch off it would have been a touchdown for Davis. But that didn’t happen, and he made the play. I think that was the best part of Coleman’s game Sunday. He took the risks and it actually worked out in the Eagles favor. For weeks now the Eagles have had the ball bounce against them. Maybe Coleman is a great safety, or maybe he just had a lucky game. Either way, it was a much needed spark for an Eagles’ defense desperate seeking some momentum .

LeSean McCoy (RB/Eagles) – Redskins Head Coach Mike Shanahan called McCoy the best running back in the league leading up to Sunday’s game. I incorrectly assumed that meant Shanahan would try to eliminate McCoy from the Eagles’ attack. Guess not.

McCoy ran for 126 yards and a touchdown, including some big runs in the 4th quarter to seal the game for the Eagles. Whether Shanahan chose to not cue on McCoy, or McCoy just ran through their scheme doesn’t matter. What does matter is that week after week McCoy proves he is capable of carrying the load for the Eagles.

Philadelphia will never be a run first team, and that’s fine with me. But it’s reassuring to know that the Eagles have a player like McCoy to rely on when they need him. He also proved that in a game where they Eagles needed to eat up the clock and seal a win, he can gain the tough yardage, keep the drive going and keep the clock running. A problem with the Eagles in recent years has been their inability to seal games with long drives and run the “four minutes offense”. With McCoy, that doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore.

Mike Patterson (DT/Eagles) – For years, Patterson has been looked at as a solid, but not spectacular defensive tackle for the Eagles. He is a former first-round pick that never turned into the pass rush force people thought he would be. But he made himself into a good run stuffer, even with is smaller stature. This year, though, he has been anything but a run stuffer. He’s been run on consistently and hasn’t been able to keep blockers off the linebackers. While the “wide 9” scheme hurts the Eagles’ run defense, much of the blame should be placed on Patterson.

Until now.

Welcome to the 2011 season, Mike. He was extremely stout on the Eagles defensive line. Yesterday he reverted to that underrated run stuffer that he’s been throughout his career, and that makes the Eagles’ defense really go.

His name was called one or two times for making plays in the backfield, but mostly it was the blocks he ate up and the push he got up front that was the difference. The Eagles won this game mainly because they beat Washington on first down. They didn’t allow the Redskins to gain big yardage on single carries and kept them in third and long situations. While Patterson might have been overshadowed by Kurt Coleman and others on the defense, he may have made the biggest difference.

Juan Castillo (Defensive Coordinator/Eagles) – If you Googled “lightning rod” over the past few weeks, images of Castillo would pop up even before Seattle’s famous Space Needle. He has been accused of not knowing what he’s doing, not knowing his personell, and not being confident with his calls…all accusations I have either made or agreed with.

On Sunday, however, his game plan seemed to click. He realized what the Redskins love to do on offense and shut it down. He didn’t go out of his way to be clever or establish his own brand of defense. He saw what Washington does, looked at his own players’ abilities, and let the two play against each other.

He finally allowed Nnamdi Asomugha to play more man coverage, and that allowed the other ten Eagles defenders to fly around. In the 4th quarter he was getting back to playing some zone, which is when you saw the Redskins exploiting the coverage.

With a bye week this week, let’s hope Castillo doesn’t over think things and continues to build this defense into a more consistent unit.