Philadelphia Eagles pass rush should dominate this weekend
The Philadelphia Eagles pass rush should be able to rebuild its confidence this weekend against the New York Jets.
Through the first four weeks of the 2019 NFL season, we haven’t seen anything out of the Philadelphia Eagles defense to be confident about. The secondary is continually dealing with injuries once again, but are still struggling even when healthy.
The linebackers have some significant names on board, but if we’re blunt, those guys are underperforming. And when it comes to the typically dominant defensive line, the Eagles have almost had a non-existent pass rush. We can’t say the defensive line has underperformed entirely, as they are still stingy in the run game.
But when it comes to getting to the quarterback, the Eagles haven’t done it very often. Heading into the Week 4 matchup, the Eagles had only a couple of sacks on the year. One of which, was from defensive tackle, Timmy Jernigan.
Not a single defensive end picked one up until the Green Bay game. Derek Barnett became the first edge rusher to notch a sack, which was a huge boost for the Eagles defense — but even after, they didn’t really build on top of that.
If we had to give an honest evaluation right now regarding the Eagles’ pass rush, it truly has been disappointing so far. However, despite failing to get to Aaron Rodgers more than once last week, the unit did show lots of promise. And the good news is that they don’t have to play Rodgers every week, who was like Houdini (or Carson Wentz) escaping the rush.
The even better news? The Eagles will face the New York Jets this week, who are trotting out their third-string quarterback, Luke Falk onto the field. If there’s one week to turn a bad narrative surrounding the pass rush around, and re-build confidence moving forward, its this week.
Time to feast for the Eagles
The Jets considered playing their franchise quarterback, Sam Darnold, this week, but it became too much of a risk for a team that most likely won’t make the playoffs anyway.
Therefore, they have no choice but to play Falk, who has been the quarterback for the last 85-percent of the team’s offensive snaps over the last two weeks.
During that time, Falk has thrown zero touchdowns, one interception, and has an ugly QBR of 20.6. All of those numbers are rough to look at, but the primary stat that stood out regarding Falk was the fact that he took seven sacks over the last two games.
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Again, the Eagles haven’t been great in that department, but this is the week to turn it around. If they rush the passer the way they did last week, we should expect a handful of sacks along with a lot of ugly throws forced by the Jets passer.
If the Eagles don’t get to the quarterback often, then that might tell Howie Roseman that we have a huge issue on our hands moving forward. This week should be a relatively easy game for the Birds, but the schedule doesn’t get any easier moving forward. The pass rush needs to eat this weekend, or else the Eagles have a significant problem on their hands.