Philadelphia Eagles pass rush comes alive against New York Jets
The Philadelphia Eagles pass rush hasn’t done much before Week 5 — but the unit came alive against the New York Jets on Sunday.
Throughout the offseason, we couldn’t wait to see what the Philadelphia Eagles pass rush would look like. Although they lost two key contributors in Chris Long and Micahel Bennett, they still gained Vinny Curry, Malik Jackson, and even Timmy Jernigan back into the mix.
It felt like the defensive line would still dominate on game days, but that hasn’t been the case through the first four weeks of the season. With injuries and slow starts, the Eagles pass rush hasn’t been as disruptive. Before the Thursday night matchup against the Green Bay Packers last week, Derek Barnett was the first defensive end to notch a sack.
This week against the New York Jets, we predicted the possibility of the Eagles’ pass rush potentially breaking out and having a game where they can gain some confidence in their ability to get to the quarterback. Sure enough, that’s precisely what happened on Sunday afternoon.
Eagles feast on Falk
As we know, the Jets were forced to play with their backup quarterback, Luke Falk, this week. Just last week, Falk struggled mightily against the New England Patriots and ended up taking seven sacks. This week, the Eagles upped the ante and destroyed the Jets quarterback.
The Eagles finished the afternoon with ten total sacks. Their veteran defensive end Brandon Graham led the pack with three total. Those three sacks happened to be his first on the year.
Meanwhile, the rest of the defensive line contributed as well. Derek Barnett, Vinny Curry, and Hassan Ridgeway all collected a sack, while Daeshon Hall and Josh Sweat picked up the first sacks of their young career.
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The defensive line didn’t do it alone, though. Newly signed cornerback Orlando Scandrick helped out with the pass rush by picking up two sacks of his own. One of which, he managed to strip the ball in the process and take it in for six points.
Now, this doesn’t mean the Eagles pass rush is officially back to its old ways — but this week’s performance definitely boosts the team’s confidence moving forward as the Eagles clinch a 3-2 record before traveling to Minnesota next week. Hopefully, this performance was more of a stepping stone, rather than a one-time occurrence.