Philadelphia Eagles: 3 Ways to flip turnover ratio back in their favor
By Ben Swanger
In 2020, the Philadelphia Eagles must flip the turnover ratio in their favor.
In each of the past two seasons, the Philadelphia Eagles have finished the regular season committing more turnovers on offense than they’ve forced on defense. Fundamentally, that isn’t how a team succeeds on any level of football. The question is can the “Birds” fix this problem? Before we answer that, let’s do some research.
In 2019, the Eagles committed 23 turnovers on offense, fourteen of which were credited to Carson Wentz who was responsible for seven interceptions and seven lost fumbles. That’s more than Tom Brady had. It’s also more than Dak Prescott’s 13.
On the other end of the spectrum sits Patrick Mahomes who lost the ball seven times and Aaron Rodgers who lost the ball on eight different occasions. In other words, two of the top quarterbacks committed a turnover in every other game while Wentz was close to coughing up the ball once in every game.
The Eagles’ defense forced a mere 20 turnovers in 2019 which tied them with the 6-10 Cleveland Browns and the 7-9 Atlanta Falcons. Jim Schwartz’s guys only forced three turnovers in a game twice. Philly went 1-1 in those games. On nine different occasions, Philly came up with nothing or they were only able to force one turnover. In 2018, the numbers were similar.
The offense committed 23 turnovers, the exact same total from 2019, but the defense got nothing done, forcing a criminally low 17 takeaways during the season. As you might expect, the year the Eagles hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, things looked much different. Philly committed just 20 turnovers on offense. The defense found a way to force 31.
You see where this is headed. Let’s discuss ways the “Birds” can flip the turnover ratio back in their favor for 2020.