Eagles: Fletcher Cox isn’t getting double-teamed as often as people say

We can finally put those rumors to bed about Philadelphia Eagles defensive tackle Fletcher Cox being unable to dominate at the line of scrimmage because he ‘gets double-teamed so much’.

Sunday’s game versus the Kansas City Chiefs saw the Eagles make it a close matchup, but they ultimately fell to Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes’ will. The high-scoring affair saw Jalen Hurts finish respectably with 387 yards passing and two touchdowns, but the Chiefs slammed the Birds to record six touchdowns.

One Eagles’ defender, in particular, stood out for all the wrong reasons. Cox, for the third time in four games, didn’t record a single tackle or any other defensive statistic, but before you jump on that ‘he’s getting double-teamed and that’s how Javon Hargrave has been so successful nonsense’, here’s something that you may want to look at.

Thank Jimmy Kempski of The Philly Voice for doing the legwork. Take a look

The statistic above reveals just how poorly Cox played along the defensive line. Granted, the Birds were up against one of the most dynamic and deadly offenses in the league, but anyone watching could see Cox really did look ‘disinterested’ and overwhelmed for most of his minutes on the field.

Cox played 69 percent of defensive snaps and was a major reason Philadelphia’s D-line looked like a flour sieve all afternoon. The Chiefs’ offensive line bullied Cox and others to give Mahomes a clean pocket to pick apart Philly’s secondary and clear running lanes — no defensive line can afford to give Mahomes that kind of time, and the Eagles dearly paid the price.

Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Fletcher Cox struggled versus Chiefs

The Chiefs recorded a whopping 90 percent efficacy on third-down conversions, which partially explains their offensive bombardment –whether we’re discussing the run or the pass (or both) — against Philly’s weak line.

Cox had no answers, and while the rest of his line didn’t necessarily step up either, his stats from the game — zero tackles and one measly pressure — suggest the Eagles’ defensive line has a lot of room for improvement and that this isn’t the same dominating defensive presence that we once knew.

You can understand the theory. It would make sense for teams to double-team Cox, and that would allow one-on-one opportunities for Javon Hargrave, but that hasn’t really been what’s been happening. at least not consistently.

Hargrave has become Philly’s best player on defense. Cox has to step it up. After all, he’s the team’s highest-paid player, and the guy who’s second, Zach Ertz, has a long way to go to catch him. The point of this, again, is Cox isn’t getting double-teamed as much as people may have thought, and his struggles could just boil down to age, regression, and dare we say, a lack of motivation.

Cox will need to find a way to dominate again in the trenches, or else Philly will be in for another offensive beating next week against the Carolina Panthers. The Eagles have built a defense that hinges on the success of its defensive line. The answers to this team’s defensive deficiencies begin with him.