Philadelphia Eagles: What to expect from Carolina’s defense, how to react

The Philadelphia Eagles must be wary of disguised coverages and blitzes.

Heading into Week 5, so far this season, Phil Snow has been able to disguise his pressure very well with simulated pressures in which there are often more than four or five rushers at the line of scrimmage.

A few of Carolina’s defenders have had a tendency to drop back into coverage post-snap. That often creates a dilemma for the offensive line in pass protection. This is something that we often praise the Baltimore Ravens, Arizona Cardinals, and Minnesota Vikings for doing.

There will often be one offensive lineman caught with two rushers to worry about. That’s often forced opposing offensive linemen to block the inside rusher, and that’s left Brian Burns or Hasson Reddick with a free path to the quarterback.

Even with that as an advantage, Carolina will still run a heavy dose of fire zone blitzes with their cover 3 defense behind them, but they’re also able to run more Cover 1 with the personnel they have on the back end.

Last season, Snow had to keep multiple defenders deep and play more conservatively in a ‘bend but don’t break’ style of defense. According to PFF, his tendency was to go Cover 3 on early downs and Cover 1 on third downs, but recently he has been able to mix it up a bit more.

Now that the pieces are starting to come together, Snow has been more aggressive, and that’s led to the highest quarterback pressure rate (37.8%), the second-most sacks (14), and the second-fewest net passing yards per attempt (5.1) through four weeks.