Giants must be beaten by the Eagles, who need to improve their league-best pass rush
The Philadelphia Eagles will face the New York Giants in their divisional round matchup. They have the best pass rush in the league.
Brandon Graham, Josh Sweat, and Haason Reddick all have at least 10 sacks. Their interior oine is equally effective. Javon Hargrave has the fourth-most pressures in the league among interior defensive linemen with 57, and he’s third-highest graded pass rusher from the inside, per Pro Football Focus.
The blueprint of this Giant’s offense is what makes this matchup a great one. The Eagles have the top defense against the pass, but what’s that against one of the best running backs in the league in Saquon Barkley. The Eagles are 16th in the world.Th Overall against rush, allowing 4.6 yards per run, which is lowest 10.
Barkley has 304 carries and a record-setting 1,365 rush yards. He also scored 12 touchdowns in the wild-card round. Barkley finished in the top 10 in almost every category of rushing. He’s also caught 62 passes on a 75 percent catch rate for 394 yards.
Even if Giants quarterback Daniel Jones plays his best game this weekend, this game’s winner will be determined in the trenches.
There are a few things that the Eagles will need to do if they want to win this game up front, let’s allow the film to tell the story!
Milton Williams is one of the underrated stars.
(Eric Hartline USA TODAY Sports)
Milton Williams is an important and underrated interior lineman in this Eagles team as well as the entire NFL. He’s currently sitting 10th in run defense, according to PFF. But he wasn’t dominant out of the gate; it took time for Williams to really get going.
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Weeks 1-9: Three solo tackles and 2 quarterback hits. One tackle for loss.
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Weeks 9-18: Eight tackles for loss, 14 solo tackles, four quarterback hits and one pass defensed.
Williams was able to quickly take his first step and penetrate backfields effortlessly.
Against the Giants in week 14, it was second-and-5, and Williams got a pretty decent jump on the Giants’ left guard to get into the backfield.
When asked what changed from early-on in the season, he said, “I got healthy, the bye week helped me. And I’m making sure I’m doing my job each and every snap and taking advantage of the opportunities when I get them.”
Williams also acknowledged that he had suffered from a few injuries early in the season: Turftoe and hyperextended elbow.
“But got the bye week, got away from it a little bit, cleared my mind,” Williams said. “And it’s been good after that.”
Stuffing the run with zero-technique presence
(Tom Horak USA TODAY Sports
If the Eagles put one of their defensive linesmen in a “0-tech” alignment, that is, directly over the center, they have 22% stuff percentage and allow 3.6 yards per try (12th).
When they don’t have someone over the center, their stuff percentage drops to 16.9% and their yards per attempt jumps to 4.6.
The main focus will be on the center. This is how their defensive linemen can get one-on-1 matchups. The chart below shows that the Eagles edge rushers aren’t being double teamed as much as their peers.
Reddick can win outside because there are no double teams that are geared towards pass rushers.
Stunting vs Daniel Jones.
(Syndication – The Record)
It’s important that the Eagles put pressure on Daniel Jones. According to PFF, when Jones is blitzed, his passing grade is a 71.2, which isn’t great but when he’s just under pressure (without a blitz) his grade drops to a 58.9.
Stunts are a way for defenses to generate pressure without using a blitz. In an earlier season game, the Eagles created simulated pressure by letting KyzirWhite, linebacker, climb up at the lineof scrimmage. At the snap, he dropped back. To increase pressure on the inside, the Eagles then used an end-over tackle stunt.
This certain technique allows the inside defender to then pop to the outside, and so if the ‘end’, who is preforming the stunt, doesn’t get to the quarterback, the tackle is now in contain which doesn’t leave the defense exposed.
Just as long as the defensive line can contain Jones, he’s more susceptible to a sack.
Jones averages 7.3 yards per attempt when he gets to the outside. His EPA is a staggering 40.50, which is the highest in the NFL.
Jones’s escape from the middle results in yards per attempt dropping to 4.2 and the EPA at 5.40.
The Eagles should be able to move the double teams towards the middle and leave the edge rushers with one on ones. If that happens, the defensive line should be able contain Jones. If they are unable to bend the edge, stunts will work, they just have to make sure the inside defender doesn’t crash too far inside.
Against the run, if the Eagles can pull the center to one side, it should be opposite Josh Sweat, since according to PFF, he’s the sixth highest graded run defender, 80.5.
If the Eagles can pull off these techniques and put themselves in these winning scenarios, then they have a good chance stopping the Giants’ run attack and containing Jones.