Eagles defense shows ‘sense of pride’ and wins physicality battle this time vs. Giants

The instant reaction in the visitors’ locker room at MetLife Stadium two weeks ago was that the Eagles didn’t match the physicality of the New York Giants during a 34-17 defeat that sent the Eagles into their mini-bye with a bad taste and a lot to work on.

What changed Sunday, 17 days later?

Zack Baun had a simple response: “We were more physical than them today. That was the mentality we wanted to come out with. We came out with it and we sustained it throughout the whole game.”

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Reed Blankenship said the Eagles “gave it to ’em a little bit.”

There was more to it, of course. You can start with the fact that the Eagles had two of their most important defensive pieces on the field in Jalen Carter and Quinyon Mitchell — Carter missed the Week 6 game and Mitchell left in the first half with an injury. But the Eagles also played with a “sense of pride,” defensive tackle Moro Ojomo said. It was Jalen Hurts’ message when he broke the team down before the game.

The defensive front took it to heart. Two weeks after rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart tormented them with his arm and his legs, the Eagles held him in check. Dart rushed 13 times for 58 yards two weeks ago, several of those runs coming on scrambles off broken pass plays. He rushed six times for 17 yards Sunday. The Eagles contained him and, more important, got after him. They sacked him five times in the 38-20 win.

“You get to play 10 on 11,” Blankenship said of containing a quarterback with Dart’s scrambling ability. “Obviously when you add that extra flavor with the quarterback scrambling and stuff, it gets tough. At the end of the day you start playing backyard football.”

There was little of that Sunday in part because of how quickly Dart was under duress. The Eagles entered Sunday with just 11 sacks this season. Only four teams had fewer. Five Eagles registered a sack on Sunday: Baun, Ojomo, Carter, Jordan Davis, and Jalyx Hunt. The Eagles signed Brandon Graham out of retirement last week, and more help is on the way when Nolan Smith returns from injury, but the Eagles showed their pass rush can still have some teeth.

Baun said the Eagles’ game plan focused on that pass rush and also containing Dart. They did their best to keep him in the pocket and wanted to “hawk him down” when he got out of it. They also tailored coverages that were “more attuned to having eyes on the quarterback.”

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The Carter factor helps, too. The Eagles missed him greatly in the first matchup. Sunday’s sack was his first of the season, but Carter’s impact can rarely be measured by box scores.

“It changes the dynamic,” Ojomo said. “Similar to A.J. Brown on the offense. He’s a guy that requires a different level of attention, and when you have that attention, it changes the dynamic for everything. Things become predictable. Offenses have to account for him and it’s great to play next to him.”

It was Dart and fellow rookie Cam Skattebo who crushed the Eagles two weeks ago. Skattebo scored a touchdown catching the ball out of the backfield in the first quarter, but the running back was knocked out of the game with a gruesome ankle injury near the midpoint of the second quarter. He was on the field for an extended period before being carted off.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Baun, who was in coverage on the intended pass to Skattebo when he was injured. “I don’t care if he’s the one whooping our [butt] or not. Player to player, it definitely hurts.

“When a play like that happens, it’s just refocusing the team and understanding that there’s more ball to be played.”

The Eagles had a 14-7 lead when Skattebo exited, and the Giants scored just 13 total points while the game was still in the balance.

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The Eagles later pulled their starters with six minutes to play and Dart led a garbage-time touchdown drive.

“You love to see your guys off the field when you got four or five minutes left on the clock,” Blankenship said. “It’s always good going into the bye week like that.”

The defense is hitting the bye with a little bit of momentum. It responded to that disastrous performance two weeks ago with two of its better performances, and the run defense, which has been an issue at times, has improved. The Eagles defense was stingy in the red zone last week in Minnesota and put together a more well-rounded game Sunday.

“You get your [butt] kicked and it’s a little motivation to me, personally, and I know to a lot of the guys,” Blankenship said.

Tougher tests await. The Eagles will use the bye week to get healthy and get some rest, but they return from the break to face Green Bay, Detroit, and then a Dallas offense that has started to put things together.

“I think we’re really close to where we want to be,” Baun said. “There’s still things to clean up, but I think we’re getting there. I really do.”