The Eagles unveiled their new and hopefully improved defense on an ice skating rink in Brazil last Friday night.
And while it’s clear that Vic Fangio’s unit still has an awful lot of things it needs to work on, it did manage to do enough right things to fly out of Sao Paulo with a 34-29 season-opening win.
The most important thing it did well was force Packers coach Matt LaFleur to use his rookie kicker, Brayden Narveson, more than he would’ve preferred.
Thanks largely to three turnovers by Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense, the defense faced four red zone challenges from a Packers offense that finished third in total yards and seventh in scoring last season.
But just one of those four opportunities inside the Eagles’ 20 resulted in a touchdown.
The other three times the Packers had to settle for Narveson field goals, which ultimately was the difference in this game.
The Packers started their second possession on the Philadelphia 19 thanks to the first of Hurts’ two interceptions, but never made it closer to the end zone than the 12.
Started their third possession on the Eagles 13 thanks to a fumbled snap between
Hurts and center Cam Jurgens. Made it to the five that time before the defense stiffened.
The Eagles’ third red zone stop came midway through the fourth quarter following yet another Hurts interception.
Trailing by five, the Packers drove from their own 13 to the Philadelphia eight before an Eagles pass rush that had been quiet most of the night, managed to pressure quarterback Jordan Love on back-to-back second- and third-down plays and force yet another appearance from Narveson.
Last season, the Eagles defense finished 29th in the NFL in red zone touchdown percentage. Opponents converted 65.0 percent of their opportunities inside the 20 into touchdowns.
During the Eagles’ infamous season-ending collapse last season, opponents’ red-zone success against them jumped to 70.4 in the final seven games.
A couple of other positives. Linebacker Zack Baun, an under-the-radar free agent signing in the offseason, had a sensational game against the Packers, notching a team-high 15 tackles, two sacks and two hurries.
Baun, who signed a one-year, $3.5 million deal with the Eagles, had started just 14 games in four years for the Saints. Averaged only 165 defensive snaps a season.
The Saints used him mostly as a passing-down edge rusher. Had just two sacks in four years in the Big Easy.
But Roseman and Fangio felt the 6-3, 225-pounder also had the potential to be a damn good off-ball linebacker. If Friday’s game is any indication, Howie might want to get Baun’s agent on the phone ASAP and start talking about an extension.
“I think one real good shot of his incredible motor was when he came off the edge on a play and they threw a little bubble screen to their running back and he peeled off,’’
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “[Safety] Reed [Blankenship] made the guy cut back in and Zack came and hit him right on the side and got a hit in on the ball that jarred it a little bit.
“The guy did a good job of hanging on to the football. But I think it’s a good example of how Zack has played throughout camp. A great indicator of how you’re going to play in games is how you practice. He’s been relentless to the football. Relentless effort. That really showed up against Green Bay.’’
Rookie first-round corner Quinyan Mitchell also turned in a solid performance Friday in his NFL debut. He started on the outside opposite Darius Slay and played 94 percent of the defensive snaps. He’s going to be a keeper.
Right from the start, he showed that the game wasn’t too big for him. He played with the confidence of a seasoned veteran.
The former Toledo star broke up a third-and-six pass to Packers wide receiver Christian Watson and also broke up a second-and-10 pass to tight end Luke Musgrave and a first-down throw to wideout Dontayvion Wicks.
“He’s very calm and very confident, which you need to be to be at corner in this league,’’ Sirianni said. “His poise wasn’t surprising. He doesn’t get too up and he doesn’t get too down.
“He’s been able to go against AJ (Brown) and DeVonta (Smith) throughout camp. That’s obviously a huge advantage; that he gets to play against two of the best receivers in the game every day at practice.’’
That’s the good news. The bad news is the Packers amassed 414 yards and 29 points in the game, which is way too much. As bad as they were last year, the Eagles only gave up 414 or more yards five times.
As bad as they were, they only gave up 29 points or more six times.
The Packers rushed for 163 yards. Last year, the Eagles only gave up 160-plus rushing yards twice – in back-to-back weeks to Buffalo and Kansas City.
The defense gave up most of those 163 rushing yards on chunk plays. One hundred nineteen of those 163 yards came on five runs of 33-, 32-, 22-, 18- and 14-yard runs. Can’t keep happening if this team is serious about making a Super Bowl run.
“The one thing we need to clean up is our tackling,’’ Sirianni said. “We have to make sure we’re not giving them extra yards.
"That’s something that’s on our mind. We worked a lot on it throughout camp, but we have to keep working on it and being really diligent about that.”
A few players on the defense had underwhelming performances against the Packers and need to pick it up.
That includes defensive tackle Jordan Davis and edge rushers Bryce Huff and Nolan Smith.
Davis might as well have stayed home last week. If a 350-pound guy can be invisible, Davis was invisible against the Packers.
The 2022 first-rounder played just 35 snaps and didn’t make a dent in the stat sheet. Didn’t have a tackle or assist or hurry. He’s starting to look like a guy who wants to be a first-round bust.
Roseman’s big-ticket offseason acquisition, edge rusher Bryce Huff, who signed a three-year, $51 million free agent deal with the Eagles, also turned in a nothingburger performance Friday.
Roseman traded away incredibly productive Haason Reddick, who had notched 50 ½ sacks the previous four years but was about to turn 30, and signed the four-years-younger Huff, gambling that Huff could develop into an every-down edge-rusher and replace Reddick’s sack productivity.
In his first game with the Eagles, Huff played just 30 snaps and didn’t have a quarterback sack, hit or hurry.
The same with the second of the Eagles’ two 2022 first-round picks, edge rusher Nolan Smith. The undersized Smith had one sack in 188 defensive snaps as a rookie.
Against the Packers, in 31 snaps, he, like Huff, recorded goose eggs.
Fangio and the defense needs more, much, much more from both of them.*
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