Eagles' defense starting to resemble legendary 1991 unit

If you were around to see the legendary 1991 Eagles defense, you might be having flashbacks these days.

After shutting down the Rams and their high-powered passing game Sunday night, the Eagles have now gone seven straight games allowing fewer than 300 yards and allowed an average of just 222 yards and 12.6 points per game during that span.

That’s the fewest yards per game the Eagles have allowed in a seven-game stretch since 1991, when the Eagles were No. 1 in the NFL against both the pass and the run and allowed … 222 yards per game.

This group isn’t quite there, but 11 games into the season they are No. 3 against the pass, No. 7 against the run and No. 1 overall.

Last time they finished a season ranked No. 1? That was 1991.

That was a veteran group loaded with all-pros and a Hall of Famer (or two hopefully soon) that had been together for years. 

Wes Hopkins was in his ninth year with the Eagles, Andre Waters was in his eighth, Reggie White in his seventh, Seth Joyner and Clyde Simmons in their sixth, Jerome Brown and Byron Evans in their fifth, Eric Allen in his fourth.

Bud Carson came in as defensive coordinator and had that group playing at an unprecedented level. The 222 yards per game they allowed remains the fewest ever by any NFL team in a 16-game (or 17-game) season.

Like 1991, this group has a new defensive coordinator, a grizzled veteran, who's near the end of a brilliant coaching career.

What makes Vic Fangio's group so remarkable is its youth and inexperience – it’s the youngest defense in the NFL and is loaded with guys just getting started in the NFL. Neither Zach Baun nor Nakobe Dean had ever been starting linebackers before. Cooper DeJean, Quinyon Mitchell are rookies. Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith weren’t starters last year. C.J. Gardner-Johnson is back after a year in Detroit. 

Now they’re all key members of the NFL’s top defense. 

This group plays with the chemistry and togetherness you expect from a unit that’s been together for years, like the 1991 defense. But the reality is that they’ve been together for just a few months. To play at such a consistently high level in their first together is mind-blowing.

There’s no apparent weakness on this defense. 

Up front, they’re disruptive and stout. During the seven-game winning streak, the Eagles lead the NFL with 27 sacks, and they’ve held seven straight teams to 100 or fewer rushing yards, something no Eagles defense had done since … of course, 1991.

Their linebackers are making plays at a rate we haven’t seen around here since William Thomas and Joyner overlapped for a few years, starting in … 1991. Baun and Dean have combined for 189 tackles, five sacks, 14 tackles for loss, two interceptions, eight quarterback hits, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. Linebackers around here just don’t do those sorts of things. At least, not lately.

And this secondary? They just don’t give quarterbacks anything. No easy throws, no big plays. The Eagles have still not lost a game since DeJean became a starter, and in those seven games they’re allowing an absurd 140 passing yards per game – 70 fewer per game than any other team. 

The Eagles are winning just as much with their defense as with their otherworldly running attack. And that combination – a defense that’s allowed seven meaningful touchdowns in its last seven games and a running attack that’s averaging 216 yards during the seven-game winning streak – is a tough one to beat. Impossible the last seven weeks.

You figured the Eagles would be next-level running the ball with this offensive line and Saquon Barkley. Maybe not at this level, but you knew the potential was there.

But the defense?

This was the 26^th-ranked defense in the NFL last year, and over the last seven weeks it was 31^st. The transformation of this unit from an old, lumbering, disinterested disaster into a fast, young, athletic playmaking machine has been astonishing.

And their performance Sunday night may not have been their best statistically, but 59 minutes into the game the Eagles had allowed 222 yards and 14 points to an offense that had been rolling. During one stretch of seven drives, the Rams managed seven points and 130 yards and during that span the Eagles went from trailing 7-0 to leading 37-14. 

Like a week earlier against Washington, a touchdown in the final minute – this one with the Eagles’ backups on the field - skewed the stats a little. But any way you measure it, this is the best defense in the NFL and the finest stretch of defense we’ve seen around here in more than three decades.

They’ve already shut down three top-10 offenses this year – No. 5 Green Bay, No. 6 Washington, No. 9 Cincinnati. The challenge gets much greater Sunday in Baltimore when Eagles face Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the NFL’s top-ranked offense (going into Monday night).

It’ll be quite a challenge, but this group has answered every challenge it's faced since September. 

They haven’t done anything but get better and better the more time they’ve spent together. Really, they’re just getting started. It’s scary to think where they can go from here.

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