Eagles' pass rush searching for answers after dismal performance vs. Falcons

Josh Sweat searched for the words. And searched.

But he had trouble finding an answer as he stood in his corner of a stunned locker room quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

What the heck is wrong with the Eagles’ pass rush?

“I don’t know,” Sweat said. “We’re not on the same page, man. We gotta be together. Ain’t on the same page. That’s all I can say. We’re just not rushing together.”

The Eagles lost 22-21 to the Falcons on Monday Night Football in devastating fashion. Nick Sirianni made some highly questionable decisions, Saquon Barkley dropped a huge pass and Darius Slay gave up a game-winning touchdown.

But the most concerning thing coming out of this loss is the complete lack of pass rush from the Eagles’ defensive line.

Through two games, it has been nearly non-existent.

“We’ve gotta be disruptive,” veteran Brandon Graham said. “We didn’t come through today, especially against the run. We know what we need to work on. I think it’s a good challenge for all of us. Dang, we lost that one. That’s all I can really say. We lost that one today. It’s on us as a defense.”

The Eagles on Monday night faced Kirk Cousins in his second game coming back from an Achilles injury. Cousins has never been very mobile and in Week 1 the Steelers were all over him with 12 pressures.

But against the Eagles, Cousins looked mighty comfortable in the pocket. He was sacked just one time for 8 yards; a nice play by Milton Williams, but just one play.

If this game was a test for the Eagles’ defensive linemen … they failed.

And it was never more apparent than on the final drive of the game, when Cousins carved up the Eagles, who barely pressured him at all. The Falcons went 70 yards on 6 plays in just 1:05 to score a game-winning touchdown.

“I have no words for that. Unacceptable,” Sweat said about the last drive. “I ain’t got no words for that. That’s crazy. Hopefully, we get it right.”

It was easy to excuse the defensive line’s performance in Week 1. After all, it looked like they were playing on an ice rink in São Paulo. But there was nothing wrong with the field at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday night aside from the empty amount of grass Cousins seemed to have around him at all times.

Through two games, the Eagles’ defense has three sacks: One from Williams on Monday night and two from linebacker Zack Baun in the opener. No sacks so far for Sweat, Bryce Huff, Brandon Graham, Nolan Smith, Jalen Carter or Jordan Davis.

Even though he hasn’t piled up a bunch of stats, Graham might be the Eagles’ best edge rusher right now. And he’s a 36-year-old in his 15th and final season … so that’s not great.

It has been a particularly rough start for the newcomer Huff. The Eagles this offseason signed Huff to a three-year, $51 million deal and he is basically replacing Haason Reddick, who was traded to the Jets. Huff has just 1 assist on a tackle through two games.

Huff knows he needs to be better.

“Honestly, at this point in time, I’m trying to do everything I can to get home. I don’t care what it is,” Huff said. “I’m going to talk to my coach, ‘We gotta make some s— at the end of the day. 

“You do [feel] that pressure. I know what they brought me here for and I know what I’ve done in the past. So I’ve gotta figure out what I need to do as an individual and what we need to do as a unit to get that pressure. My whole focus is getting better and getting us to the point where we’re clicking and we’re getting home.”

Sweat said the Eagles have to do a better job of rushing together and Huff agreed with that assessment. Group rush was a talking point from the coaching staff this training camp and we haven’t really seen it yet.

“We’ve got to do a better job of building some chemistry of really having that unit rush and getting home,” Huff said. “They’re doing things to attack us on the edge so we’ve got to work with our guys on the inside to free us all up. It’s something that we’re going to have to come together as a unit and get better at. Communication, executing plays and just mixing it up so we can get some pressure.”

Part of the problem for the Eagles’ pass rush on Monday night was that they were awful against the run. Bijan Robinson had 97 yards on 14 carries and Tyler Allgeier had 53 on 9. Through two weeks, the Eagles have now given up 315 rushing yards.

“Everybody got a gap, everybody got a fit, everybody has an assignment,” Sweat said. “Boom. If it ain’t there, they gonna find it. They’re good players. They gonna find our mistakes if we make them. It’s going to happen.”

The more you get gashed on the ground, the fewer obvious passing situations you face. And the fewer opportunities defensive linemen have to pin their ears back.

That was Sirianni’s quick assessment after the game.

“Sometimes you have to earn the right to rush, meaning you have got to have them in passing situations,” Sirianni said. “Didn’t seem like we had some passing situations today. They were in third and manageable or second and manageable. So sometimes you have to earn the right to rush.”

Entering the 2024 season, the Eagles’ pass rush was already a big question mark. They no longer have Reddick or Fletcher Cox, who had been two of their best defensive linemen the last couple of seasons.

After a slow start to the 2024 campaign, the Eagles are obviously hungry to get after quarterbacks. But they have to make sure they don’t come at the cost of sound defense. Basically, players can’t freelance and go hunting for sacks.

“We always talk about don’t reach,” Graham said. “Don’t try to make somebody else’s play just because you’re frustrated because stuff didn’t come. Stay the course and I know for us we just gotta stay the course and take advantage of when those opportunities come, make sure you make your play.”

That gets back to the idea of group rush.

As Sweat explained it, that means not allowing escapes, setting the edge, taking care of the B-gap, getting knock back off the snap and more.

How do they fix it?

“Go back and practice. S—, that’s all we can really do,” Sweat said. “We can talk all we want but if we ain’t going to do it together, it ain’t going to happen.”

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