Holy Santa Claus shit we have finally found a corner back who can tackle. He's actually been pretty good in coverage the past 2 weeks as well. You have to think he has won the job from Hobbs right?


First of all I'd just like to go back to when JJ was trotting out defenses that were unstoppable. This one clearly isn't there yet, but it is following the same blueprint.

Back in the 2000-02 era, basically our gameplan was to have a stud DE(Hugh Douglas) and a bunch of rotational guys, a physical MLB in Trott, a not so physical cover corner(Taylor), and a corner who could tackle and play physical(Vincent). We had solid safety play back then as well with Dawk and I believe Damon Moore/Blaine Bishop.

Fast forward a few years and Trot returned, Kearse was tearing it up for us in 2004, Lito was the cover guy and Sheldon was the physical corner who held the edge against the run. Dawk and Michael Lewis were a great safety pair for 2-3 years before Lewis up and sucked. 

Even as recently as the 2008 season we had a great defense with the same basic plan. Cole killing people at DE, Bradley at MLB, Sheldon playing a physical corner on one side and Asante generating turnovers on the other. Dawk and Mikell made up a great safety pair that year as well.

Last year it all fell apart, Bradley got hurt, we never replaced Dawk, Sheldon wasn't himself after numerous injuries and the defense basically went to hell. We couldn't stop the run, we had no pass rush and we couldn't cover anybody. In short, we sucked.

But with the emergence of Patterson(No, seriously, we just saw a CB make a form tackle the other night, CB ---> Form tackle... unthinkable 3 weeks ago) you can kind of see a rebuilding of this model. Bradley is the physical middle LB, Cole is the best DE in football right now, Allen isn't Dawk but he is a promising young player who hopefully can get over the inury and improve as the year goes along, Mikell is deserving of the Pro Bowl, Asante has had a very good year, but one of our glaring weaknesses was the terrible play of the RCB. If Patterson can lock down that job, and be a physical, reliable CB I don't see why our defense can't get back to a dominant level. It won't be the league leader this year, but this is a young defense that in my opinion has a chance to really put together 3-4 years of shutdown play. Patterson looks like he was one of the missing links, along with the improved play of Nate Allen.

I know I am oversimplifying the hell out of this, leaving out some great players at important positions. However the Eagles have always kind of rotated guys at OLB and DT. This team is probably not making a run at any sort of top 5 ranking  this year, but it is forcing turnovers and generating pressure. If Patterson and Allen can fill the roles the Eagles defense relies on then I don't see why we can't expect excellent defense the next 7 weeks and hopefully into the playoffs.