Issue To Tackle

PHILADELPHIA — Upon entering the home locker room deep within the confines of Lincoln Financial Field, one could hear a pin drop.

Third-year safety Reed Blankenship had already drawn a crowd at the foot of his locker, somberly answering for the defense’s shortcomings, none more notable than on the final Falcons drive, a game-winning march in which quarterback Kirk Cousins made mincemeat of the secondary, completing 5-of-6 pass attempts for 70 yards and a touchdown.

“Too leaky in our zones,” Blankenship reflected. “We let up too many yards, but at the end of the day we just gotta work on what we’ve been working on. [Eagles CB Darius] Slay, I love him to death. He didn’t bat an eye. He’s gonna get it right.”

Slay, the Eagles’ savvy veteran cornerback, is rarely tested in critical moments, with teams more keen on peppering the other side of the field.

But on the game-sealing 7-yard touchdown from Cousins to wide receiver Drake London, Slay was the culprit.

The final defensive series was a byproduct of what had slowly been brewing throughout an evening that was designated to commemorate the legacy of now-retired Eagles Super Bowl hero Nick Foles.

The reality is that Vic Fangio’s unit, absent of any semblance of a pass rush, again unveiled a porous run defense and proved vulnerable in the teeth of the defense.

The defense bent to the point of breaking.

While some of those issues aren’t as easily correctable in-game compared to some of the more moderate alterations, perhaps the most glaring, persistent challenge for Fangio’s bunch continues to be an inability to tackle consistently.

In the season opener, Packers running back Josh Jacobs and wide receiver Jayden Reed both victimized the Eagles’ run defense, making the Eagles pay for their poor angles and falures to wrap up.

On Monday night, Falcons rising star running back Bijan Robinson sliced his way through the heart of the unit with little resistance.

GETTY IMAGES: Eagles CB Avonte Maddox (29) struggles to wrap up Falcons RB Bijan Robinson on Monday night.

Though I’m not sure the listless tackling can be blamed on substandard effort, as it’s become a league-wide trend, it boils down to being fundamentally sound, desire and want-to.

And for a defense designed to limit explosive plays but, to this point, hasn’t pressured opposing quarterbacks, it’s the finer details that become paramount and magnified.

The defense underwhelmed and must go back to the drawing board for solutions on a short week.

It’s fair to suggest not all of the imperfections are rectifiable ahead of a Week 3 clash with the upstart New Orleans Saints, but shoddy tackling is one of the blemishes that can be curtailed quickly.

“We gotta go in with that mentality,” said Blankenship, a standout in the opener in São Paulo, Brazil, who stood out for opposite reasons against the Falcons.

“I mean, we have it. We have the guys that wanna tackle,” he said. “It’s the basic form of football. We just gotta get the guy down at the end of the day.”

Unlike the 2023 Eagles, this version is navigating early season adversity, a true test in gauging the response, inner workings and strength of the locker room.

So far, it appears there hasn’t been any finger-pointing or fracture.

The late-game implosion against Atlanta instead appears to have represented a galvanizing setback, leaving the Eagles primed for a return to form.

According to Blankenship, the Eagles are player-led, which presumably means they’re big on leadership and accountability.

Rather than be taken to task with an impassioned post-game message from any of the coaches, the Eagles had the message delivered to them by the player shouldering the greatest burden.

“Jalen [Hurts] led everything,” Blankenship said. “No coach said a word. It’s a player-led team at the end of the day.

“We know what we did was on us. We made mistakes, offense and defense. It’s gonna take everybody.”

– Andrew DiCecco (@AndrewDiCecco) is a Staff Reporter/Content Producer for InsideTheBirds.com.