National Football League

Eagles Notebook: Eagles defense a running joke no longer

Published Oct. 18, 2010 10:14 a.m. ET

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The Eagles' defense really needed this, after the early beating the Redskins inflicted 2 weeks ago, after the unseemly late-game foldup last week at San Francisco that made a solid win a nail-biter.

Atlanta's first five possessions yesterday, the Falcons managed two first downs. The score was 21-0 before Matt Ryan got cranking, and the Eagles, going back to the Jim Johnson days, are in their element when they force a run-first team to throw. The Falcons briefly got back into it late in the first half on a touchdown set up by an interception, but the team that led the league in possession time had the ball just 25 minutes, 57 seconds to the Eagles' 34:03. After watching the 49ers convert eight of 13 third downs last week, the Eagles held the Falcons to four of 14, two of eight in the first half, when it still mattered.

The Falcons' ground game came in ranked second in the league, but it left the Linc with just 65 yards on 19 carries and a long run of 9.

"The biggest thing was, I didn't want them to keep the ball away from our offense," defensive coordinator Sean McDermott said after his unit held Michael Turner to 45 yards on 15 carries, despite missing starting defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley. Antonio Dixon started in Bunkley's place, for the first time in his career, and was impressive, with lots of help from Trevor Laws and Darryl Tapp. "I wanted us to give our offense a chance, and our players did that, our defensive line and linebackers stepped up, our secondary, and held them to 65 yards on the run game, gave our offense a chance to score."

"If anybody tells me we can't stop the run, we showed them right there," said defensive end Trent Cole, credited with two sacks and five tackles.

Laws said: "People played their assignments. No one was giving up the edge. Ends, as well as linebackers, were setting the edge, waiting for the ball to cut back. D-tackles, they were in their gaps. No one was getting out of their lanes. We played real disciplined in the run game."

One of McDermott's biggest early season moves came before the San Francisco game, when he reinstated Moise Fokou at strongside linebacker, in place of Akeem Jordan. Fokou forced a fumble last week, and managed four tackles yesterday.

"I always had it in me. Just now I'm a lot more comfortable out there," said Fokou, who started four games last season as a seventh-round rookie.

"We kind of had to" shut the Falcons down right away, he said. "A couple of weeks ago vs. the Redskins we were kind of flat in the first quarter. We knew we had to come out here and jump on 'em early."

"We're a work in progress," said McDermott, whose group entered the day 24th in the NFL against the run, improved from 27th the week before. "We've got a lot of new faces. We're going to continue to work hard each and every week, push this defense in the right direction."

McDermott said the Eagles decided they were OK with just three healthy defensive tackles because they could use Tapp and third-round rookie Daniel Te'o-Nesheim, active for the first time, as defensive ends playing inside in passing situations.

Trouble afoot

If there's one thing you don't expect, it's David Akers missing three field goals, mostly because it had never happened before yesterday, in Akers' 178-game Eagles career. But miss he did, wide left each time, all at the same (south) uprights, twice from 37 yards and once from 47. It figures something like this would happen on the day Bobby April's coverage and return teams finally got the upper hand. Akers eventually set the final score, also to the south end, from 30 yards.

Eagles coach Andy Reid said the wind shifted during the game and was swirling in the south end, where Atlanta's Matt Bryant plonked a 41-yarder off the left upright. (Bryant defeated the Eagles with a 62-yard field goal when he was playing for Tampa Bay in 2006, you might recall.)

"It was a bad day. That's all I can say," Akers said. "It was frustrating. I get down on myself for not performing at a high level. I demand better out of myself and my teammates should demand better out of me. I'm just thrilled that Kevin [Kolb] did such a good job out there as quarterback, and a lot of other guys played extremely well, and my misses didn't end up costing the game.

"I've never had a day like today, so it's frustrating."

Birdseed

That Matt Ryan fumble that Trent Cole forced and Darryl Tapp recovered late in the game sure looked like a pass, but the Falcons were out of timeouts and couldn't challenge . . . Wide receiver Riley Cooper (concussion) was inactive . . . Jorrick Calvin set up a touchdown with a 44-yard punt return right after DeSean Jackson went down with a concussion . . . Asante Samuel intercepted a pass in his return from missing last week's game with a concussion . . . Andy Reid is 8-1 against the Falcons . . . Two weeks in a row now, the Eagles have scored on their first drive . . . The total of 474 net yards was the Eagles' highest of the season.

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