Brad Mills- USA TODAY Sports
As we all watched Monday Night Football’s match-up of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Redskins, we noticed a lot of things as the game went on. As far as defense is concerned, the Eagles showed a lot more blitzes than we are used to seeing. The Birds were able to get three sacks and hit Robert Griffin III nine times which was good to see.
New defensive coordinator Billy Davis dialed up blitzes on numerous occasions to get pressure on RG3 to rattle the second-year vet. These weren’t just normal blitzes either, as they were from players who were playing all over the field from all different positions. There were times where we saw Connor Barwin move from the left side to the right side but then wind up blitzing right up the middle. It created confusion among the offensive linemen for the Redskins and resulted pressure on RG3.
The area where the Eagles blitzed the most was right up the middle. Players like DeMeco Ryans and Mychal Kendricks were able to blitz up the middle and scrape clean on a lot of plays and were able to sack, hurry, or even put a good hit on RG3. Kendricks showcased his speed when he blitzed. This kid is unbelievably fast for a linebacker, and you can definitely bet that Davis has a lot of blitz plays for Kendricks this season.
Another type of blitz that we saw a lot on Monday night were secondary blitzes. We haven’t seen these types of blitzes probably since the Jim Johnson era. Johnson used to love to bring Brian Dawkins, Lito Sheppard, and Sheldon Brown on blitz plays to mix things up a bit, and all three of these players had a good amount of sacks at the end of their careers thanks to Johnson. It seems like Davis might want to start doing that. Numerous times we saw Cary Williams, Patrick Chung, and especially Brandon Boykin blitz the quarterback from all different angles. There were were countless times where Boykin blitzed back-to-back plays and was able to put heat on RG3.
This was a good change of pace for the defense. Over the past three seasons the Eagles haven’t blitzed as much as the fans would like to see. However, from what I saw on Monday night, it looks like those days are over since Davis enjoys bringing extra guys to get to the quarterback.
Sonny Bryan is a Philadelphia Eagles writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @SonnyBryan50
