A Tale Of Two Defenses

I know it’s about time to move on to Green Bay but I need to get this out of my system. I’ll be the first to admit that as I watched the points pile up on Monday night, I was yelling “Come on D…stop someone, make a play!” The lead kept going back and forth and I was 100% sure that whoever had the ball last would win. That’s usually what happens with shoot outs. That’s not how it ended and we came away with the win but I remember thinking, “Why did we bring in Zach? Let Pacman become Adam with a second chance? Draft a DB instead of a WR? Give Hamlin the payday he gambled 1 season on? So that someone can hang 37 on us….at home? We shouldn’t have to score 41 points to win. What happened to our D?”

If you felt the same way, that’s completely understandable. But it’s been almost 3 days now. There’s been plenty of time to digest, analyze and break down all aspects of this instant classic and there’s something that’s been bugging the crap out of me... after ALL the dissecting of this game, it seems like very few outside of the family (and some in the family) want to give our D props. They see 37 points as an automatic sign of no defense. Heck, Peter King actually gave props to the Philly D…and they gave up 41! Look, 37 IS a big number but I’m telling you…something happened in that locker room at half time. Something clicked. Something came together. Something lit a fire. Veterans stepped up. Rookies grew up. I don’t exactly know. What I do know is that the D that went into that locker room at the half wasn’t the same one that came back out. And that 2nd half D made the difference in our win. If you can look past the number 37 for just a bit, I’ll tell you what I mean.

Now, I’ll give Philly the 7 points on the Romo fumble, the 3 points on the opening KO that went OB and 3 more points on the Romo pick. I’ll give them the 108 yards worth of penalties we had that extended their drives. I’ll even give them the points from horribly bad officiating. I’ll pin all these points and advantages on the defensive side of the ledger because it makes my point THAT much stronger…something happened in that locker room at half time. It had to. Here we go…

Philly hung 37 points on us. Yeah, yeah BUT 30 of those came in the first half. In the second half they only scored 7 points and were shut out for the entire 3rd quarter and the first 5 minutes of the 4th quarter. Something happened in that locker room.

In the first half, Westbrook, arguably the league’s most dangerous back, had 45 yards on 13 carries. In the second half…he only had 13 yards on 5 carries. As a team the Eagles had 56 yards rushing in the first half. In the second half they had just 22. It was still a close game after the half but for some reason, Philly chose to abandon the run. Why? Something happened in that locker room at half time. Philly saw a different defense and they knew it.

Philly had 181 yards passing in the first half. But in the second half, our D cut that number to 100 yards. This was AFTER Philly abandoned the run to attack us through the air. As a matter of fact, Philly had 222 yards of total offense in the first half compared to only 115 yards in the second half. Something happened in that locker room at half time and our D came out and cut Philly’s offensive production off at the knees…on the ground AND in the air.    

Throughout the game, the MNF announcers were gushing about McNabb’s mobility/escape ability and his strength to carry linebackers and linemen on his back without going down. They even drooled over his “Favre like” underhanded flip to Westbrook (where he was past the LOS by the way). Well you know what? McNabb wasn’t playing Houdini / Hercules back there because he WANTED to, he did it because he HAD to! Why? Pressure…especially in the second half. Something happened in that locker room at half time, I’m telling you.

Time of possession for the whole game was separated by about 2 minutes in favor of the Eagles BUT if you look at it by halves, Philly held the ball for 18:30 to our 11:30 in the first half. In the second half, flip the script. We held the ball for 17:32, Philly had it for 12:28. Our D got off the field and got the ball to our O and they controlled the clock when it mattered.

Last one. The Eagles were in our Red Zone 5 times during the game… 4 of those came in the first half. They only sniffed our Red Zone 1 time in the entire second half.

Good teams can come out and impose their wills on the opposition but I think that great teams are the ones that can also make the adjustments during the game that take their opponents out of their game. This is clearly what we saw on Monday night in the second half. Something happened in that locker room at half time and looking back now, past the emotion and excitement of the first half, past the Romo wrecks, past the 37 points on the score board, the second half D that showed up, the “other” D, is a big reason for our win. How you start isn’t nearly as important as how you finish and finish is EXACTLY what they did on Monday night. Let’s give the defense their props because they sure as hell earned it. Props to you D, thanks.

Nuff said…onto Lambeau Field.