How would YOU stop the Eagles’ 2011 offense?

Yesterday’s ESPN lead story was Marcellus Wiley’s proclaiming the Eagles’ 2011 offense as “the most explosive offense in the NFL”… Okay, let’s say that’s a given… So what would be the classic defensive counter to neutralize the Eagles?

First of all, there’s no way anyone can determine at this point whether there will be a 16-game regular season in 2011… some pundits are estimating an 8-game tour at best…so it’s somewhat silly to even speculate how good the Eagles offense can be this coming year. Even the greatest offensive groups in NFL history have taken two or three games to gel together… and what if the luxury of that learning curve is denied by a prolonged lockout?

If the regular season is played at all, which I think will eventually happen (if not entirely on schedule with traditional guidelines), then it’s safe to say the Eagles have a very good offensive foundation. But for Wiley and ESPN to proclaim them “the most explosive” at this point of the offseason is a stretch…

Besides, what good is “explosive” if you end up injured at key positions and fail to “peak” when the season’s most important end-games take place?

You can take the Eagles’ 2010 “Pink Zone” stats and make a case for the failure of “Explosive” to equate to “Winning” at the playoff level of competition…

Still, I get Wiley’s point. On paper, the Birds look pretty good on offense…with a few extra OL tweaks and a few less “drops” in the pass-receiving department. 

So how would you stop the Eagles’ offense on paper? If you were a defensive coordinator, given today’s opposing offensive roster of the Birds (and we’re not even going to factor in the possible addition of Plaxico Burress at this time), what would you call as a definitive game plan?

First thing I would do is call for an 8-man front.

I want no place for the Eagles to run the ball, and I want that dude Vick to feel like he’s got nowhere to escape inside or outside the tackles. In my gap-control defense, I have a defensive back come up every time to be the eighth man in the box.

And my linebackers will know where that extra man is for help in fighting that fullback block…

I better know where my gaps are, and I’ve got the A-gap strong and the B-gap with a flood run (the space between O-linemen is known as a “gap”…  Center/Guard space is known as the “A”-gap… Guard/Tackle is the B-gap….Tackle/End is the C-gap…End/Sideline is the D-gap…)

I’ll have a guy in the B-gap, with a 3 technique, and I’ll have an end in a 6… (The 3 and the 6 Techniques are outside shade protections, designed to keep Vick within reach if he tries to escape to the outside…Know your techniques, and you control the gap…Control the gap, and you control the game…)

Everything I do will be out of a Cover 2 Shell… “Cover 2” means that two safeties are each responsible for half of the deep field (which is a lot of turf to cover)…the shallower zone is generally split into 5 parts, each covered by a linebacker or a corner…

If my linebackers have to cover a guy like Shady McCoy coming out of the backfield or a tight end like Celek coming man-to-man off the line, they’ll make sure to read their patterns and carry their coverage into the deep zone to help their safeties out… 

I’ve got my middle linebacker on a “Run Through” option with an “Over 1” assignment… the Eagles won’t be able to account for him if it’s a pass play… Against a run, he’s got eight men in the box to fill the gaps…Against a pass play, the Eagles offensive protection can’t account for him on a blitz…and he’s got a chance to make a sack on the QB…

Yeah, that’s how I’d stop “the most explosive offense” in the NFL.

Now here are some of Wiley’s comments on the Eagles:

“You think about it, if you’re a defensive coordinator or a defensive lineman sitting there, it’s going to be a sleepless night. Let’s think about all the weapons they have at the top. Michael Vick. What other quarterback is this dynamic where you have to worry about him beating you with the deep ball and he can run just as well? LeSean McCoy. Then you talk about DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin. Team speed is such an issue for any team to defend.”

And there’s the rub.

Despite all my elaborate defensive plans, if you can outrun me in the 3rd and 4th quarters of a game, I’ve got limited resources. My game plan against you is only as good as the speed of my defenders at the end of the game.

I might outsmart you or outweigh you or outhustle you for much of the game… but sooner or later, if you’re healthy and in top condition, you can outrun me.

And that “team speed” is the real strength of the current model of the Philadelphia Eagles offense. The explosion you hear will be about speed…not power.