The biggest concern I had to the start of the season was the addition of both a new Offensive and Defensive Coordinator. In fact, we’ve seemed to have swapped a poor DC (Gannon) for a vastly improved one in Desai. And traded down from a great OC (Steichen) for a gradually improving Johnson, who seems to struggle in utilizing all the elements of the offense. This is surprising given the fact that we replaced a number of starting positions on the defense (DT, LB, LB, S, S), and essentially returned the same look on the offensive side of the ball save for RG. Listed below are the stats from the 2022 Defense as compared to this year’s defense through 7 games.

Eagles Defensive Performance ’22 vs ’23 (Week 9)

’22: Record 14-3

’23: Record 8-1 (Prediction 13-4)

’22: Yards per Season: (Total: 5,125 | Pass: 3,057 | Run: 2,068)

’23: Yards per Season: (Total: 2,910 | Pass: 2,313 | Run: 597) | Stat Projection: (Total: 5,496| Pass: 4,369 | Run: 1,127)

’22: Average Yards per Game: (Total: 301.4 | Pass: 179.8 | Run: 121.6)

’23: Average Yards per Game: (Total: 323.3 | Pass: 257 | Run: 66.3)

’22: Average Yards per Play: (Total: 5.11 | Pass: 5.49 (NY/A: 4.9) | Run: 4.63) 1,002 Plays

’23: Average Yards per Play: (Total: 5.27 | Pass: 6.38 (NY/A: 5.9) | Run: 3.73) 552 Plays

’22: Points Given Up: 323 (0 Shutouts / 19 Team Turnovers)

’23: Points Given Up: 181 (0 Shutouts / 13 Team Turnovers) |Stat Projection: 341

’22: TDs Allowed: 37 (Rushing: 15 / Passing: 22)

’23: TDs Allowed: 22 (Rushing: 3 / Passing: 19) | Stat Projection: 41

’22: Average Points per game: 19

’23: Average Points per game: 20.1

’22: Total Defensive Tackles: 1,099

’23: Total Defensive Tackles: 520 | Stat Projection: 982

’22: Tackles for Loss: 97

’23: Tackles for Loss: 45 | Stat Projection: 85

’22: Passes Defensed: 85

’23: Passes Defensed: 40 | Stat Projection: 75

’22: QB Hits: 124

’23: QB Hits: 71 | Stat Projection: 134.1

’22: Sacks: 70

’23: Sacks: 30 | Stat Projection: 56

’22: Safety: 0

’23: Safety: 1 | Stat Projection: 2

’22: Takeaways: 26 (INTs: 17 | FF: 15 | FR: 10)

’23: Takeaways: 15 (INTs: 4 | FF: 11 | FR: 11) | Stat Projection: 28 (INTs: 7 | FF: 20 |FR: 20)

Finally, last year the team made a run on the sack record, which we were so close to breaking. This year, the defense has a chance at another record at this moment. In 2000, the Baltimore Ravens posted the fewest rushing yards allowed in a 16-game season (970). If you post the average to their season, a 17-game season would have posted 1,030.6 yards. At the moment, the Eagles are on pace to post 1,067 yards for the season.

2000 Ravens - Yards: 970 (1,030.6): Att: 361 | Yards: 60.6 | Ave: 2.68 (16 Games)

2000 Ravens - Yards: 970 (1,030.6): Att: 158 | Yards: 405 | Ave: 2.78 (7 Games)

2023 Eagles - Yards: 440 (1,067.6): Att: 123 | Yards: 440 | Ave: 3.57 (7 Games)

Below are the opponents that both the ’00 Ravens and ’23 Eagles have faced, and where the ranked rushing. Those bolded are who they’ve faced in the first 7 games.

’00 Raven’s Rushing Opponents: (Steelers: 4th| Jaguars: 10th| Dolphins: 14th| Bengals: 2nd| Browns: 31st| Jaguars: 10th| Commanders: 19th| Titans: 7th| Steelers: 4th| Bengals: 2nd| Titans: 7th| Cowboys: 12th| Browns: 31st| Chargers: 32nd| Cardinals: 28th| Jets: 25th)

Raven’s Opponents Ranked Rushing: 2/2/4/4/7/7/10/10/12/14/19/25/28/31/31/32

’23 Eagle’s Rushing Opponents: (Patriots: 24th| Vikings: 29th| Bucs: 26th| Commanders: 23rd| Rams: 13th| Jets: 17th| Dolphins: 1st| Commanders: 23rd| Cowboys: 16th| Chiefs: 15th| Bills: 7th|49ers: 6th| Cowboys: 16rd| Seahawks: 22nd| Giants: 18th| Cardinals: 5th| Giants: 18th)

Eagle’s Opponents Ranked Rushing: 1/5/6/7/13/15/16/16/17/18/18/22/23/23/24/26/29

Now don’t get me wrong. The Ravens locked down the Bengals, who ranked 2nd that year in rushing, and only allowed 4 yards in the game on 16 carries. The Eagles faced off against this year’s best rushing team (Miami) and allowed 45 yards on 12 carries. Only time will tell if the defense can keep the running game of opponents locked down to challenge the record.