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Philadephia native D’Andre Swift gashed the Eagles for 144 rushing yards on Sunday and Detroit accounted for three scores on the ground. Inspired by assistant coach Duce Staley, the Lions were literally “smacking” the Eagles in the mouth to start the game.
Things settled down a bit, but the defense never seemed completely comfortable. The Lions finished with 181 total rushing yards on 28 carries, or 6.5 yards per carry. Tackles were missed. Touchdowns were scored. Muscles were flexed.
Eagles linebacker T.J. Edwards promised to watch the tape and clean it up. He and his teammates were anxious to get back in the lab following a 38-35 win to start the season — a win that wasn’t the dominant performance everyone had expected.
“We gotta be better at tackling. Like I said, I don’t know all that happened, all the missed tackles you’re talking about,” said Edwards who finished with 5 tackles. “We gotta get back to what we do. Get back in the lab tomorrow and we’ll correct what we need to correct. But I thought the energy was great, the effort was great, we’ll get right back to it.”
New safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson stepped right into a starting role and played 67 snaps. He admitted the tackling needs to be better, but pointed to the standings. The Eagles are 1-0. Not bad for his first week in midnight green.
“First game as an Eagle? Great,” Gardner-Johnson said. “I mean, it’s a lot of improvement. First game, we gotta work on our tackling, but everything as a whole, we looked good. Gotta work on stopping the run but it’s football. Coach called a good gameplan on both sides of the ball. Players played … we played our asses off.”
Jordan Davis Gets Only 22 Snaps in Eagles Debut
First-round pick Jordan Davis saw only 22 snaps in his Eagles debut. His name was curiously trending on Twitter early on Sunday as people wondered if he was hurt. No, he was 100% healthy. Davis is still growing into his role and getting acclimated to the scheme.
“It’s about my role. I’m a role player this year,” Davis told reporters. “So just learning everything, getting acclimated to the game. It’s my rookie season. I got a lot of guys that can help me. At the end of the day, it’s just one of those things, take it day by day.”
So, why wasn’t defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon using Davis? Especially in five-man fronts on obvious running downs. The 6-foot-6, 340-pound monster had drawn double teams on almost every snap in the preseason. The Eagles are still experimenting on how best to use their “freak show.”
“Conditioning wise I feel great,” Davis said. “It’s a journey, we keep working, and it’s not the end of the season, it’s only the start. You must keep climbing, you keep grinding, and at the end of the day, you let the results speak for itself.”
Blocking Out Noisy Detroit Crowd: ‘It Was Loud’
The crowd noise at Ford Field in Detroit played a major factor in flustering the Eagles on Sunday. It marked the first time since 2017 that the Lions were down to standing-room-only tickets for a non-Thanksgiving game. The sold-out stadium was deafening, with a boisterous crowd screaming on every offensive possession for Philly.
The noise was so loud that head coach Nick Sirianni had a hard time getting the signals in at times. And Jalen Hurts was doing his best to relay the calls to his teammates in the huddle.
“It was loud, and you know what, the Lions, the people of Detroit, they came out for this game,” Sirianni said, “and we obviously knew it was going to be like that. We knew about the sellout and we knew it was going to be like that. We practiced the crowd noise. I’ll have to see if I can get the equipment guys to turn it up even louder. It was rocking in there.”
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