Eagles dial back the blitz

To blitz or not to blitz - that was often the question when Jim Johnson and Sean McDermott were calling plays for the Eagles defense.

The former defensive coordinators dialed up blitzes with so much frequency that it really was a question of whether they would or wouldn't.

But those aggressive pass-rushing defenses, after 12 seasons of Johnson-McDermott rule, are all but a memory now.

The defense of Juan Castillo rarely blitzes. In their 34-7 drubbing of the Cowboys, for instance, the Eagles blitzed just four times out of 40 pass plays.

Some of that is the scheme, but mostly it's because the first-year coordinator just doesn't have to send extra pass-rushers after quarterbacks. When your defensive line is generating enough pressure, why take one or more of the back seven away from pass coverage?

All 22 of the Eagles' sacks this season - they are fourth in the NFL in sacks per pass play - have come from defensive linemen. Jason Babin has nine, Cullen Jenkins five, Trent Cole four, Darryl Tapp two, Trevor Laws one, and Mike Patterson one.

This was by design.

After firing McDermott in January, the first coaching move Andy Reid made was to lure defensive line coach Jim Washburn away from Tennessee. Washburn had said before that if a team has to blitz more than necessary, then its front four isn't doing its job.

A few weeks after Washburn was hired, Castillo was named coordinator. At an introductory news conference in February, it became clear that Castillo would adopt a more conservative approach than his predecessors.

Simplification was the buzz word.

"If you blitz all the time," Washburn said then, "you'll get killed."

And so the Eagles have blitzed dramatically less this season. There aren't official statistics that document when teams blitz, but the website Pro Football Focus logs the number of times defenders pass-rush.

Based on its tally, Eagles linebackers, safeties, and cornerbacks have blitzed a total of 78 times this season. The number of times the Eagles actually blitzed is lower, since the figure doesn't take into account multiple pass-rushers beyond the defensive linemen.

Still, the number of individual blitzes projects to only 178 over 16 games. Last season, according to Pro Football Focus, McDermott sent one of his back seven after the quarterback on pass plays 497 times. The year before, he blitzed a player 592 times. In 2008, Johnson's last season, he sent an extra pass rusher 490 times.