Eagles players know they must be better against the run after Bijan Robinson gashed them Monday night.
“It’s something that we need to fix right now,” Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday. “It’s not something you gradually get to. It’s f—— you get this s— done right now with tackling and everything.”
The Eagles have missed nine tackles in two games, per Pro Football Focus.
“There’s no lack of physicality,” safety Reed Blankenship said. “I would never question any of our guys’ physicality on this team. It’s just a fundamental [issue]. Obviously, people don’t realize that tackling is a basic thing that you have to do, and there’s a certain way you gotta do it.
“At the end of the day, we just got to get the guy down and swarm to the ball. One of our main goals going into this game [is to] just swarm to the ball. So if a guy does miss a tackle, another guy is there to make it right after him, so it’s not like a five, six-yard again after that. So it’s a one-yard gain or a half-yard gain.”
The Eagles’ run defense could be in for another rough ride on Sunday against Alvin Kamara, who has been dynamite running the outside zone scheme from new coordinator Klint Kubiak. Kamara leads the NFL with 290 scrimmage yards and five scrimmage TDs. The veteran running back generated 115 rush yards, three rush TDs, 65 receiving yards, and a TD catch in Week 2 at Dallas.
Seeing Kamara scamper all over its defense wouldn’t be a new sight for Eagles fans. Week 3 will be Kamara’s fifth game versus the Eagles in his career (including playoffs). He has had 80-plus scrimmage yards in every game versus Philly.