The Philadelphia Eagles dropped to 1-3 on the season after losing to the Washington Redskins by the score of 23-20 on Sunday.
On Tuesday, defensive coordinator Bill Davis and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur reflected their thoughts about Sunday's loss.
The Eagles were unable to sack or force Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins to throw an interception on Sunday. Davis says that is because the Redskins were running a lot of quick passes, much like the Eagles should expect this week from the New Orleans Saints.
Davis pointed out that the biggest issue with the defense against the Redskins was getting off of the field on third downs. The Redskins converted first downs on nine of 17 attempts. One of the worst plays for the Eagles defense came on the first possession of the game, when they allowed running back Chris Thompson to break out for a 43-yard run on a 3rd-and-19. The Redskins eventually took a 3-0 lead on that drive.
The Eagles were up by the score of 20-16 late in the fourth quarter. The Redskins drove down the field on a 15-play 90-yard to take a 23-20 lead, which was ultimately the final score of the game.
Davis says that Cousins made a perfect throw on the four-yard touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon in the waning moments of the fourth quarter to give Washington to victory. According to Davis, if the ball was thrown behind Garcon at all, Walter Thurmond would have probably intercepted the pass.
The Eagles defense was on the field for over 79 plays on Sunday. Although the defense was on the field for over 41 minutes of the game, Davis believes that the defense wasn't too tired to win the game at the end.
"I hope that the next 12 games come down to that scenario, because I think we'll win every time," Davis said.
With starting right guard Andrew Gardner placed on the injured reserved last week, the Eagles offensive line was already shorthanded heading into Sunday's game at FedEX Field. Left tackle Jason Peters left the game on Sunday with a quad injury and was unable to make a return.
Matt Tobin started the game at right guard in replace of Gardner, but was moved to left tackle after Peters went down. Dennis Kelly was placed then placed to right guard.
"I thought that the offensive linemen who came off the bench did a pretty good job," Shurmur said. "Had some breakdowns, but they were decent."
Sam Bradford finally started to hit on some deep passes against the Redskins. He threw for three touchdowns in the second half on Sunday, including a 62-yard touchdown pass to Riley Cooper and a 39-yard touchdown pass to Miles Austin.
"I think Sam Bradford is getting more and more comfortable with not just the concepts, but the guys running the concepts," Shurmur said.
One of the Eagles multiple problems on the offensive side of the ball has been getting off to slow starts in the first half of play. Other than Week 3 against the New York Jets, the Eagles offense has only put up three points in the first half of games.
The Eagles got off to a slow start again on Sunday. They punted on their first three drives and then turned the ball over on their fourth drive. The fifth drive resulted in a missed 33-yard field goal attempt by newly acquired Caleb Sturgis.
Shurmur believes that the Eagles will perform better if they get in better situations on third down. If the Eagles can do a better job of getting decent yardage on first and second downs, then that should fix the problem.
Another issue has been dropped passes. The Eagles ranked fifth in the NFL with 10 dropped passes on 145 targets.
Michael Malia is a contributing intern for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Facebook (Michael Malia) or Twitter @Michael_Malia.
