The Eagles Defense has had a resurgance in recent weeks thanks in large part to defensive coordinator Bill Davis' scheme taking root.
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From: @Nick_49s: What has been the biggest adjustment the Eagles D has made since the Denver debacle?
Lost in the confusion of the Eagles quarterback situation and inconsistent offensive output is the steady improvement of Bill Davis' defense over the past month.
While the offense sleep-walked through the Giants and Cowboys game failing to score a touchdown, the Eagles defense has held opponents to just 12.5 points per game over the past month.
It doesn't appear that there have been many schematic adjustments that have been made over that stretch, rather the Birds have simply found their footing when it comes to execution and have received strong efforts from the likes of Mychal Kendricks, Earl Wolff and Trent Cole over that span.
"I think the main thing with Earl is the understanding of the defense that he's running," Davis said Tuesday. "And the NFL offenses that are coming at you. And you do get a very diverse amount of offenses that are coming at you, from what we faced last week with [Raiders QB Terrelle] Pryor, to the week before with [Giants QB] Eli [Manning]. It really does change each week. And I think he's learning the NFL and the offenses and at the same time growing in his own job as a safety."
Finally, Davis' system is finally taking root and the players are buying into the theory of allowing 17 points or less being tantamount.
"I think one of the strengths of our defense right now is the run game and the run defense," Davis pointed out. "It starts with those two-gap techniques that the d-linemen are getting better and better at. I just made a big point about Vinny Curry, his technique in the two-gap and the technique that [defensive line coach/assistant head coach] Jerry [Azzinaro] has been teaching these guys since day one. They're all improving at a real nice clip. And I think that's one of the things we feel confident about competing and stopping some run games to get them to third down and more winnable for us. I think the techniques that we taught from day one are really starting to show themselves, and that's a product of playing the run game better than we did earlier in the season."
From Corey Koser on Facebook: Are Brent Celek's days with the team coming to an end after this season?
It's hard to find a better leader by example or harder worker in the Eagles locker room than Brent Celek.
With that said, though, it's not difficult to see the handwriting on the wall when it comes to the 28-year old when it comes to his tenure in Philadelphia.
After drafting Zach Ertz in the second round of last April's draft out of Stanford, the clock on Celek's tenure with the Eagles. The coaching staff and front office clearly saw enough in Ertz to make him a second round choice and he is slowly picking up more snaps as the season goes along.
This season the tight ends were expected to be a focal point of Kelly's high octane attack and Celek simply hasn't shown enough to stick around beyond this year. He has posted 17 receptions for 241 yards and three touchdowns. His single game high is three receptions he's only reached that mark three times this season.
Meanwhile Ertz already quietly has more receptions (19) and yards (243) even while seeing limited playing time early in the season.
Celek could stick as a veteran leader next season but he'd likely need to take a significant pay cut from his expected $4 million salary in 2014 to do so.
Matt Lombardo is the Editor-In-Chief of Eagledelphia and also an on-air personality on 97.5 FM The Fanatic in Philadelphia. Join the conversation and follow Matt on Twitter.
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