What Philadelphia Eagles Must Improve Coming out of Week 7 Bye

The Philadelphia Eagles turned in by far their finest performance of the 2014 season on Sunday night, dominating on all sides of the ball.

The result was a 27-0 shutout victory against a surging New York Giants team, one that established Chip Kelly’s squad as arguably the team to beat in the NFC.

The game wasn’t without injuries—all-purpose running back Darren Sproles, who has been arguably the team’s most valuable player this season—suffered an injury that could sideline him for several weeks, per ESPN's Adam Schefter:

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Eagles RB Darren Sproles has a sprained MCL that could sideline him a couple of weeks, per HC Chip Kelly. Eagles have bye this week.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 13, 2014"

Fortunately, the Eagles will be heading to their bye week, which will provide an opportunity for ailing players—Sproles, as well as offensive linemen Evan Mathis and Jason Kelce, and linebacker Mychal Kendricks—to further heal before a Week 8 showdown with the first-place Arizona Cardinals.

It will also provide Kelly and the rest of his coaching staff the opportunity to evaluate this team, namely what has gone right and what needs improvement.

It’s been a highly successful season for the Birds, and any fan has to be excited with a 5-1 record. Still, shoring up the following four areas would make Philadelphia an even tougher opponent and perhaps the team with the best chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

Turnovers

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Scoring points hasn’t been a problem for the Philadelphia Eagles this season. Even with the offense’s struggles, the defense and special teams units have found paydirt at a record-setting pace. As a result, the Eagles have scored at least 21 points in every contest this season, topping 30 in four of those games.

Overall, Philadelphia ranks as the NFL’s second-most prolific scoring team, having put up 183 points in six games, an average of just over 30 per week.

The problem is that the Eagles are turning the ball over far too often, especially considering the 2013 club under Chip Kelly was historically proficient at not turning the ball over.

The ’13 club had the fourth-fewest turnovers in the NFL. Nick Foles posted an absurd 27-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio, and Michael Vick turned in his best single-season interception percentage since 2010. Four of the Eagles’ nine interceptions thrown were by third-string rookie Matt Barkley.

This year though, Foles hasn’t had the same success at limiting his mistakes. His accuracy has been alarmingly low, especially on the deep ball. As a result, he’s already tossed seven interceptions in six games. The only NFL quarterback with a greater number of interceptions is Kirk Cousins (eight).

The Eagles have also lost a few untimely fumbles. Zach Ertz and Riley Cooper each lost fumbles in the San Francisco loss in Week 4.

Foles has fumbled four times already, losing three of them. The fumbles and the interceptions combined actually rate the Eagles dead-last in the league in turnovers.

It’s a similar recipe to what the St. Louis Rams known as "The Greatest Show on Turf" did—play risky football that results in lots of points and lots of turnovers. The 2000-01 Rams scored 500-plus points in consecutive seasons, despite rating 25th and 31st in turnovers.

The Eagles won’t continue to have the scoring production they’ve been getting from their defense and special teams units, which means the offense will need to produce more.

This will start with smart decisions from Foles and efficient smashmouth running from LeSean McCoy in the backfield.

Red-Zone Success

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An offense as efficient as Chip Kelly’s has shown to be shouldn’t have a problem scoring upon reaching the red zone. But that’s been the case with the 2014 Philadelphia Eagles.

Per TeamRankings.com, the Eagles rate fourth-worst in the NFL by scoring touchdowns on just 40 percent of their drives that reach the red zone. 

It isn’t as if this is a fluke either; the Eagles rate third-worst among all NFL teams over the last three years (two of those under Kelly, one under Andy Reid), although this year's team is much worse than last year. Per CSNPhilly.com's Reuben Frank:

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Eagles have 6 TDs in 17 red-zone trips this year [35%]. They were 33 of 62 last year [53%].

— Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) October 13, 2014"

Against the St. Louis Rams in Week 5, the Eagles’ first drive ended with a field goal at the Rams’ 9-yard line. The next drive went to the eight before the Eagles had to again kick a field goal. That’s six points, which proved to be the difference in the 34-28 game. But it could have easily been 14.

At the very least, the Eagles should have scored one touchdown and kicked one field goal, considering the average NFL team scored a touchdown about 56 percent of the time.

This past Sunday against the New York Giants, the same thing happened on the first drive—the Eagles marched down the field and then stalled in the red zone, settling for a field goal. Fortunately, it didn’t matter, and Philadelphia won by 27.

But an offense with Nick Foles, LeSean McCoy, Jeremy Maclin and Zach Ertz shouldn’t be failing to score touchdowns at such a high rate. The Eagles need to get that percentage up over 50.

Passing Defense

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When it has really mattered, the Philadelphia secondary has come through this year. Malcolm Jenkins had the game-saving interception against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 2.

Jenkins had another pick against Washington in Week 3 and one more for a touchdown vs. San Francisco in Week 4.

What’s interesting, though, is that those are the only interceptions the team has this season. The Eagles have gotten lit up too many times.

Andrew Luck threw three touchdown passes. Kirk Cousins threw for 427 yards and three scores. Austin Davis threw for 375 yards and three touchdowns. Quarterbacks are 0-3 when they throw three or more touchdowns against Philadelphia this season, but that’s largely because of Jenkins.

Cornerbacks Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher rate 49th and 77th, respectively, among 103 qualifying corners, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). They’re two of the five cornerbacks in the league to have been targeted 46 times.

Safety Nate Allen has been even worse than Williams and Fletcher, as he’s allowing an 80 percent completion rate and 154.9 passer rating, per PFF.

As a team, the Eagles are 23rd in interceptions and 29th in touchdown passes allowed. ColdHardFootballFacts.com’s stats show Philadelphia is 22nd in defensive passer rating allowed. 

Regardless, it hasn’t been a good year from the secondary, and a good way to start this would be to increase Brandon Boykin’s snaps. Otherwise, opposing quarterbacks will continue to light up this defensive backfield.

Consistency in Running Game

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With all due respect to Nick Foles, the 2013 Philadelphia Eagles went as LeSean McCoy went. He led the NFL in rushing yards, and thus, the offense was a near-lock to put up 20-30 points. This made it easier for Foles, as well as DeSean Jackson and Riley Cooper.

This year, McCoy hasn’t been the same player, whether he’s been overworked, struggling behind a makeshift offensive line or teams are stacking the box more given Foles’ struggles in the passing game.

Philadelphia can’t have any more games like the Week 3 or Week 4 performances in which they accumulated just 54 and then 22 rushing yards.

Sunday’s win over the New York Giants was the Eagles’ rushing offense everyone expected, with McCoy rolling up 149 ground yards and the team exceeding 200.

The offensive line has played better, with left guard Matt Tobin and center David Molk growing more comfortable in their temporary roles.

The return of right tackle Lane Johnson has helped, and the O-line will get a huge boost in a few weeks when both Evan Mathis and Jason Kelce return from their injuries.

If the Eagles run the ball effectively down the stretch, they can contend with any single team in this league.