Eagles Rediscover NFC Playoff Form with Dominant Defense, Punishing Ground Game

Remember when there was a zero in the Philadelphia Eagles' loss column after their first three games?

Sure, that came during the unpredictable times of September. But even at that early stage in the 2016 season, there was a strong hint of something greater on the horizon, especially after a statement 34-3 Week 3 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Six games and four losses later, the Eagles made a louder statement in Week 10 with a 24-15 win over the Atlanta Falcons. And much like in that win over the Steelers, the defense did most of the roaring.

Coming into Week 10, the Falcons were 6-3 and had averaged a league-best 33.9 points per game. Philadelphia proceeded to limit them to 15 points, handing them their first loss by more than a touchdown.

Concurrently, the Eagles' ground attack suddenly surged to life, with running back Ryan Mathews racking up a season-best 109 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries along with 30 receiving yards. After playing only a handful of snaps over each of Philadelphia's past two games, Mathews provided rookie quarterback Carson Wentz with some much needed help on offense.

The defense set the foundation, though, because without its suffocating effort, Philly's punishing ground attack wouldn't have been able to find footing if the game turned into a shootout. Which is the natural course for most games against the Falcons, who were averaging 429.2 yards per game prior to Week 10.

But in the fourth quarter, the Falcons found themselves in foreign territory during a 2016 season brimming with crooked numbers. They were still searching for their first touchdown.

The Eagles had bent over the first three quarters but didn't break, limiting the Falcons to three field goals.

Sure, the wayward foot of Falcons kicker Matt Bryant helped Philadelphia, with his most glaring whiff coming on an extra-point attempt. But the Eagles' swarming played a role in his struggles, as they held the Falcons to just two third-down conversions and forced Bryant into long field-goal attempts.

He sailed a 46-yarder through the uprights in the third quarter, trimming the Eagles' lead to 10-9. But that third-down effectiveness and stonewalling past midfield contributed to a miss from 53 yards toward the end of the first half.

Much of what the Eagles did to extinguish the raging fire Atlanta's offense typically causes won't show up in a traditional box score. They only sacked quarterback Matt Ryan twice, one of which came from defensive end Connor Barwin. But Ryan was under constant duress.

How much, exactly, was the Falcons signal-caller surrounded by chaos? As Sam Monsoon of Pro Football Focus noted, Ryan became awfully familiar with pass-rushers invading his space:

Ryan faced pressure on nearly half of his dropbacks. Prior to Week 10, he had been pressured on 34.6 percent of his dropbacks, per PFF. For further perspective, heading into Sunday, Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts had been pressured the most this season at 43.3 percent.

Philadelphia still couldn't avoid defensive gaffes that kept the game close and gave the Falcons opportunities. The most notable stumble came when Eagles cornerback Leodis McKelvin took perhaps the hardest bite ever on a double move in football history, which led to Taylor Gabriel's 76-yard touchdown.

But if the only touchdown a defense surrenders to the Falcons comes on a blatant misstep by an aging cornerback, the unit has done all that could reasonably be asked of it.

The Eagles defense has endured other minor setbacks throughout the season, but we're still waiting on a blowup that may never come. Even during eventual losses, a win is always within reach. The average margin of defeat in the four Eagles' defeats has been 4.75 points.

They've now held the Steelers and Falcons—two talent-rich offenses—to a combined 18 points. On Sunday, the Eagles reduced an MVP candidate to looking, well, normal.

Category	Week 10	Before Week 10
Passing Yards	267	331.1 per game
Yards/attempt	8.1	9.5
Comp %	54.5	69.6

With a lid firmly placed on Ryan and his gang of merry point producers, the Eagles' ground game took over. A well-rounded stable of rushers gladly put the game on their shoulders.

You would have more luck putting everything on double zero at the roulette table than trying to guess which Eagles running back will do the heavy lifting during any given week. Recently, head coach Doug Pederson called Darren Sproles the starter. That came as no surprise after Sproles turned an increased workload into 174 yards from scrimmage over the Eagles' past two games.

Aside from his role as a goal-line bruiser, Mathews had seemingly found his way into Peterson's doghouse, having played a mere 16 snaps between Weeks 8 and 9, per PFF.

Naturally, he ignited the Eagles' offense against Atlanta. As NFL Research observed, Mathews provided the Eagles with something they've been missing for several seasons: a running back who can take hold of a game.

Mathews finished with 139 yards from scrimmage while averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Though he led the Eagles' pounding on the ground, rookie Wendell Smallwood also made a significant contribution with 70 yards on 13 carries.

"I've always had confidence in Ryan Mathews," Pederson said after the game, via Billy Penn. "What you saw today was the guy I kept seeing, the guy we all wanted to see."

Philadelphia thumped the Falcons on the ground, out-rushing them 208-48. That didn't come against some pushover front seven, either. Heading into Sunday, they had given up an average of only 91.2 rushing yards per game, the seventh-best mark in the league.

The Eagles' next trick is the hardest one for a team still navigating its way through 2016 with a rookie quarterback and a rookie head coach: They can't collapse in key moments. They can't just come close in games and show an inability to finish. And they can't slide again after another statement win.

They're now solidly in the hunt for a playoff spot, but the margin for error is growing increasingly thin as the countdown to winter begins. The choice is simple: Either look like a playoff team every week, or settle in for the cold months of watching the championship chase and second-guessing.