Heaps: The 2 things the Seahawks’ defense must do against the Eagles

After going 2-3 in a tough middle portion of the season, the Seahawks sit at 7-3 through Week 11 and now begin far and away the team’s easiest stretch of the year.

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After facing the San Francisco 49ers, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Rams and the Arizona Cardinals (twice), Seattle now plays the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, New York Jets and the Washington Football team over the next four weeks. Those teams have combined for just nine wins this season.

First up for the Seahawks is a cross-country trip to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles on Monday Night Football.

While Seattle is coming off its biggest win of the year after beating Arizona 28-21 on Thursday Night Football, Philadelphia is coming off a 22-17 loss to the Cleveland Browns. In that game, quarterback Carson Wentz’s struggles continued as he threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.

This game presents a great opportunity for the Seahawks’ defense, which has played its best football over its last six quarters, to keep up that momentum. But how can Seattle assure that Wentz’s problems carry over on Monday? Former NFL quarterback Jake Heaps of 710 ESPN Seattle’s Jake and Stacy said there are two things the Seahawks must do on defense.

“First off, as (co-host Stacy Rost) mentioned, you’ve got to limit the running game,” Heaps said. “The running game is really the only bright spot that they have and even that is limited for the Eagles right now. So if you force this game all on Wentz’s shoulders, I think that’s all you need at that point.”

Second-year Eagles running back Miles Sanders has 585 rushing yards and three touchdowns in seven games, averaging 5.7 yards per carry. He also has over 100 receiving yards. Right now, the Eagles are 12th in rushing offense, one spot behind the Seahawks. The Seahawks also are coming off a dominant performance against the run last week. The Cardinals entered Week 10 averaging over 160 yards on the ground but ran for only 57 yards in Seattle.

Aside from stopping the run, you may think the next emphasis would be rushing the quarterback, which the Seahawks have gotten better at the last four weeks after struggling mightily earlier this season and all of 2019. Heaps said getting after Wentz is important and Seattle can bring some pressure with blitzes, but playing “good, disciplined coverage defense” is more critical.

“They were able to do that two times last year versus the Eagles – once in the playoffs and once in the regular season – and I think that was the key to slowing down Carson Wentz,” Heaps said. “You don’t have to do anything fancy, you don’t need to do anything tricky on defense. Play good, solid, assignment-sound defense and ultimately, I know that’s what the Seahawks are trying to build towards, so this will be a really good test for the defense to do just that.”

The Seahawks beat the Eagles twice in Philadelphia last year. Wentz struggled mightily in that first contest and then didn’t do much before he was knocked out of the playoff contest due to injury.

In the regular season game, Wentz was sacked three times, threw two interceptions and fumbled three times, losing two. Before he left the playoff game with a concussion, Wentz completed only one of four passing attempts, was sacked once and fumbled the ball once (though the Eagles recovered). His replacement, Josh McCown, completed 18 of 24 passes but only for 174 yards. He was sacked six times and had two fumbles, which the Eagles recovered.

You can hear Heaps and Rost discuss the defensive scheme for Seattle against Philadelphia in the Four Down Territory segment of the podcast at this link of in the player below.

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