Haason Reddick Is Allowed to Have Coffee
The Eagles star pass rusher is the definition of a closer
Opposing teams have sacked Sam Howell, the Washington Commanders’ quarterback, more times this year than any other quarterback in the league. It’s funny how a guy can look like an ugly rookie against most teams, but when he plays the team you root for, he looks like Joe Montana. Howell did not take a quarterback sack against the Eagles this past Sunday until the fourth quarter. One one hand, if a guy drops back 53 times to pass the ball, he’d better get 397 yards passing. On the other, it wasn’t until the late fourth quarter, when the team notched its first sack in the game, that he stopped being annoying.
That sack came from Haason Reddick, the team’s leader in sacks last year and the guy who should have won Defensive Player of the Year over Joey Bosa. You can argue stats all you want. It was close enough that the tiebreaker should have been that Reddick was cooler and Bosa would’ve been at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 had the 49ers not been in the playoffs that year. Facts are facts1. Reddick has notched 6.5 sacks this year. All of them have been important. The Eagles were in a similar situation in Los Angeles against the Rams. Granted, that game wasn’t nearly as close as either contest vs. the Commanders. The Eagles took a season sweep from the Washington team, but neither victory was pretty. However, there was a certain feeling that you could not let Matthew Stafford hang around and engineer a comeback. The guy has a Super Bowl under his belt, after all. Reddick broke through late and sacked him twice, ending any mirage that the Rams could come back and steal a win.
His strip sack of Howell late in the fourth this past week was the same deal. The Eagles had just gone up by a touchdown to take the lead on a piss rocket of a pass from Jalen Hurts to Julio Jones. Yes, Julio Jones is on the Eagles now. Immaculate Grid players, update your spreadsheets. On the drive before, Howell threw an interception to Reed Blankenship, the only turnover the Commanders surrendered in the game. By the sounds of the commentary2, Howell was gearing up for a heroic comeback. The Eagles defense, which was a little slow to start the game, stiffened a little in the second half and allowed the offense to get them back into the game and into the lead. They stalled out the Commanders, ending with Reddick turning the corner and getting home at the best possible time. He hacked his hand into Howell’s lap, caused a fumble, and got Washington off the field. Even though the Commanders recovered their own fumble well behind the line of scrimmage, it was fourth down. The Eagles would seal the game with a touchdown from D’Andre Swift and a recovery of the onside kick after Washington scored against the Eagles’ prevent defense on the ensuing drive.
Obviously, had the pass rush gotten home sooner in the game, Washington may not have been in a position to win. Teams had sacked him 40 times in the Commanders’ first seven games this season. You’d think that the team that set all kinds of records for getting home the prior season would have had a field day. I can’t explain what kryptonite Washington offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy has against the Eagles. I can’t explain why Howell in both games was able to execute quick release timing throws against them and then run around in the backfield like a Benny Hill sketch against everyone else. However, the lack of sacks early on was part of the reason why the game was so hairy later on.
The bigger reason was that the Eagles turned the ball over twice inside the five-yard line on offense. The offense, though as potent as it was last season in terms of moving the ball, has been much more lackadaisical protecting it. Jalen Hurts himself has committed 11 turnovers through eight games. Had the Eagles scored touchdowns on those drives, this game, even with the defensive lapses, would’ve been a laugher.
It’s hard to find fault with the defense this year, actually. Last year, the stats were better, but under the coordination of Jonathan Gannon, the team would falter against good quarterbacks, let teams roar back at the end of games, especially in the Super Bowl, and generally speaking, they’d show little sign of change in a league where the best offenses adapt on a dime. Under Sean Desai, it’s hard to find places where the team is deficient. Yes, they let up 90 points in three games against Washington (twice) and Minnesota, which is less than ideal. However, there never really has been a time when one looks at how the team performed and thought there were coaching faults, that there was inertia towards adjustment.
Desai’s unit has kept the ball in front of them in most games. In fact, in the team’s only loss, one could argue that the two reasons they didn’t get the doors blown off was that the Jets had Zach Wilson at quarterback, but also because the defense, down Jalen Carter and Darius Slay, played their collective ass off to keep the Jets out of the end zone most of the game. Again, the stats aren’t on pace with last year, but it’s hard to look at the 2022 Eagles and think “yeah, those sack rates are sustainable.” But Desai’s coaching and the players he has under him have kept things close enough so that with the attrition on the other team’s offensive line, they could activate their clutch gene and end drives with daggers of sacks to shut down comebacks.
Reddick twice has come through in the clutch and kept things from getting out of hand after the Eagles put games in a position to win. The comparison isn’t one-to-one, obviously, but the best way I can describe him so far in 2023 is that he’s a closer, the best reliever in the bullpen to come out during the highest leverage situations. It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t enter the stat sheet early in the game. He comes in when the team needs him to be excellent, and he slams the door in the other team’s face.
In the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, Alec Baldwin’s character chides another for trying to get a cup of coffee. He says “Coffee is for closers,” in that only realtors who actually sell houses are allowed rewards. If you translate that into football, Haason Reddick is allowed to have a caffeine addiction. The points allowed this past week may have signified a defensive meltdown, but in reality, the modern NFL does not allow for stingy units to average 10 points allowed a game all that often. Defensive excellence can be pinpointed in moments, big plays. With that in mind, the Eagles win was definitely due to two huge plays, obviously the Blankenship pick, but also Reddick coming in and putting the exclamation point on the game. AJ Brown might have grabbed the headlines, and Jalen Hurts may have showed all the poise in the world in the face of pressure, but the Eagles do not win that game without their closer.
please note that this is an UNACTIONABLE PARODY AND A JOKE AND YOU CANNOT COME AFTER ME FOR THIS.
Color commentator for Fox Mark Schlereth played for the Washington team between 1989 and 1994, so his affinity for them is undeniable. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t matter if the commentary is “for” the other team. It can be annoying if your team is losing, sure. My biggest problem with Schlereth is that CTE-causing plays are his Viagra. Real caveman hours. But I mean, again, grand scheme, it’s not a big deal. At least he’s not Cris Collinsworth.