Eagles film: With Reed Blankenship in, expect pass offenses to continue to attack the split-safety coverages

Three days after he intercepted Aaron Rodgers, and four days before he is to make his first NFL start, Reed Blankenship stood at his locker stall in front of a collection of TV cameras. If the Eagles safety had allowed himself a moment to bask in his newfound celebrity, a high-pitched nearby teammate made sure to snuff that out.

Hey, Sinking Battleship!

Blankenship, ever the Southern gentleman, finished his answer before obliging a reporter who wanted to know if he had a new nickname.

“What did you say? Sinking battleship?” he hollered down to a group of defensive backs. “I don’t know. I prefer ‘Ghost.’”

As the only white player on defense, it isn’t difficult to figure out the meaning behind the nickname Blankenship’s Eagles teammates have bestowed upon him. But the play on his last name was merely locker room banter for an undrafted rookie who made a league-wide name for himself last Sunday night against the Packers.

Indeed, Blankenship didn’t drown when tossed into the deep end following C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s late-first-quarter injury.

“Reed had a very good game,” Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said Tuesday. “He came in there and that’s a tough spot. But our guys, like they’re psychologically [prepared] for that to happen.”

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Three quarters later, Blankenship got knocked out of the game himself. After a collision, his chin strap ran up his face and bloodied his upper lip.

“I thought I broke my nose for a little bit,” he said Wednesday.

K’Von Wallace stepped in and finished the job, notching a key third-down pass breakup in the end zone, but Blankenship said he’ll be ready to go when the 10-1 Eagles host the 7-4 Titans on Sunday.

Gardner-Johnson is expected to return before the end of the season, but he could be out for at least the next several weeks. Coach Nick Sirianni said, “I like our room,” when asked about the state of the safety position. But it remains one of the more inexperienced spots on the team.

Blankenship will benefit from training as the starter, but opposing quarterbacks will likely test the 23-year-old product of Middle Tennessee State. Rodgers went at him with relative success immediately after the switch, but the rookie rebounded and picked off the future Hall of Famer not long after.

But Blankenship and fellow safety Marcus Epps had their ups and downs the rest of the way. With Gannon’s tendency to rely on split-safety coverages, opposing offensive coordinators have increasingly attacked the middle of the field through the air.

The Eagles have mostly been solid in defending the middle third. But with slot cornerback Avonte Maddox sidelined with a hamstring strain, and Blankenship a relative neophyte in the post, Gannon should expect to see more plays dialed up to stress his deep safeties.

In his scheme, both safeties need to be versatile enough to play multiple roles. But about two-third of their snaps will be at free safety. In college, Blankenship spent the majority of his time in or near the box to help in the run game or to counter the quick pass game.

“It’s definitely a change-up,” he said. “But it’s something you get used to. You just got to play with more depth. You got quarterbacks that can launch the ball. In college, it was completely different, especially in Conference USA.”

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The Eagles didn’t quite know what to expect when they signed Blankenship after the draft. He was a five-year starter and set the record for career tackles at Middle Tennessee. But in a league that has increasingly emphasized the pass, the Eagles didn’t need another run-stuffer.

They needed cornerback-size safeties who can cover in open space, and in Gannon’s scheme, safeties who can see the field. Having elite athleticism helps. But so does having the intellect to process the why and execute it when the bell rings.

“There is a difference between memorizing my adjustments and the defenses and understanding the why behind that,” Gannon said. “[Blankenship is] obviously very smart, like all those guys in that room are, and that’s a thinking position. He is a big, physical guy that can move.

“Once he gets comfortable, I think the more and more he plays, the better off he’ll play.”

After watching his film from the Packers game, Blankenship said his good moments weren’t as good as he initially thought, nor were his bad moments as bad, which can often be the case upon review. But it did offer a first look at some of his strengths and weaknesses, and how offenses might challenge him.

Gannon likes split-safety coverages for the obvious reason that it often prevents big pass plays. He doesn’t run it as much as some suggest, though, and employs just as many single-high-safety looks.

But the Packers were able to exploit the Eagles in the middle of their zones. Rodgers and his replacement, Jordan Love, threw 16 of their 24 attempts in between the numbers and completed 12 for 219 yards and three touchdowns.

On this fourth down, the Eagles were in Cover 2. Green Bay had man-coverage-beating route concepts underneath, and a receiver breaking free on the left as a byproduct, but the middle of the field was wide open for Christian Watson (No. 9).

Epps (No. 22) was late to react and Gardner-Johnson (No. 23) came over to make the hit that would result in his lacerated kidney injury.

Blankenship (No. 32) was inserted, and on the next play, Green Bay went heavy with run personnel. Gannon matched with a five-man front, but also had Epps in the box. With Blankenship alone in the post, Rodgers threw off play-action, and when the safety went with the short cross and vacated the middle, receiver Randall Cobb (No. 18) had an easy six points after he beat cornerback Josiah Scott (No. 33) inside.

When the Packers had early success on the ground vs. the Eagles’ four-man fronts, Gannon leaned on the five-man. His 5-1 “Penny” front allows him to keep nickel personnel, but with Blankenship alone in the post, Green Bay ran a route concept that stressed the deep safety.

“They weren’t really attacking us on the edges,” Blankenship said. “We obviously have [cornerbacks Darius Slay and James Bradberry] out there. It was probably because we had a new safety in there, but I don’t think they were trying to attack us like that.”

The Packers continued to throw out of run sets, and several plays later, ran a similar route concept over the middle. But the Eagles effectively disguised their quarters zone pre-snap and Blankenship jumped the route by tight end Tyler Davis’ (No. 84).

Blankenship said he didn’t really even know what Cover 2 was coming out West Limestone High in Athens, Ala. In college, he said there was more to learn, but there were still only about three to four coverages. In the NFL there are more than double that amount, and within those coverages there are varying responsibilities.

Gannon likes to often line his safeties up deep. The Packers dialed up a shot play here, but Blankenship took away the deep post and Rodgers was eventually sacked.

Epps handled most of the pre-snap disguise vs. Green Bay, but Blankenship will have to do more in future games if Gannon doesn’t want his safeties tipping off tendencies.

“The disguising part comes when you know what you’re taught,” Blankenship said. “You don’t want to show them too early. You want to be in the right spot at the snap and that comes with getting reps at it.

“But it’s more muscle memory.”

It was Blankenship’s physicality that first stood out during training camp. Sirianni had live periods for younger players and the hard-hitting safety kept popping ballcarriers.

“When we had pads on, it just seemed like every time he was coming up and making tackles,” Sirianni said.

Early in the second half, Blankenship made one of his patented stops in run support.

The call allowed for him to play aggressively, but Gannon’s scheme won’t often put him in those positions.

“That’s something I have to grow and mature about,” Blankenship said. “I can’t be too aggressive coming down to stop the run. I don’t really have to do that anymore because our D-line, our front seven is crazy.”

But there has been and will be leakage. Blankenship, who finished with a team-high six tackles, has an old-school mentality to tackling and did well to limit yards after contact.

“It’s not really technique for me, I think it’s more want-to,” Blankenship said. “Usually there is technique, especially in the open field. But I just try to get to a ballcarrier as fast as I can. And once I do, I try to arrive.

“It’s probably a bad way to think about it, but I don’t care. I want to inflict as much with the pads on as I can. That’s my mindset.”

Blankenship’s aggressiveness got the best of him when he was flagged for an unnecessary-roughness penalty on the below hit, however marginal it appeared.

“I didn’t lead with my helmet, but it looked like I hit him with my helmet,” Blankenship said. “I actually hit him with my shoulder. But I know that when a guy’s going to the ground I need to be more cautious about that, especially in the middle of the field.”

Some criticize Gannon because he doesn’t blitz more or call tighter coverages, but with the Eagles up 14 points in the fourth quarter, he employed single-high-safety man coverage.

Epps was matched up against Watson in the slot, got beat inside, and it was off to the races.

“Too aggressive of a call by me, honestly,” Gannon said. “At that point, up in the game you’re up 14, nine minutes left, and the call I did not love and stressed our guys out, and that’s what happened.”

Blankenship had a chance to limit the damage but he underestimated Watson’s speed.

“My angle was terrible,” he said. “That’s one of those mistakes that when I saw it on film, I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ That’s just something I got to work on because these guys are a lot faster. You can’t take these angles that you used to in college.”

But Sirianni, Gannon, and the Eagles coaches are entrusting Blankenship to make the necessary adjustments. Well, at least for the next game, as no changes are expected.

“I think just his want-to and his attitude of getting himself ready to play whenever he was called upon, that’s what probably impressed me the most,” Gannon said. “A lot of guys [will say], ‘I’ll just wait a year, two years. It’s not my year. Down the road I’m going to be a player.’

“No. You can’t have that attitude in this league.”

Sink or swim, Blankenship’s time is now.