(Part three of a three-part series)
After breaking down the Eagles’ coaching and offensive deficiencies, it’s now time to see where the defense can improve.

You might think that it would be tough to find fault with Jim Johnson’s crew because they finished third in the NFL in overall defense, but you would be wrong. The defense is as much to blame for the Eagles not making the Super Bowl as any other part of the team.

Starting with the NFC Championship game, the defense gave up 32 points, and gave up big yardage along the way, allowing the Cardinals to rack up 369 yards, including five drives of more than 50 yards.

The defense also allowed 20 or more points in seven of the Eagles’ 16 games this season, and blew leads against Dallas, Washington, and New York. They may have been ranked quite high and won their share of games this year, but they also cost the Eagles a few battles along the way.

The question for this column, as was the question for the previous two, is what can be done to fix these problems for next season?

The first battle the defense faces is the health problems of its coordinator, Jim Johnson. Obviously, he should focus on taking care of himself and being as healthy as possible, regardless of whether he stays with the team or not, but if he chooses his health and family over the Eagles, the defense will need even more work.

Assuming Johnson returns to the Eagles for the 2009 season, the Eagles need to get at least two playmakers for the front seven, because none of those guys, including Trent Cole, make an offensive coordinator lose sleep at night.

On the defensive line, Broderick Bunkley and Mike Patterson are great at the starting tackle sports, but you don’t expect big plays out of those guys.

On the ends, the Eagles desperately need to improve because Trent Cole can easily be taken out of the game by using a tight end or a running back to chip him, and Juqua Parker is no longer an every-down player.Even back-up defensive end Chris Clemons is only a threat coming off the edge when a linebacker or safety is running an overload blitz with him.

With the guys they have now, the defensive line can’t make a big play out of a four-man pass rush, meaning the Eagles don’t have the ability to get to the quarterback and turn 1st-and-10 or 2nd-and-4 into an obvious passing down on the next play. The Eagles can only get sacks when blitzing six or more guys, which means the secondary is put into dangerous situations because the front seven can’t get the job done.

Moving to the other half of the front seven, the Eagles’ linebackers are solid against the run, but can’t defend the pass, and don’t come up with game-changing plays.Out of the four linebackers who played significant time for the Eagles—Stewart Bradley, Chris Gocong, Akeem Jordan and Omar Gaither—only Stewart Bradley should really be starting in the NFL, and even he has a huge drawback, as he is worthless on passing downs.

Those four guys combined to record 5.5 sacks, 1 interception, and 3 forced fumbles this season. I didn’t realize how average these guys were until I saw Steelers linebacker James Harrison running down the sideline in the Super Bowl for a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown.

By himself, Harrison had 16 sacks, 7 forced fumbles and 1 interception in the regular season. His stats dwarfed the numbers of all four of our linebackers combined!

For a team is forced to blitz its linebackers because of the poor production of its defensive ends, the Eagles linebackers should have been racking up the sacks, but that clearly didn’t happen.

Now for the worst-case scenario. What if Jim Johnson decides to retire?This defense has been good for the last 10 years because of Jim Johnson’s schemes, but if he chooses family over the Birds, this defense immediately drops to the bottom third of the NFL.

The Eagles haven’t had a defensive end who could get to the quarterback on any given play since Reggie White, so the majority of the Eagles’ sacks have come from Jim Johnson’s scheming. Without Johnson, the Eagles are going to have a miserable time trying to get to the quarterback, and I don’t care how good the guys in the secondary are, if an NFL quarterback isn’t being pressured, he has all day to throw, and eventually someone is going to get open for a big play.

Overall, the defense isn’t in terrible shape, but it is walking a fine line between great and completely ineffective, which we saw during this up and down season.

However, adding a defensive end that can actually get to the quarterback would make a huge difference. Bringing in someone like Terrell Suggs or Julius Peppers (or even both!) would do wonders for the unit by taking pressure off of Trent Cole, while also easing the burden on the secondary because teams would have to use an extra blocker more often to protect the quarterback.

At linebacker, Gocong needs to go. Bradley and Jordan are solid enough, but the strongside linebacker in this defense needs to be able to cover tight ends or get to the quarterback, and Gocong can’t do either. His inability to make plays causes Bradley, who could be a star with the right guys around him, to be less effective in the middle, and it also forces strong safety Quintin Mikell to play closer to the line of scrimmage instead of playing the “centerfielder” role that Baltimore’s Ed Reed plays so well.

Looking back over the last few columns, the Eagles were lucky to make the playoffs, let alone the NFC Championship game, and there is plenty of work to be done this offseason if the Eagles are serious about making a run at their first Lombardi Trophy.

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Like the “On the Edge” Blog? Hear more of my opinions about Philadelphia sports every Friday at 3:30 p.m. on WBCB 1490 AM during the Coffee with Kahuna show, where, this week, we will talk about the start of Spring Training for the Phillies, and the trade rumors surrounding the Flyers.