CHICAGO — For the second straight game, the Eagles’ defense hasn’t had to play all that much.
Against the Bears on Monday Night Football, Jim Schwartz’s unit played 52 snaps for the second consecutive week. Until last week, the Eagles hadn’t played that few defensive snaps since before Chip Kelly was the head coach. Now, they’ve done it twice in two games under Doug Pederson.
In the three years under Kelly, the Eagles averaged 74.5 defensive snaps per game.
“I think that if our biggest complaint this year is playing 50 snaps of defense, we’re in a good spot,” defensive coordinator Schwartz said on Friday. “We need to keep complaining.”
The Eagles held the ball for 36:05 on Monday night and have held the ball for 36-plus minutes in consecutive games for the first time since 2011. This is the first time they've held the ball 36-plus minutes in consecutive weeks since Weeks 5 and 6 of the 1997 season.
Malcolm Jenkins was the only defensive player to play all 52 snaps, followed by Nolan Carroll (51), Rodney McLeod (50) and Nigel Bradham (50).
With Leodis McKelvin out, rookie Jalen Mills played 43 snaps, while Ron Brooks played 42.
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At the defensive end position, Connor Barwin led the way with 41 snaps and Brandon Graham got 37. While Schwartz tried to downplay it during the week, Vinny Curry clearly seems to be the third man at DE. For the second straight week, he got just 24 snaps (46 percent).
Undrafted rookie Destiny Vaeao played just seven snaps, but used one of them to pull off a strip sack of Jay Cutler.
On offense, Carson Wentz and all the linemen sans Allen Barbre played the full 72 snaps. Barbre missed just one.
A week after playing 92 percent of the snaps, Jordan Matthews played 99 percent (71) on Monday night. Nelson Agholor was next among the receivers with 56. Dorial Green-Beckham saw his workload increase in the second week of the season. He went from 32 percent of the snaps (25) in Week 1 to 46 percent of the snaps (33) in Week 2.
For the second straight week, Darren Sproles played more snaps than the Eagles’ other running backs. He had 41 on Monday, followed by Ryan Mathews (21), Kenjon Barner (8), and Wendell Smallwood (5).
Here’s a full look at snap counts from Monday night:
Offense
Lane Johnson: 72 snaps — 100 percent
Brandon Brooks: 72 — 100
Jason Peters: 72 — 100
Jason Kelce: 72 — 100
Carson Wentz: 72 — 100
Allen Barbre: 71 — 99
Jordan Matthews: 71 — 99
Nelson Agholor: 56 — 78
Brent Celek: 53 — 74
Darren Sproles: 41 — 57
Dorial Green-Beckham: 33 — 46
Trey Burton: 31 — 43
Ryan Mathews: 21 — 29
Matt Tobin: 16 — 22
Josh Huff: 14 — 19
Stefen Wisniewski: 12 — 17
Kenjon Barner: 8 — 11
Wendell Smallwood: 5 — 7
Defense
Malcolm Jenkins: 52 snaps — 100 percent
Nolan Carroll: 51 — 98
Rodney McLeod: 50 — 96
Nigel Bradham: 50 — 96
Jalen Mills: 43 — 83
Ron Brooks: 42 — 81
Fletcher Cox: 42 — 81
Connor Barwin: 41 — 79
Jordan Hicks: 39 — 75
Brandon Graham: 37 — 71
Bennie Logan: 31 — 60
Vinny Curry: 24 — 46
Mychal Kendricks: 20 — 38
Marcus Smith: 12 — 23
Stephon Tulloch: 12 — 23
Beau Allen: 11 — 21
Steven Means: 7 — 13
Destiny Vaeao: 7 — 13