Eagles: Chip Kelly has faith in Billy Davis

PHILADELPHIA - Eagles head coach Chip Kelly is confident in his defensive coordinator Billy Davis despite his secondary unit allowing the most big plays in football.

"I thought Billy did a really good job," Kelly said through the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I thought our defense improved in a lot of categories. There's still things we need to clean up."

First on the list: the Eagles' secondary, ranked 31st in pass defense at season's end, behind only Atlanta, allowed the most plays of over 20 yards (72) and of over 40 yards (18).

"It's broke and we've got to fix it," Davis said, whose defending eleven allowed 30 touchdowns over 16 contests, fourth-most in the league.

"We have to get better," he added. "There's no question about that. We improved in every category except the deep passes, and the deep passes, that's what gets the touchdowns and the points and the long yards, and we have to get that fixed, and we will in this offseason."

The Eagles did see improvements in yards allowed, opposing quarterback's completion percentage, an increase in sacks, and lower third-down conversions and rushing yards permitted.

Philadelphia's run defense ranked 18th in the league this season behind its fifth-best sack artist in Connor Barwin (14.5), though did still allow more than 100 yards rushing per game and the fifth-most yards (375.6). 

Their postseason fate would be sealed in what Chip Kelly calls "X-plays," those of 20 or more yards.

Last season, Davis' first at the defensive helm, found the Eagles allow 62 X-plays, the fourth most in football and their passing defense ranked last in yards.

"We were really good in 2013 in X-plays," Kelly said. "We weren't good at all in 2014 in X-plays. I thought our run defense got better. I thought our transition from coming in here and [last season] playing a wide-9, 4-3 defense to a 3-4 defense over the last two years [helped]."

Dez Bryant caught a career-best three touchdowns in the Eagles-Cowboys rematch that determined first-place in the NFC East, all against cornerback Bradley Fletcher. Fletcher allowed two passes of more than 50 yards from DeSean Jackson in the team's season finale against the Redskins. Jackson also had an 81 yard touchdown reception in their first meeting in September.

"The goal is to have the best secondary in the NFL," Davis said. "That's the goal. Because it is a passing league. Our goal is to have the best secondary in the NFL and we have to work to get that."