Appearing at the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show in Harrisburg, Pa., defensive end Trent Cole took some time out while raising money for charity and promoting his hunting endeavors to give Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News his thoughts on the 2011 season.
"We had a bad year. We just couldn't pull it off at the last minute," Cole said. "We were right there, inches away from being great, being a dominant team. I think some teams are going to be worried about playing us."
Despite missing two games due to injury, Cole finished with 11.0 sacks marking his third straight campaign with 10 or more. Cole and Jason Babin combined for 29 sacks which were topped by only one duo in franchise history - Clyde Simmons and Reggie White, who had 33 sacks in 1992. In the last five seasons, Cole is third in the NFL with 63 sacks behind only Dallas' DeMarcus Ware and Minnesota's Jared Allen. With 68.0 sacks for his career, Cole is third in franchise history.
One of the longest tenured players on the team, Cole said "it's a great choice" to have Juan Castillo back as defensive coordinator.
"Numbers don't lie, and we put up some great numbers," Cole said of the league's eighth-best defense.
In the last four games of the season, the Eagles ranked second in the league in scoring defense and yards allowed.
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