After three games, Brodrick Bunkley might be the Eagles most valuable defensive player because of the way he has forced offensive lines to double team him. He's helped make offensive one-dimensional by taking away the run.
Brodrick has played on the other side of the line, been a factor on running plays and put a pressure on QB’s on pass plays. This has made life easy for the Eagles linebackers. He and Mike Patterson must continue it by dominating that interior trio of the Giants “O” line. This won’t be easy because although the Giants “O” doesn’t get a lot of press, they’re playing very well and Derrick Ward is running hard and smart.
I still don’t’ think they’ll be able to handle the powerful Bunkley one-on-one. If he’ll keep the linebackers free, the linebackers won’t allow the Giants to run north and south. They’ve got to make the Giants one dimensional with the explosive Burress in the game. The Eagles defense can’t effectively defense both the New York running game while also double-teaming Burress, so they’ve got to take away the run.
The reason it’s so important that Bunkley and his buddies dominate upfront because the Eagles secondary doesn’t want to be concerned about helping on the running game, while trying to give some help covering Burress and Shockey. The Birds have to keep somebody over the top of Burress and they may want to give Gocong some help on Shockey. That would keep the safeties busy. I could see the Birds employing some two deep man to man coverages to take away quick releases by Manning and prevent any big plays. They also may want to play the two-deep zone.
The key to the Giants running game will be the play of banged up starter halfback Derrick Ward. Ward has been pleasant surprise for New York. He’s quicker than the guy he replaced, Brandon Jacobs, and he runs harder than most people thought he would. They’ll hand the ball to him about twenty times and also throw him some screens. Ward runs hard and has the ability to make you miss. Open field tackling from Omar Gaither and Takeo Spikes will come into play on the screens the Giants are likely to run. The Eagles are also likely to see some draws because it’s play New York will run to slow down the Birds pass rush.
