Eagles Trying Not To Take Vikings For Granted

The Eagles are doing everything they can not to take the Minnesota Vikings for granted, but there’s no question that the Vikes are the worst team left on the Birds schedule and the team has to know this.   I hope they saw what happened last night to the Denver Broncos, when they were upset by the visiting San Diego Chargers 27-20, but we won’t know if the Birds are ready until the game starts.  Chip Kelly’s squad can’t afford to overlook Minnesota.

On paper it looks like a cakewalk, the Vikings are a bad football team right now and the Eagles, who are on a five-game win streak.  The Birds should be able to beat them, if they play like they’re capable of playing.  The NFC North squad is only 3-9-1 and doomed to going on vacation in a few weeks to watch the playoffs from their homes, but if given an opportunity by the Eagles, they could throw a monkey wrench into the Birds plans.

“I don’t think we do anything to avoid it happening,” Kelly said. “I think we have the same approach every week no matter who we play. We respect all, but we fear none. That’s just a concept that we’ve always had.

“I think on any given Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday, whenever you have to play, there’s another opponent out there on the field. Anytime you don’t take them for what they are, then you’re bound to be on the losing end of it.”

“Chip’s been great with that,” Eagles quarterback Nick Foles said. “Week to week, like I’ve said, when he speaks, it’s been something powerful all the time. It’s always with meaning – that’s what he wants. And credit to the leaders on the team, guys like DeMeco [Ryans], guys we look to. As a quarterback, you have to be a leader, too.

“Every week, when we go to practice on Tuesday, we get after it. Everybody’s going to be pretty sore and you’re trying to move as fast as you can, but we’re all going through it together and there’s definitely been a team bonding to go through it.”

The Vikings defense has been horrible this season, so the Eagles should be able to run up big yardage and points as long as they show up ready to play.  Players can be told all day long that this is going to be a tough game, but they look at the record of the opposing team and the tapes of them playing other teams.  It’s easy to take teams with bad records and poor play on tape for granted.

One of the ways the Vikings might be able to pull off an upset is by scoring early and benefitting from the crowd noise in their home field to force the Birds offense into some mistakes.

If the noise were to get to the Eagles it could open an opportunity for the Vikings.  Last week the Eagles had to play outside in the elements, this week they will be in a controlled atmosphere, so there will be no snow, but there will be noise and plenty of it.

“It will be a little different. Wind shouldn’t be a factor unless they have the AC blowing up,” Foles said with a laugh. “I’m just going to play football.”

Foles and the Eagles are preparing for the noise they’re going to be forced to deal with at Mall of America Field in Minnesota this weekend.   Dome trap all the noise inside and they’re louder than playing at an outside field.  The noise at the Vikings home field requires other forms of communication other than the spoken word.

There’s not much of a change at practice this week because the Birds always have the music blasting, so it’s hard for them to hear the coaches and their teammates. The Eagles are able to signal in their plays, control the snap count and run their offense just about mistake free even though the noise prevents any one from being able to talk to each other very well.

“When you can have controlled chaos in a practice and get used to not being able to hear the guy next to you because the music is loud…dealing with that in practice, dealing with the signals, dealing with the silent count..is huge”, Foles said. “That’s why we have that at practice so when we do get in that environment, we have been practicing in that environment so it doesn’t catch us off guard.”

One big thing the Eagles offensive line talked about was how they must be able to hear center Jason Kelce when he makes the line calls before the play.  They use a timing method for the snap, but they have to pass Kelce’s call down the line before each play, so everybody knows who they’re blocking.  It shouldn’t be a problem and this game shouldn’t be a problem as long as the Birds don’t take these guys for granted.