This is a huge opportunity for the Philadelphia Eagles because they’re playing a Saints team that is not going to be able to put up big numbers offensively, so it’s a winnable football game for the Birds. They’re going to have to play their best football. They cannot afford to turn over the football because I think this is going to be a low scoring game and the strength of the Saints is their defense.
Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts and this football team must protect the football on each and every play. One of the key battles of this game will be the Eagles ability or inability to run the football. It’s not going be easy to run the football against New Orleans but they’ve got to try. They need a balanced attack so they’ve got to continue to try to run the football, even if they’re not as successful as they have been of late. The Saints have the best run defense in the National Football League so it will not be a surprise if the Eagles have some challenges trying to run, but just the attempts to run it is going to open things up in their passing game. I think the Eagles big plays are going to be through their passing game.
In addition, running the ball is going to make pass blocking easier for the Birds offensive tackles Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata. New Orleans has two outstanding defensive ends in Cameron Jordan and Marcus Davenport. Running the ball will slow them down, but if the Eagles are one dimensional it will make Johnson and Mailata’s job more difficult. The speed of quarterback Jalen Hurts will also keep those defensive ends honest because they can’t come at Hurts too hard or he will use his speed to get outside and around the corner.
They’re going to be able to get big plays against the Saints defense even though New Orleans has had tremendous success stopping the run, but they’ve given up big plays through the pass all season long. They play a lot of man-to-man pass coverages and they’re vulnerable to Jalen Hurts scrambling out of the pocket and making big plays by extending the play and throwing ball downfield or gaining yards running the ball on scrambles. I think New Orleans is definitely vulnerable to that, but they’re going to try to keep Hurts in the pocket.
One of the keys in this game is going to be what happens when a pass play breaks down. Does Hurts take care of the football? Is he able to scramble and extend the play? Are the Eagles able to make some big plays that way? Regardless, even with him just dropping into the pocket, they can have success throwing the football downfield against the Saints because they play a lot of man-to-man and they don’t have the best corners. You also know in the NFL right now with the way they call penalties, the Birds could just get some substantial yards on pass interference penalties.
The bottomline is that the Eagles have got a find a way to win this game. If the Eagles win this game, they got a very good chance of going to the playoffs. I think they’re starting to smell the opportunity and they’re starting to believe because they know they can play with all these teams. When they run the football, it just gives them confidence and I think that confidence is spreading throughout this football team.
