NFL Playoffs: 5 bold predictions for Eagles vs Giants

Bold predictions for Eagles vs Giants: The Eagles’ defense will force Daniel Jones to fumble twice

Jones deserves a ton of credit for elevating his game under Daboll’s tutelage this season. The high-water mark of his season came last week when New York upset Minnesota in the Super Wild Card round.

Unfortunately for Jones, one of his historical weaknesses will come back to haunt him in this game. He put the ball on the ground a lot early in his career and Philadelphia will be working hard to produce strip sacks against him on Saturday night. Haason Reddick, in particular, is a serious threat to swipe the ball out of Jones’ hands when he crashes in from the blind side via a speed rush.

Even when Reddick doesn’t get home, the Eagles have disruptive tackles like Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave waiting to torment Jones on the interior. Climbing the pocket is really difficult against this part of interior lineman. When Jones tries to do that he’s really going to struggle with ball security.

Jones might not lose multiple fumbles in this game, but he’s going to put the ball on the turf on at least two occasions. The Giants can’t afford to let Philadelphia win the turnover battle on strip sacks. It could easily turn into the Eagles’ trump card.

Bold predictions for Eagles vs Giants: Miles Sanders will rush for over 100 yards

The Giants bottled Sanders up for just 33 yards on 11 rushing attempts in the regular-season finale. Don’t be fooled by Sanders’ pedestrian numbers in that game. The Eagles’ coaching staff was keeping everything very vanilla just in case they needed to face the Giants again in the postseason.

The offensive playbook is going to open up for Philadelphia in this one and Sanders will be a major beneficiary. The Eagles will give him plenty of chances to grind out yards against the interior of New York’s defensive line. His big plays, however, are going to come when he and Hurts put pressure on the perimeter of New York’s defense.

The zone read may be a routine play in the modern NFL but it’s really hard to stop the combination of Hurts and Sanders when they’re at their best. New York’s questionable talent at linebacker will make life particularly difficult for the Giants against this sort of rushing attack.

The end result will see Sanders bust a few 20+ yard runs en route to going over 100 yards rushing on the evening. That will allow the Eagles to get out to an early lead they can maintain in the fourth quarter. If Sanders does get over the century mark, the odds are stacked against the Giants keeping this game close.