The Philadelphia Eagles are taking their last plane flights of the season this weekend when they go to Los Angeles to play the Rams. It’s the Birds’ second (and probably last) prime-time game of the season, so this will be a big one in showing everyone how lethal the defense really is and that the offense can be multifaceted.
The Rams are currently tied with two other teams in their division, but they’re only one game out of first place in the NFC West. It’s a competitive division that’s been cannibalizing itself and every win could make or break their season.
It’s an important game for both teams and whenever that’s the case, you know weird stuff is going to happen. That means it’s time to make bold predictions about that weird stuff.
The Eagles can get another statement win for the second straight week
There’s an art to making bold predictions. Saying, ‘Jalen Hurts will have a passer rating of over 100’ is boring. He’s averaging 101.8 this season. Yawn.
Bold predictions are the ones, where if they come true, there’s no feasible way the Eagles lose the game. Vibes are high for this team right now, so let’s chase that feeling, get irresponsible, and manifest some things that will make this game easy for our guys.
Fangio sends Sean McVay to the shadow realm
Vic Fangio has only played Sean McVay’s Rams one time: Week 14 of the 2018 season. This was the season where the Rams and Chiefs scored a combined 105 points in the Week 11 Monday night game. This was the season where Sean McVay made a name for himself as a head coach. Going into that game, the Rams were averaging 34.5 points per game.
In Week 14, Fangio and the Bears’ defense held the Rams to just SIX points. Bill Belichick ended up using that same defensive scheme in the most boring Super Bowl ever when the Patriots won 13-3.
That kind of changed the way McVay ran his offense, and it made him go out and find a defensive coordinator who could run a bastardized version of the Fangio scheme, Brandon Staley. If you're interested more in that, watch the segment previewing this game from The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny below. They did a good job talking about it.
The point is that Fangio is McVay’s sleep-paralysis demon. The Eagles are going to need Fangio to stay in demon mode against McVay, because the Rams’ quarterback this time is Matt Stafford, whereas in 2018 it was a 24-year-old Jared Goff.
The Eagles defense as a whole is loaded with talent and playing as well as they ever have in the past seven years. Despite the Rams’ weapons, Vic will be able to turn McVay catatonic. It’ll be like when Henry Winkler’s character in The Waterboy tried to walk off the field during the Bourbon Bowl.
Quinyon Mitchell jumps Jared Verse for DROY
There’s a two-man battle for Defensive Rookie of the Year between Quinyon Mitchell and Jarden Verse. Currently, Verse is the top dog. That’ll change on Sunday Night.
The Rams have the best healthy receivers that the Eagles defense has seen all year with Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp. Kupp does most of his damage when he’s lined up as a slot, so the newest inmate to Quintonamo Bay is going to be Nacua, the player with the second-highest target percentage in the entire NFL (33.9%).
So far, there has been no reason to doubt that Q won’t keep up with his ludicrously high level of production. His odds dropped big-time when shut down Terry McLaurin in Week 11 and that was a prime-time game. This is also going to be a prime-time game, and when he shuts down another elite receiver on a national stage, his odds are going to drop even more. Slap in a late-game interception on a quick out route, and we’ll be cooking with a kiln.
All he needs is for Jalen Hurts to not let Jared Verse affect him too much. There are going to be sacks and pressures, but let’s just try to not let them be from the rookie. Per Next Gen Stats, Verse has 50 quarterback pressures this season which is the third most in the entire NFL (tied with Myles Garrett). Jalen Carter and Josh Sweat have 56 combined quarterback pressures.
By no means is this an indictment of Jared Verse; he’s awesome and is doing a good job of stepping into the shoes Aaron Donald left vacant when he retired. It’s just that Quinyon Mitchell is super awesome. Having a guy step onto the field as a rookie, and be a lockdown cornerback from the jump is so much fun.
The passing game is the highlight of the offense
If you had to pin down the Eagles’ biggest issue, it’s the passing offense. Every other aspect of the offense and defense is being executed at an elite level. This could very well be the game where that gets going… even though you could’ve said that for any of the past six games.
But this time? This time it’ll be different.
The scariest player in the Rams’ secondary is safety Kam Curl, who played the past four seasons with the Washington Commanders. He’s the biggest threat and he’s just an okay player.
The problem comes with DeVonta Smith’s availability. He’s been listed as a “Did Not Practice” on both Tuesday and Wednesday with a hamstring injury. Now, he was listed as a DNP and a Limited Participant early last week and ended up playing, so there’s reason to think he might play on Sunday, but it’s objectively bad and something to keep an eye on.
If DeVonta plays, he’s due for a big game. In the past two games, he’s had a combined six catches for 43 yards. Last week we saw how easy it is for this offense to incorporate a wide receiver into the game; the first offensive play was a pass to Jahan Dotson because it was a revenge game for him.
DeVonta is a much better player than Dotson, so it’ll be huge if they can get him going very early in the game. If DeVonta doesn’t play, there’s another guy who’s more than capable of making any defensive back look like a toddler.
A.J. Brown had a very sneaky 109 receiving yards against Dallas in Week 10. This could be a game where he takes over and has an incredibly loud 175 receiving yards. Just as long as it’s been since DeVonta’s had a big game, it’s been even longer since there’s been a game where we’ve said, ‘A.J. is hands down the best wide receiver on the planet, and I’ll fist fight anyone who argues differently.’
If we get something like that to happen, it’ll go a long way in making everyone feel better about the Week 13 game against a Ravens defense that has a great run defense and a pass defense that looks like they belong on the back of a milk carton.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson gets Puka Nacua ejected
C.J.G.J. is capable of getting a nun to throw a punch, he just doesn’t do it every game. This game would be a prime opportunity to do it because a couple of weeks ago, Puka got ejected early in the game for throwing a punch. It was kind of a pathetic punch and it definitely didn’t warrant an ejection, but it happened.
Defenses can lock in on players who fumble the ball. They should also be locking in on players who can’t handle chirping. C.J. will see that and get the Jason Momoa look-alike to take some swings.
It shouldn’t be too hard. Puka doesn’t eat vegetables, just watermelon and pineapple because, “Hey, you got to poop somehow,” Just get in his ear and start naming obscure vegetables until he starts to see red: Edamame, butternut squash, ornamental peppers… things like that.