There are two big dogs in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Green Bay Packers. They’ll play each other on Monday night in Week 10, and that game is sure to have some mega-huge postseason-seeding implications.
We’re still in September football, so as of right now, everything is about fleshing stuff out. Both teams have great defenses, but the Eagles’ passing game and the Packers' running game have both been funky. They’re playing two teams that couldn’t be more different in Week 3, and the Eagles have a real opportunity to play a game that’ll inspire a whole lot of confidence.
Winning is the only thing for the Eagles
Unfortunately for the Packers, they’re playing the Browns in Week 3. Cleveland has a phenomenal defense and an unbelievably pathetic offense. Unless the Packers’ running game shifts up about five gears, we’re not going to see a whole lot of growth.
The Eagles, however, drew the Los Angeles Rams. That’s a team with a hot offense and a very gettable defense. That means this is a really good early-season test for both sides of the ball.
The only thing that matters to Jalen Hurts and the Birds is winning. That’s good because that’s all they do. Going back to the beginning of last season, they’ve only lost two games (20-2 record) that Hurts has started and finished. This team doesn’t care how they win games, as long as they do it.
That being said, they’ve had a whole lot more practice winning games by running the ball a million miles than they’ve had throwing the ball a million miles. So let’s start there.
Some passing game:
Saquon Barkley slaughters the Rams. That’s just the reality of the world. Last year, he had 460 rushing yards and four touchdowns against them. It’d be crazy to think that’s not going to be a big part of this game.
However, a passing scheme that goes downfield more than twice would be cool. I feel like that’s not asking for a whole lot.
Can they win this game without doing that? Absolutely. Do we know that Jalen Hurts can connect with his guys when he needs to? Without a doubt. Do we know if Kevin Patullo can sequence plays and take advantage of the offense’s run-first tendencies? Well… No. We don’t know that.
It just seems like it would be helpful for our brains, but more importantly, for Kevin Patullo, to call a successful passing game before he gets to crunch time. I’m not asking for a creative passing scheme, just a successful one.
There's a good chance things will get hairy in that game in Green Bay. It’d be cool if Patullo knows he can call a play where A.J. Brown doesn’t just run a slant. I feel like that’s not too critical, and I feel like it’s not that big of an ask.
Pass Rush gets rocking:
Weirdly enough, when the Packers traded for Micah Parsons, their pass rush ended up getting a whooooole lot better. That’s probably the one spot on their entire team where they are undeniably better than the Eagles.
Unfortunately, having an awesome pass rush is a pretty massive advantage.
The Eagles’ pass rush stepped up big-time from Week 1 against the Cowboys to Week 2 against the Chiefs. They went from a 34.3 percent pressure rate and zero sacks against Dak Prescott to a 28.9 percent pressure rate and two sacks against Patrick Mahomes. They finally got to the quarterback, even if the overall rate dipped; that’s efficiency, baby.
A couple of things about that: the pass rush never got to Prescott, but it was better than the numbers say. Also, blitzes against the Chiefs were really solid.
The best way to wreck the Rams’ passing offense is with quick pressures, so this game isn’t just a ‘get after the quarterback’ game; it’s a ‘get after the quarterback and do it right now’ game.
‘Quick pressures’ is almost synonymous with ‘pressures from defensive tackles.’ In this case, that means Jalen Carter needs to wreck the game. He’s fully capable of doing that, and he’s done it before, specifically to the Rams.
With the Packers' star defensive lineman playing like a star defensive lineman, the Eagles need theirs to do the exact same thing.
CB2 growth
Last season, the Eagles’ suffocating coverage was what made the whole thing work. Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell are still awesome, and Adoree’ Jackson had a much better game in Week 2 than he did in Week 1, but… The Chiefs’ pass-catching group is probably the worst group that the Eagles are going to see until Week 13 with Chicago.
The Rams’ Puka Nacua and Devante Adams are really, really good, and Sean McVay is excellent at getting his guys open. There’s a real world where Jackson can have a game where he plays his position better, and he still ends up getting punked.
But this is still September football. Those kinds of things can happen, especially in Vic Fangio’s defense. Remember, it wasn’t until Week 6 last season that everyone on the defense really looked like they were comfortable with the scheme.
I don’t think there’s ever going to be one week where Jackson just flips the switch and plays lights out. For him, it’s all about taking baby steps. After Week 1, Fangio said that Jackson needs to “be a master technician, and not let his technique falter.”
That means knowing his coverages and passing off receivers without a hitch. In 2024, the secondary was doing it like they were born doing it. It feels dumb to assume that this defense will get back to that same level, but the sooner they start making strides on the side opposite Quinyon Mitchell, the better… especially given some of the offenses they have coming up in the next two months.
No Penalties
There are still six games between now and when the Eagles go to Green Bay, so this isn’t necessarily a ‘do this now’ kind of thing, but this week, the NFL said that it was going to officiate the Tush Push tighter because of all the whining and complaining about the play last week.
In a perfect world, that means they also call penalties on the defensive line for lining up in the neutral zone… but we all know that it actually just means they’re going to call penalties on the Eagles just to make an example of them and to try to punish them for running the play. If you want to get pre-mad, that’s totally fine.
The game in Green Bay is big for the Tush Push because the Packers were the team that submitted the rule change proposal this offseason to get the play banned. The Eagles should run it as much as humanly possible just to prove a point and suck the air out of that stadium.
However, the air is only going to get sucked out of that stadium if they run it cleanly. If they don’t run it cleanly, it’s going to do the exact opposite. So how's about we start it off right this week? How’s about we don’t see any clips on Twitter by people complaining about how the Eagles are getting away with penalties? That seems like a good idea.