For the defending champion it’s getting serious: can the Philadelphia Eagles stay in the race for the division? Or is a decimated Redskins team giving the Eagles the presumed decisive push? The SPOX Coin Toss discusses who has the upper hand. The game can be seen live on DAZN in the night from 2.15 a.m. on Tuesday to Tuesday!
mySPOX-user JaydoggBO: Before the season the Eagles were considered the best team of the division, if not the best team of the NFC. But things have changed since then and also because Carson Wentz hasn’t recovered so well from his injury last season, the Eagles are already playing for their playoff chance in this Monday Night Football game.
Against the team from Washington the victory will be decided mainly at the Line of Scrimmage and here I see the advantage for the Eagles. Although the Eagles are disappointing this season in terms of the “Adjusted Sack Rate”, they are a top 10 team in the “Stuffed” and “Power Success” categories in terms of the run.
The “Power Success” in particular will decide how well you can stay in Washington; because Adrian Peterson, in his 20th spring, is a classic power runner approaching the Eagles. If you could get Backup Colt McCoy to pass, you’d have achieved a lot. Also under Alex Smith the passing game of Washington was bad and this will not get any better under McCoy, especially if the Eagles pass rush meets an injury-plagued offensive line.
On the other side of the ball, the Eagles also have the advantage of run blocking, even if you’re only in midfield yourself, Washington is one of the worst teams in the league after the “Adjusted Line Yards”, even though you’ve put a lot of draft capital into the run stop recently.
In pass protection, Philadelphia has to watch out for the often underestimated Ryan Kerrigan, who together with Ioannidis and Allen can generate a lot of pressure. Therefore, it will be in the interest of the Eagles to bring Smallwood and especially Josh Adams into play. Adams comes up with a strong 5.2 yards per run and shouldn’t do much less against Washington.
Smallwood, on the other hand, is probably used more and more in the passing game. In the end, the Eagles win by a narrow margin because they have the slightly higher quality in the passing game and are also not quite as badly hit by injuries as the opponent.
Adrian Franke (SPOX): For Philadelphia, this Redskins team is basically the ideal opponent – and that could have been said even if Washington were to compete with Alex Smith and fewer injuries in the line and receiving corps. Also early in the season you could see: this offense works via the run game and the short pass game, more or less everything took place in the middle of the field and without a pronounced vertical element.
As for downfield passes, Smith was consistently in the lower third of the league until his serious injury. What is striking and difficult to explain is the fact that since the forced quarterback exchange Washington has significantly reduced the play action game (from 21.4 percent to 9.7 percent). It may be based on the still very small sample size, but here Gruden Colt McCoy should help a lot more and link the passing game with the run game better.
The bad Eagles Pass defense would be a good start for attacking Philly where it hurts the Eagles, but for now the key message remains: the Eagles are plagued by injuries in the secondary and are as vulnerable as few other teams. The central question, however, will be whether Washington can actually attack this weak point – and whether the Redskins “want” to systematically exploit it schematically at all.
So Washington is threatened with a game in which you can’t run the ball against the strong run defense of the Eagles and in view of the meanwhile shaky own offensive Line McCoy can’t reasonably protect – in short: a game that the offense will not win for Washington.
But it could be the other side of the ball that’s killing Philly’s playoff dream: Washington is still in a position to cause problems with its front opponents, even if this is not constantly recalled enough. Washington has had no fear of flashing enemy quarterbacks in recent weeks, and given the problems in play calling and the general offensive inconsistency of the Eagles, this should not change this week.
Wentz can beat the Blitz with his strong pocket behaviour, but had several mistakes against the Blitz this year. As long as Washington do not make any serious mistakes offensively, the defense should be able to hold this game at least tightly. And maybe more.