Eagles offense vs. Texans defense
Eagles Running Game
The Eagles haven't had a strong running game in a while (28th in the league in rushing yards last year, 19th in yards per rush), and while they've said they are committed to focusing more on the running game this year, but I'm not sure I see it. Their offensive line is huge and built more for a power running game, while their RBs are quite clearly meant more for a speed-type of running game and heavy involvement in the passing game. Brian Westbrook is a nice dual-threat RB, but he's never been much of a workhorse back at all (career high of 177 carries in a season and has only averaged 559 rushing yards per season throughout his career) and has relied heavily on the passing game for his success. It remains to be seen whether he can efficiently handle a heavier workload on the carries, or if his production will not increase much with those extra carries (see Tatum Bell who averaged something like 6.2 yards per carry on his first 10 carries of each game and only 2.something yards per carry on all additional carries). Correll Buckhalter is finally back after missing the last two seasons due to injuries and looks to provide a more powerful change of pace back and he looked fairly solid in the preseason, but it's yet to be seen how he does against real defenses during the regular season and how much punishment he can withstand. Ryan Moats is another decent speed back, but hasn't had a ton of production in his one season in the league. After all the promises to rejuvenate the rushing game, the Eagles still ranked 28th in the league in rushing yards and fell to 28th in yards per rush during this regular season. Meanwhile, the Texans run defense is probably going to be the strongest area of our team this year. We have a big and athletic front four (average weight of about 295 lbs. between our four starters) that has been very effective at disrupting opposing running games so far, and our LBs have been fairly solid finishing off plays, especially DeMeco Ryans at MLB. Our DBs are also fairly physical and all four current starters are not liabilities in against the run. During the preseason, our defense ranked 10th in rushing yards allowed (92.5) and 13th in yards allowed per rush (3.5) (drastic improvement over 32nd and 30th respectively during last season in the 3-4 cover 2 scheme that Fangio was running).
While Donovan McNabb's mobility will also contribute some to their rushing game, I don't see the Eagles getting more than 60 rushing yards on us barring a fluke long play, and I don't see them averaging much above 3.0 yards per carry. I think this is one area of the game we will beat the Eagles at.
Eagles Passing Game
The Eagles offense is definitely geared towards passing the ball, and with the loss of Terrell Owens there are some doubts as to who will be the main target. The Eagles last year ranked 8th in the league in passing yards while ranking 3rd in passing attempts and only ranking 27th in completion percentage, so they haven't been running an especially efficient passing attack, they frequently look for the big plays rather than making the safe play, which is one big reason why they were 30th in the league in 3rd down efficiency, 26th in time of possession, and 26th in fewest turnovers last regular season, and 22nd in sacks allowed. With Donovan McNabb back at the helm and presumably healthy, they can get away with that a little better than they did during the latter half of last season, but they are still a risk-taking offense, so there will be opportunities for our defense to make big plays and help turn the game in our favor. McNabb's targets will include Reggie Brown who is coming off a pretty strong rookie season, Hank Baskett who is a big target and has looked pretty good in the preseason, and the speedy duo of Donte Stallworth and Greg Lewis. Lewis has had limited but increasing productivity and Stallworth was finally coming around last year in New Orleans, but apparently there are some questions about his game. McNabb also has a nice TE in L.J. Smith, and he can definitely throw a good ball. Their receiving core can give us some matchup problems, as they have some speedy and big tandems, our DL's ability to apply pressure on McNabb and make him try to force some plays will be a big component to our success or lack thereof, and we will need a big game out of our DBs and LBs to prevent them from making big plays. I think we can keep them into nickle and diming the ball downfield, and I think if we can force them to do that, especially if we get good pressure on McNabb in the process, that he will start getting a little impatient and look to force more plays. Our defense has been pretty solid against the pass in the regular season (10th in yards allowed, 16th in completion percentage, 13th in sacks) and is 6th in 3rd down conversions. Although we need our CBs to play tighter on their guys and we need to continue to put better pressure on the QBs, we have prevented big plays (with the exception of the end of the KC game) and have been pretty solid when it matters most. Meanwhile, the Eagles passing offense has dropped to 11th in the league in yards, 26th in completion percentage, 30th in interceptions thrown, 25th in sacks allowed, and still only 24th in 3rd down conversions during this preseason. We probably haven't seen a passing game like this yet this year (the Rams and probably Broncos had much more talented WR groups, but they didn't look to pass as much). I think this will be the key to us winning this game, I have no doubts we can limit their running game, but can we continue to limit 3rd downs, prevent giving up big plays, and create a few big plays of our own?
It'll be very interesting to see how we can do against their passing game, and it will likely be the telling story in whether we win or lose. At this point I can see it going either way.
Eagles defense vs. Texans offense
Texans Running Game
The Texans had a relatively strong running game last year and, despite losing Domanick Davis for the year, the addition of Kubiak's system will only lead to better things for the Texans running game. The Texans have two pretty unproven players in Vernand Morency and Wali Lundy guiding to rushing attack with Ron Dayne as a third option, and the rushing attack has looked potent in this preseason. In the preseason, our offense ranked 6th in rushing yards and 3rd in yards per carry. The Eagles run defense was fairly solid but nothing special last year (21st in yards allowed although 10th in yards per rush, which no doubt helped them achieve their 5th place ranking in 3rd down conversions). They have added a few new players on defense, but overall it is pretty much the same, and in the preseason they ranked 19th in rushing yards allowed, 16th in yards per carry, and 21st in 3rd down conversions. They have a fairly strong LB core behind a DLine that is certainly one of the 3 best in the NFL, and although their DLine is built much more for speed and pass rushing than strength and run stopping (average weight of right around 280 lbs), those speedier lines can cause more trouble for zone blocking schemes because their more athletic DLinemen can get in the running gaps and disrupt plays better than bigger, slower lines.
If we can continue on the success that we had in the preseason, we should be able to move the ball well on the ground and keep our offense from getting into too many situations where they have to pass the ball, which will limit the Eagles explosive DLine from getting opportunities to tee off on Carr. I think we should be able to run the ball pretty effectively against the Eagles, I'm looking for 120+ yards on 4.5 yards per carry and we should be looking nice.
Texans Passing Game
The Texans passing game was horrible last year, but with the new system comes a new beginning in that phase of our offense too. In the preseason we still only ranked 18th in passing yards, but we were 5th in completion percentage, gave up the 3rd fewest sacks, and only threw one interception, so we were running a much more efficient offense. They have a couple good CBs in Brown and Sheppard and have a nice pair of safeties in Dawkins and Lewis, but we do have two big, very good targets in Johnson and Moulds, so we should be able to get the ball to the two of them if we get our offense running effectively. The Eagles defense 3rd in passing yards allowed, 10th in completion percentage, 1st in sacks, and 4th in interceptions during this preseason after finishing 21st in yards allowed, 16th in completion percentage, 26th in sacks, and 10th in interceptions last year. They also definitely look for the big plays on defense, sometimes at the expense of giving up some big plays (26th in NFL in yards allowed per completion last year), so there will be some opprtunities for big plays, especially if they start running some aggressive blitzes and schemes, and it will help out a lot if we can use play action and move the pocket around to help avoid some of this pressure and keep Carr a little more in his comfort zone.
We got off to a few slow starts, but I think if we can establish the running game a little better early on in the game and then use more play actions and roll outs to get Carr in a better rhythm and get him out of the pocket early then that will get us off to a much better start. Carr still is noticably jittery in the pocket, and the Eagles DLine can definitely provide a lot of pressure if we put ourselves in situations where we have to throw the ball, but I think their aggressive defense can be used against them in play actions. A big key to our passing game will be the effectiveness of our running game early and our ability to get Carr out on the move to relieve pressure and find open players downfield. This is also a little hard to predict at this point in time and could end up being pretty crucial in our ability to sustain drives, keep our defense off the field, maybe come up with a couple big plays, and put up some points.
There, that's my
on the matchups this weekend, I will refrain from joining the pretty pointless argument between our fans and the Eagles fans on here as neither side has any chance of convincing the other side until Sunday afternoon rolls around, not to mention the apparent lack of knowledge and intelligence coming from one of the fronts in the argument anyways, but I guess that's to be expected with the lack of respect we get from the national media.
are hoisting the team onto their shoulders.
and start preparing more dynamic gameplans.