The Eagles are less than 24 hours away from a clash with the Cardinals that could either see a run for the NFC East crown ignited or extinguished. Here are five bold predictions ahead of the matchup.
The Sooner the better
Jalen Hurts will face off against fellow Oklahoma alumni Kyler Murray this weekend. The two share a birthday (one year apart), both were born in Texas, and can absolutely ruin defenses with their dynamic athleticism. Who comes out on top is all going to come down to whether or not the Eagles defense can stop a plethora of offensive playmakers, and whether or not Jalen Hurts can manage the game and aim to keep Murray and the Cardinals off the field.
This is a big game for both teams. The Eagles are on the road and with two divisional matchups to close out the season, they can’t afford to drop the ball here after an upset win over the Saints.
Kyler Murray may be the better quarterback right now, but the Cards offense has been inconsistent in recent weeks. In four of his last games, he’s passed for under 250 yards, with the team losing three of them. While throwing 5 touchdowns and 2 picks in that span, his rushing ability has been largely negated, with four consecutive performances with 50 yards on the ground or less. Seven of his nine opening games featured 50+ rushing yards on his part.
My first bold prediction is that the Jalen Hurts and the Eagles can manage the game offensively with long drives filled with checkdowns and short-passes, and aim to keep Murray’s cannon of an arm and rocket legs twiddling their thumbs on the sidelines en-route to a second consecutive upset win.
Breakin’ a Sweat
Josh Sweat’s 2020 breakout has been one of the few bright spots this season. He’s been an absolute force to be reckoned with coming off the edge and has 6 sacks to his name after picking up a pair against the Saints in explosive fashion.
Sweat’s role has grown nicely as the year has gone on, with the 23-year old seeing around 40% of snaps on a consistent basis. The Cardinals have only allowed 21 sacks this season, but the Eagles won’t be too concerned with bringing him down as much as they will be keeping him in the pocket and forcing him to make heroic throws, giving their interior-pass rush (which is also thriving) a chance to get home.
With this in mind, I predict Sweat will play a key role, rallying to a matched career-high 6 tackles, 1 QB hit, 1 TFL and 1 sack.
Eagles will be seeing more of Seymour
Kevon Seymour saw 35 snaps last week for the Eagles and on the surface, appeared to be bullied by Emmanuel Sanders. Upon closer inspection, the passes given up were much more a result of miscommunication on the back end than they were his coverage, which was actually surprisingly impressive. With a plethora of injuries haunting the secondary, he’ll likely see a further boost in snaps.
Coming up against Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk will be no easy task for the former sixth-round pick, but I believe he should enough deep speed (4.39 40-yard dash) and awareness of responsibility to hold his own and take away some of those deeper threats – something Jalen Mills is physically unable to do.
I predict Seymour will have 5 tackles, 1 PBU, and his first ever NFL interception in yet another game where an underdog rises late in the season.
The Eagles have a running game?
The fact that the New Orleans Saints went 55 games without conceding 100-yards on the ground to a single player, only to lose it to not only Jalen Hurts, but Miles Sanders, makes my heart sing. Do the Eagles actually have a running game? Maybe, just maybe.
The Cardinals are giving up 119.5 rushing yards per game this season and the Eagles offense is averaging 126.5. Over the last three weeks, however, they’re averaging 144.3.
It might be ‘too little, too late’, but the fact that the Eagles are showing an intent to run the ball and let Jalen Hurts be the athletic playmaker he proved to be as a Senior last year has to be commended. This is the perfect spot to show that the recent spike in rushing form isn’t just a fluke.
As a result, I’m predicting the Eagles will post over 150 rushing yards on Sunday.
Pryor to the snap
Matt Pryor will be starting at Right Tackle this week due to Jack Driscoll’s MCL sprain, which is a minor quibble in itself. However, starting against Hasson Reddick after he posted a franchise-record 5 sacks against the Giants makes that quibble somewhat major.
There is something we’re forgetting though. The Eagles have been for. Halapoulivaati Vaitai was supposedly mismatched against Everson Griffen back in the 2017 playoff demolition job, along with several other key matchups. Jeff Stoutland did a great job of using TE’s to provide some extra help and providing double teams from the inside. There’s a strong chance we see much of the same tomorrow, with there being a clear weakness the team have to account for.
Finally, I predict that Matt Pryor will give up 0 sacks to Reddick.
I said bold…right?
Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire
