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Pridružen/-a: 11.04. 2018, 07:01
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 Objavljeno: 19 Dec 2018 03:43 Naslov sporočila: Eagles Fans Rooting Guide for NFL Week 3 Games |
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The Philadelphia Eagles are back in action today for the first time since losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last week. The Eagles are off to a 1-1 start Philadelphia Eagles Hats , which is OK, but this weekend could potentially get even better for them. With that in mind, here’s what Eagles fans should be rooting for on Sunday.EAGLES GAMEIndianapolis Colts at Philadelphia Eagles: The Eagles can advance to 2-1 by beating the Colts. Beating an AFC team is the “least” valuable win but hey, a win’s a win. Let’s hope Philadelphia can get it done. Root for the Eagles, obviously.NFC EAST GAMESGreen Bay Packers at Washington Redskins: The Packers could very well be the bigger threat to the Eagles in the NFC. But let’s focus on the division first. Washington dropping to 1-2 would be good for the Eagles considering it looks like either them or Dallas will be the Eagles’ biggest threat in the NFC East. Root for the Packers.New York Giants at Houston Texans: Seeing the Giants drop to 0-3 would be great. But considering how bad it seems like they’re going to be this year, it wouldn’t be the first thing for them to luck into a win over an AFC team. Root for the loss but don’t be pissed if New York wins. It could ultimately hurt their draft position as they look for a new franchise quarterback. Root for the Texans.Dallas Cowboys at Seattle Seahawks: Cowboys fans are convinced their season is saved after beating up on a crappy Giants team. It’d be great to see Dallas fans back down in the dumps after a loss in Seattle. Root for the Seahawks.NFC GAMESNew Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons: The Saints sure haven’t looked great this season. But I still believe they might just turn it on at some point. I’m more worried about the Saints at their best than the Falcons at their best. Plus we know the Eagles already have a direct tie-breaker over Atlanta. So I’ll take a New Orleans loss. Root for the Falcons.Buffalo Bills at Minnesota Vikings: Seems pretty pointless to root for the Bills as 17-point underdogs but that’s what this game calls for. Shock the world, Josh Allen. Root for the Bills.Cincinnati Bengals at Carolina Panthers: Easy call to root for the AFC team as they go up against an NFC Team. Plus I want to see Marvin Lewis make it to the playoffs and lose in his first game once again. I’m really curious how many times he can lose in the first round before getting fired. Can he eventually get to 0-10 and still stick around? Root for the Bengals.San Francisco 49ers at Kansas City Chiefs: Root for the AFC team against the NFC team. Plus, Pat Mahomes is really fun! And it’s nice to see Andy Reid doing well. Root for the Chiefs.Los Angeles Chargers at Los Angeles Rams: It’d be great to see the Rams lose to the Chargers. Knock the media darlings off their block. Root for the Chargers.Chicago Bears at Arizona Cardinals: The Bears obviously pose more of a threat to the Eagles than the Cardinals do. And it’s not like Arizona is going to draft a quarterback if they have the worst record. So we might as well root for them to get an unlikely win here. Root for futility in the form of Sam Bradford.New England Patriots at Detroit Lions: It’d be pretty hilarious if the Pats lost this. But I guess I’d rather the Lions continue to lose. Root against the Lions.Pittsburgh Steelers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers: It’s early, yeah, but the Bucs look dangerous. They obviously just beat the Eagles last week. Let’s hope the AFC team finds a way to win here. Root for the Steelers.DRAFT PICK WATCHDenver Broncos at Baltimore Ravens: The 2019 second-round pick the Eagles received from the Ravens will be more favorable if Baltimore continues to lose. So let’s hope the Broncos knock the Ravens down to 1-2. Root for the Broncos.WHAT’S LEFTOakland Raiders at Miami Dolphins: I think the Raiders are in danger of being very, very bad which means they might be able to get a higher draft pick than the Giants will. So might as well continue to hope for them to lose for now. Root for the Dolphins.Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars: Well, the Eagles play the Titans next week. It wouldn’t be so bad to see them look crappy and lose. But if they do that, some people will say they’ll be hungry to bounce back in Week 4. So you can choose your narrative. I’d say let’s hope both teams look unimpressive and the Jags win, I guess. Root for the Jaguars. Is there anything in football more divisive than Pro Football Focus grades? No? Good. Fact is, you either hate them or love them, but I do believe that they serve as a solid guide and are necessary to their business model.With that in mind, let’s see who PFF has as the top 5 graded players on the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles halfway through the season.(you can learn more about the PFF grading system here)Fletcher Cox – 92.4 (2nd, IDL)Cox is putting together his best season in his quest for hardware and is the Eagles’ most consistent performer week-to-week. His 49 pressures rank 2nd among all defenders and he’s on pace for 8 sacks on the season, a large number for an interior defender.He’s doing this while constantly receiving extra attention and center slides that free up his running mates to inflict damage on enemy quarterbacks. For example Philadelphia Eagles Hoodie , in the Atlanta Falcons Week 1 game I charted his 46 pass rushes and found that he received a double or meaningful contact from a second blocker on 59% of those snaps.He’s also been a force in the middle on the Eagles’ 4th ranked run defense.Outside of Aaron Donald, no defensive lineman is putting together the complete season Cox has to this point.Brandon Graham - 90.3 (3rd, EDGE)Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the sack number (1.5) isn’t reflecting how well Brandon Graham is playing. 
Graham has accumulated 24 pressures, second on the team to Cox, and ranks 15th in PFF’s pass rush productivity metric for edge defenders. That said, there’s a discussion to be had about if the lack of finishes from Graham is due to a lack of juice caused by his long recovery from an ankle injury suffered last year.Putting that aside, he’s still been impactful in all areas of the game. A dog against the run and a match-up problem when kicked inside against the pass, Graham has a complete, steady game and is capable from rushing the passer and stopping the run from all alignments.As an aside, is it actually a good thing for the Eagles that Graham’s sack numbers aren’t reflecting his level of play? It could come into play when Howie Roseman sits down with Graham at the negotiation table. Just a thought.Carson Wentz - 83.9 (9th, QB)We can bicker about his ranking, but here’s what matters: Wentz is back and he is the same franchise quarterback that he was before his injury. After knocking off some rust in a tight contest against the Indianapolis Colts, Wentz’s terrific play since returning has quieted the lazy off-season media talk that he might be the next Robert Griffin III.His trademark escapability has remained a key part of his game and remains a plus for him despite the occasional slips into unnecessary hero ball. His ability to extend plays has led to some key plays for the Eagles and even garnered the praise of Jacksonville Jaguars’ lineman Calais Campbell.Wentz has thrown for multiple touchdowns in 5 straight games while only throwing 2 interceptions this season. He’s completing 70.7% of his passes, a feat made only more impressive considering his yards per attempt are up from last year (7.5 > 7.9). A lot of this has to do with his excellent ability to place balls in tight windows which has been aided by the return of Alshon Jeffery.As fans, we have an anxiety-filled second half of the season ahead of us, but having Wentz for that stretch and beyond makes things a little easier. Warts and all, there’s not many quarterbacks in the league that can play at his level.Jason Kelce - 81.0 (1st, C)There wasn’t a better center in the league last year than Jason Kelce and the same can be said for this year. To be clear, Kelce hasn’t been as dominant as last year Youth Customized Philadelphia Eagles Jerseys , but his current standing among centers reflects how magnificent he was in 2017. He hasn’t shown up on any injury reports, but he has worn a brace on his knee and there’s been talk of him getting extra rest during the week to ensure he’s as close to 100% as possible on game day.Injury or not, he’s the catalyst for the Eagles’ offense and allows them to be so diverse in their schemes. His work in space is elite and he consistently gets to the second level of the defense to seal off linebackers.He’s also been stout as a pass protector. Kelce is a much needed anchor in the middle of a line that has surrendered far too many sacks this year. His 99.3 pass blocking efficiency ranks 3rd among all centers and he’s allowed 0 sacks and only 5 pressures on the year.Kelce always had an excellent all-around game, but in the last two years he’s avoided the drive-crippling penalties and snap blunders that plagued his game in the past. This has allowed him to showcase the full range of his game without a frustrating shadow looming over it. Plus, he will live forever in Eagles’ and NFL lore for the greatest Super Bowl parade speech of all-time.Lane Johnson - 77.9 (9th, T)I’ll admit, I was surprised when I saw how high Lane Johnson ranked despite mine and Benjamin Solak’s protestations that he wasn’t nearly as bad as some were making him out to be earlier in the season. There’s no question that he has been beat clean more than we are accustomed to seeing, but Wentz’s ball security issues and some bad luck also exacerbated those plays and blew them up to be more than what they were.That’s an opinion, one you may disagree with, and that’s fine. I’ll concede he definitely wasn’t playing at the level we expected, but the rumblings about benching him was a bridge too far. We also can’t ignore his contributions in the run game, which bolster his grade.What I think we can all agree on is that Johnson returning as soon as possible from his MCL sprain is critical to this offensive line. Jason Peters has struggled and will be on the injury report for every remaining week this year. That fact, coupled with Johnson’s injury, is going to lead to some weird configurations along a thin offensive line that could prove disastrous.After surrendering 19 pressures and 4 sacks in the first four games of the season, Johnson rebounded and spent the next four games allowing only 7 pressures and 1 sack. This was done while battling through a high ankle sprain suffered in Week 5. It’s not often you see a struggling player turn his season around while hobbled, but the talk around Johnson has shifted from one of concern about his play, to one of concern about him not playing.The Best of the RestWith the off-season injury to Timmy Jernigan and in-season injury of Derek Barnett, Michael Bennett (77.7) has proven to be a key addition and an absolute terror. Alshon Jeffery’s return (76.7) has been crucial for an offense that lacked outside weapons to start the season. The 33-year old Chris Long (76.5) continues to play at a high level and his contributions will be even more important moving forward. |
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