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Your In-Depth Eagles vs. Packers Week 12 Preview

Adrian Fedkiw|

At 5-5, the Philadelphia Eagles’ backs are against the wall and we’re going to find out Monday night if they will keep their season alive or be on the verge of packing it in.

The same came be said about the Green Bay Packers, who limp in losing four straight and sit at 4-6 on the season.

Which team will prevail?

 

EAGLES PASSING GAME VS. PACKERS PASS DEFENSE

PHI- 84.0 Passer Rating (23/32), 222 YPG (25/32)
GB- 105.5 Passer Rating allowed (31/32), 266 YPG allowed (23/32)

I’m going to take this opportunity to say that it’s perfectly fine to cast some blame toward Carson Wentz’s way because he hasn’t played his best football the last month or so. He continues to perceive pressure that isn’t there, he’s not setting his feet in the pocket, which is leading to overthrows, and locks onto one receiver a lot of the time.

No, he doesn’t have a lot of weapons to work with, but that’s not an excuse for his mechanical flaws at the moment.

Wentz has been given a free pass by the Philadelphia fans and I’m trying to figure out why. It almost feels like they’re afraid and insecure to do so because of how good that other rookie in Dallas has played. The No. 2 overall pick is going through some rookie growing pains like most first-year quarterbacks do., Dak Prescott hasn’t really hit that wall yet. He’s been outstanding.

With all that being said, Wentz is on track to put up the same stats as Russell Wilson did his rookie season, but he hasn’t looked like the same player that we saw the first three games.

But if there’s a week for Wentz to get back on track it’s Monday night against a lowly secondary that’s been forced to play a lot of inexperienced cornerbacks because Sam Shields and Damarious Randall have missed a ton of games due to injuries. Quinten Rollins, LaDarius Gunter and Demetri Goodson have struggled mightily.

And if there’s a week for Nelson Agholor to make an impact, it’s this one. And he better because he’s on his last straw.

The second-year wideout opened up about his poor play and continuous mistakes following Sunday’s 26-15 loss to the Seattle Seahawks and stated that he’s in his own head.

The comments led head coach Doug Pederson to changing his approach on Agholor during his Monday press conference.

“Sometimes you have to take a step back in order to move forward. Sometimes that can help clear your head,” he said. “I remember as a quarterback back in 1999 when Andy pulled me out and put Donovan in, it was a step back to possibly go forward and get me to see it differently. That way, too, you can begin to clear your head and see it where you don’t have the pressure of performing on you all the time.”

Here’s some of what Pederson had to say about Agholor Wednesday.

“This will be a big week for him,” he said. “How he handles it mentally, how he reacts with his teammates, how he reacts on the practice field with the things that have fallen in his lap. Just how well he responds. And can he handle a little adversity in his career?”

I’m really curious to see how Pederson handles snap distribution between Agholor and undrafted rookies Bryce Treggs and Paul Turner, who was called up from the practice squad a couple days

While Agholor is the storyline heading into the game, the production of the tight ends and running backs is what might lead the Eagles to victory.

The tight ends and running backs posted 17 of the 25 Wentz completions against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 10 and had 13 of the 23 Wentz completions in the Seattle game. And that includes all the garbage-time receptions Dorial Green-Beckham had late. Pederson is using his tight ends a lot more and I love it because it masks the deficiencies the Birds have at wide receiver.

They used Trey Burton out wide on several occasions and I might prefer him being out there than Agholor, Turner or Treggs.


Check out this play near the goal line with all three tight ends lined out wide to the left and the result was a touchdown.


I love it.

 

EAGLES RUNNING GAME VS. PACKERS RUN DEFENSE

PHI- 4.3 YPC (13/32), 118.3 YPG (6/32)
GB- 3.7 YPC allowed (8/32), 91.1 YPG allowed (6/32)

The offensive line has been run blocking very well the last few weeks and the Eagles are looking more and more like the ball-control offense Pederson wants them to be.

The Eagles averaged 4.35 yards per carry against a defense that had surrendered 3.5 yards per tote coming into last week’s game against Seattle, the third best mark in the league. Philadelphia totaled 113 yards on 26 carries in all.

Jason Kelce had another solid outing in run blocking and the Eagles in general have toted the rock very well off the left side of their line the last two weeks.

The Eagles had to do some mixing and matching along the offensive line this past week following the MCL sprain to rookie right tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai, who is week-to-week. Allen Barbre will move out to right tackle from left guard and Stefen Wisniewski will fill in for him at left guard.
Wendell Smallwood is probably going to get a bulk of the work with Ryan Mathews suffering a knee sprain.

Pederson announced during his press conference that Mathews is day-to-day with that injury and Sproles will be held out of practice with a rib fracture, but is expected to play next Monday night. Mathews was wearing a brace and limping when he walked out of the locker room following Sunday’s loss, according to Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane. It’s a bit hard to believe he’s day-to-day following that report, but we’ll see.

Mathews has run the ball well the last two weeks since losing his carries to Sproles. He’s carried it 26 times for 140 yards in those two games, good for a 5.4 yards per carry clip. He’s looked a lot more decisive with his cuts and bounces to the outside than he did earlier in the season.

Pederson explained that he should be able to suit up Monday because the fracture is in a “safe” area. Having Sproles is vital, obviously, especially in the passing game and on special teams. He ran a lot of option routes against Atlanta and converted several key third downs.

Aaron Rodgers has played a lot better the last four games than he did earlier in the season, totaling 12 touchdowns and three interceptions while averaging over 300 yards per game.

There’s a misconception about what the mobile quarterback is. There’s more to being athletic than running and escaping the pocket and gaining yards on the ground. I mean, Rodgers isn’t as athletic as Cam Newton and Russell Wilson, but what he does is extend plays using his feet. He eludes rushers in the backfield, escapes the pocket while keeping his eyes downfield and delivers accurate balls while getting rid of it using his lightning quick release. So he uses his ability to extend and find open receivers instead of take off and pick up as many yards as he can on the ground. There’s no quarterback in the game that uses his feet as intelligently as Rodgers does.

So with Rodgers, not only do you have a quarterback that’s your traditional pocket passer that delivers the ball accurately and on time, he can also escape it and throw pees on the move. No other quarterback has both of those qualities to the extent of what Rodgers does. Rodgers throws with anticipation and places the ball into tight windows by controlling the velocity and trajectory of his passes.

Can the Eagles get pressure on Rodgers so they can hide the weaknesses of their cornerbacks, who will be without the concussed Leodis McKelvin. They average 3.8 sacks per game at home compared to 1.9 on the road.

Rodgers, however, gets rid of the ball so fast and has such a quick release, it’ll be interesting to see if even he can let it loose before the heat gets to him.

Jordy Nelson is still not the same player he was prior to his ACL injury, but still poses a big threat. Randall Cobb is really quick and shifty after the catch and DaVante Adams has had his best season so far during his three-year career. The Eagles will also have to account for tight end Jared Cook, who continues to get more and more targets each week.

 

PACKERS RUNNING GAME VS. EAGLES RUN DEFENSE

PHI- 4.5 YPC allowed (25/32), 105.7 YPG allowed (19/32)
GB- 4.6 YPC (8/32), 100.6 YPG (19/32)

The Packers’ running game has been depleted since the loss of Eddie Lacy and in disarray. Starter James Starks has been only averaging 2.5 yards per carry this season and the running game has been so bad lately that wide receiver Ty Montgomery has gotten to tote the rock.

Green Bay is basically a one-dimensional offense at this point.

The Eagles, however, have had some struggles stopping the run. The Seahawks came into the game averaging 77.7 rushing yards per contest, which was 30th in the NFL, but they ran for 152 yards on Sunday. They’ve also allowed the Redskins to gain 230 yards on the ground. We’ll see which run defense shows up Monday.

 

PREDICTION- The Eagles are 4-0 at home and their defense benefits the most from the home cooking, but it will be their ball control offense which leads them to victory. Philadelphia controlled the clock during its win over Matt Ryan two weeks ago and I believe it’ll do the same Monday. The Eagles will run the ball well, move the chains and keep Rodgers off the field.

31-24 Eagles

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