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Your In-Depth Eagles at Chargers Week 4 Preview

Adrian Fedkiw|

Imagine if Jeffrey Lurie decided to move his team down the road to Chester and starting playing home games at Talen Energy Stadium.

That’s basically what happened to the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Chargers, who moved from San Diego and the 70,000-seat Qualcomm stadium, now reside at an MLS stadium called StubHub arena that holds roughly 30,000 people. Attendance has been lacking and Kansas City Chiefs fans outnumbered the Chargers’ last Sunday. We’ll see how much green turns up inside the stadium in Carson, California on Sunday.

 

EAGLES PASSING GAME VS. CHARGERS PASS DEFENSE
PHI- 90.3 PASSER RATING (16/32), 253 YPG (10/32)
LAC- 104.7 PASSER RATING ALLOWED (27/32), 176 YPG ALLOWED (5/32)

Carson Wentz’s deep ball accuracy needs to improve, he’s just 4-of-16 on throws 20 yards or more and missed a wide open Alshon Jeffery along the left sideline Sunday for a wide open touchdown. He’s missed a couple to his No. 1 target Jeffery, who has racked up 186 yards on 14 receptions so far through three games. Those totals could look sexier if Wentz can start hitting his shots down the field more consistently.

The injury to Chargers cornerback Jason Verrett in the secondary is a big loss for the Bolts. He is scheduled to undergo surgery on his left knee, the same one that he tore his ACL in last season and forced him to play in only four games. The talented TCU product will finish the year on injured reserve for the third time in four seasons. He’s missed 34 of the 69 possible games that he’s been in.

With Verrett now out, the Chargers will turn to Trevor Williams as the starter opposite of Pro-Bowl cornerback Casey Hayward. The second-year corner out of Penn State Williams was signed to the Chargers’ practice squad last year and has worked his way up to the main roster. He’s been solid. Fifth-round rookie Desmond King is another option for Los Angeles if it chooses to go that route.

Since the Chargers don’t move their cornerbacks around, I’d think that Pederson will try to exploit Verrett’s absence by attacking Williams with Jeffery. He did it against the Kansas City Chiefs and caused a matchup problem in the slot with Jeffery going against Phillip Gaines. Five of Jeffery’s seven receptions in that Kansas City game were away from Marcus Peters. Hayward, while extremely underrated, doesn’t possess the same skill level as Josh Norman, Peters and Janoris Jenkins do, but I’m taking my chances with Jeffery going against a second-year unproven corner. By the way, in 45 snaps against that trio of corners, Jeffery has been targeted 10 times and has only caught five balls for 38 yards.

Williams was originally Los Angeles’ nickel cornerback, so they’ll have to make a change their too. Maybe that’ll open up things for Nelson Agholor, who has totaled just three receptions and 29 yards since putting up six receptions for 86 yards and a score in Week 1. Let’s also trot out Mack Hollins a couple more times this week too.

 

EAGLES RUNNING GAME VS. CHARGERS RUN DEFENSE
PHI- 4.5 YPC (8/32), 119.3 YPG (9/32)
LAC- 4.7 YPC ALLOWED (27/32), 146.7 YPG ALLOWED (31/32)

Pederson finally ran the ball last Sunday and it was extremely effective!

The Eagles carried the ball 39 times as opposed to 31 passes, with 33 of them being designed runs by the running backs. Those 33 totes went for 171 yards and two touchdowns. LeGarrette Blount totaled 67 yards and a touchdown on 12 runs, while Wendell Smallwood recorded 71 yards on 12 carries. Pederson also mixed in undrafted rookie Corey Clement, who saw six carries for 22 yards and a score. Philadelphia was also equally adept in running the ball out of shotgun as they were from under center, with the team tallying 17 carries from under center for 91 yards (5.35 YPC) and a touchdown, while running it 16 times out of gun for 80 yards (5 YPC).

The Eagles are now 7-1 when they run the ball 30-or-more times during Pederson’s tenure. LeGarrette Blount talked about the running game.

I take pride in running the football well and hitting big plays. … It’s a mentality. You gotta get everybody on board. You have to get everybody into the game. It’s not like you get a 10- or 15-yard run every time you get the ball. They come few and far between. So whenever you do that, the emotions come running and you fire your offense up. You can fire your defense up. It can fire your whole team up. And you guys know what can happen if that momentum carries on.

Chance Warmack and Stefen Wisniewski rotated in and out of the game at left guard, with Warmack being thrust into action primarily when Blount was in the backfield and Wisniewski seeing playing time when Wendell Smallwood and Corey Clement checked in. Warmack is a power player that moves people backward, while Wiz is more athletic and more adept on the outside zone and sweep blocks. Honestly, though, after the way Wisniewski played on Sunday, I’d have him in at left guard full time. The blocking from the offensive line as a whole was phenomenal.

The Chargers are currently allowing 4.7 yards per carry and lead the NFL in missed tackles. I’m expecting another 30-plus carry afternoon.

CHARGERS PASSING GAME VS. EAGLES PASS DEFENSE
PHI- 94.0 PASSER RATING ALLOWED (16/32), 266 YPG ALLOWED (25/32)
LAC- 81.7 PASSER RATING (22/32), 245 YPG (11/32)

All the talk leading into the Giants game was how many sacks the dominant Eagles defensive line could post against Eli Manning and the woeful New York offensive line. Turns out, the Eagles didn’t get any. That’s because the Giants used a quick passing game to get the ball out quickly and negate the Eagles’ pass rush. I expect the same type of formula out of the Chargers and Philip Rivers, who has a lightning-quick release.

That means a lot of pressure will be on the cornerbacks to stop the underrated receiving core of the Bolts comprising of Keenan Allen, Tyrell Williams, Travis Benjamin and Dontrelle Inman. They held their own against the Giants last week despite criticism for Jalen Mills, who was targeted an astonishing 21 times, the most in a single week the past 10 years. Fifteen of those targets went for 119 yards and two touchdowns, with Odell Beckham snagging nine of them for 79 yards. Mills, however, didn’t allow a reception over 14 yards, he didn’t yield more than 23 yards after the catch and his coverage on the touchdowns weren’t terrible, Beckham is simply a special talent that can do unimaginable things.

While Mills was being picked on seemingly every play, Rasul Douglas and Patrick Robinson stepped up. Douglas’ progression has been very encouraging. In Week 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs we saw the instincts and tackling ability on full display. On Sunday, we saw the ball skills. He is in better position than Brandon Marshall on this deep ball against the left sideline and easily snatches that pass out of the air for the interception. He did miss a couple tackles against Marshall later in the game, but another solid outing by the rookie.

Rodney McLeod is back at practice following a hamstring injury and is expected to play this week. He was missed Sunday as Chris Maragos allowed a touchdown after taking a poor angle to Sterling Shepard on this reception. Safeties Jaylen Watkins and Corey Graham also missed the Giants game due to hamstring injuries.

CHARGERS RUNNING GAME VS. EAGLES RUN DEFENSE
PHI- 4.2 YPC ALLOWED (19/32), 75 YPG ALLOWED (6/32)
LAC- 3.4 YPC (24/32), 70.7 YPG (27/32)

When you exclude the 53-yard touchdown run by Kareem Hunt in Week 2, the Eagles are allowing just 3.30 yards per carry this season. Will Fletcher Cox be able to play this weekend? He suffered a calf injury during the Giants game and did not practice on Wednesday. According to Les Bowen of Philly.com, Cox is expected to miss a few games.

Melvin Gordon got going last week against Kansas City. After averaging just 2.5 yards per carry coming into the game, Gordon carried the ball 17 times for 79 yards and a touchdown. Most of that total came in the first half since Gordon suffered a knee injury after halftime. That injury was said to just be a bone bruise and Gordon is expected to play this coming Sunday.

 

PREDICTION:
This has all the makings of the prototypical trap game. The Eagles are coming off the highest of highs following Jake Elliott’s 61-yard game-winner and now have to travel all the way across the country to play in an MLS stadium the Chargers call home. I expect the Eagles to come out flat going against an 0-3 team that’s better than their record indicates. There’s something about this team that feels different. After the Birds fell down 21-14 last week, that was surely a game they would’ve lost last year. When the Eagles played the Lions last year in Detroit, a similar scenario, the Birds laid a dud. I think they’ll start slow again this week, but find a way to win in the end. This team has a different feel to it.

24-23, Eagles.

 

You can follow Adrian Fedkiw on Twitter (@AdrianFedkiw) and e-mail him at [email protected]. Subscribe to The Bitter Birds on YouTube here. Follow Philly Influencer on Twitter (@PHL_Influencer), Facebook and Instagram.

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