Menu Close

Your In-Depth Eagles at Chiefs Week 2 Preview

Adrian Fedkiw|

Andy Reid doesn’t look like a big red tomato anymore, he’s shrunk in size and looking good!

His football team doesn’t look too shabby either.

The Kansas City Chiefs shocked the NFL world last Thursday night when they went into Foxborough and upset the New England Patriots 42-27 in the season opener. After a win like that, could the Chiefs be riding a high and potentially get caught off guard when the Philadelphia Eagles come to town this Sunday afternoon in Arrowhead?

Andy Reid is 8-3 against former assistants, but this will be the first time he’ll be matching up with Doug Pederson, who was an offensive coordinator under Reid for three years in Kansas City prior to being hired as a head coach by the Eagles. He also spent three seasons as a quarterbacks coach under Big Red in Philly.

Pederson wants to kick Reid’s tail.

It will be fun to see him over there, Big Red on the other side. But at the same time, I know he wants to kick my tail and I want to kick his.

Listen, Andy Reid teams are well prepared, as we know, and we’ve got to do the same thing this week. We’ve just got to be ultra prepared. That [Arrowhead Stadium] is a tough place to play now. It is a loud, loud place and we’ve got to be able to handle that crowd noise. We’ve got to do it through communication, nonverbal communication. All that has to be on point this week in practice, but it will be fun. It will be fun to get out there. But again, once we tee it up and kick it off, it’s all about the business and all about the game.

Pederson also discussed what he learned under Reid.

Consistency. Being honest, being open, and being fair with the players. Teaching, coaching, probably the biggest things.

And just — I think it’s the attention to detail that he has with his players and his coaches, and those are some of the biggest things I’ve learned from him.

We’ll see who kicks whose tail Sunday.

 

EAGLES PASSING GAME VS. CHIEFS PASS DEFENSE

PHI- 96.8 PASSER RATING (9/32), 298 YPG (5/32)
KC- 70.0 PASSER RATING ALLOWED (7/32), 247 YPG ALLOWED (16/32)

Carson Wentz was a whopping 9-of-11 for 148 yards on third down Sunday against the Redskins, a perfect passer rating of 158.3. What was even more impressive about the Eagles’ 8-of-14 efficiency on the down, the average distance was 8.14 yards and 10 of the conversions were 3rd-and-6 or more. So that means while the running game wasn’t good on first and second down, at least you had a quarterback that was able to mask that.

And what can you say about the scramble and 58-yard touchdown to Agholor? This is something I’ve seen more and more from Wentz, especially since the latter portion of his rookie season. He has unbelievable pocket presence when getting into scramble mode, using his strong lower body to bounce off arm tackles and agility to duck underneath would-be tackles. The first glimpse came in Week 3 against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Wentz’s 73-yard TD toss to Darren Sproles. We saw it more and more before it peaked against the Giants and we saw the duck move.

Wentz is beginning to make the impossible look routine.

How will the Eagles attack the Chiefs’ cornerbacks? Marcus Peters shuts down half of the field, but also stays on one side. He didn’t allow a single reception to the New England Patriots in the opener. Alshon Jeffery was quiet in his debut, catching just three passes for 38 yards, so will Pederson move Jeffery around the formation to create better matchup or keep him on Peters. Terrance Mitchell made some plays for the Chiefs last week, but that’s a better matchup for Jeffery than Peters.

The X-factor Sunday is Nelson Agholor and I can’t believe I’m saying it. The Patriots found a lot of success offensively last Thursday using Danny Amendola’s mismatch over Philip Gaines in the slot. Amendola caught six passes for 100 yards before exiting late in the third quarter. He beat Gaines continuously on the corner route. Agholor had an impressive opener. He was on the receiving end of Wentz’s magical escape for a 58-yard score and four of his six receptions came on third down. He totaled 86 yards in all, showing off his quickness coming out of his break.


While I took the positive route to Wentz and his elusive scrambling ability above, you can also look at the other side of the ledger and say he’s holding onto the ball too long and the offensive line isn’t doing a good enough job pass protecting. Both are true and this Justin Houston-led KC defense can get after the quarterback, at least when Houston is healthy. Houston has missed 16 games the last two years due to knee problems and the Chiefs registered just 28 sacks a year ago, which was the fifth fewest. They sacked Tom Brady three times in the opener, however, including a pair for Houston. He makes a difference.

 

EAGLES RUNNING GAME VS. CHIEFS RUN DEFENSE

PHI- 2.4 YPC (27/32), 58 YPG (24/32)
KC- 4.5 YPC ALLOWED (27/32), 124 YPG ALLOWED (22/32)

I spoke about the average distance on third down above, 8.14 yards, that was most due to an inept Eagles rushing attack on first and second down. They averaged just 2.79 yards on first and second down, with Wendell Smallwood recording a measly six yards on five attempts. LeGarrette Blount carried the ball 12 times for 45 yards on first and second down, averaging 3.75 yards per carry. So that was better, but the former Patriot, who has a career average of 4.6 yards-per carry in the fourth quarter, only saw the ball four times in the final frame. That I didn’t like.

Kansas City’s defense yielded just 3.54 yards per carry against New England last week. Houston, along with being a fantastic pass rusher, also sets the edge well in the running game. He’s the most under-appreciated player in the NFL, in my opinion.

Pederson talked all offseason about wanting to get more balance in the running game, but we didn’t see it last week. The Eagles threw the ball 39 times as opposed to 20 runs and it appeared as if Pederson abandoned the run a lot more after Blount failed to convert a 3-and-1 in the second quarter.

 

CHIEFS PASSING GAME VS. EAGLES PASS DEFENSE

PHI- 72.9 PASSER RATING ALLOWED (10/32), 200 YPG ALLOWED (14/32)
KC- 148.6 PASSER RATING (1/32), 352 YPG (1/32)

Dominant defensive line play led to the Eagles’ win over the Redskins in the season opener and consistent pressure will be a key if the Eagles want to begin 2-0. They tallied four sacks against Washington after netting just two in both meetings combined a year ago. If Philly can get that heavy duress from Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox again, it will masks the deficiencies that the Eagles currently have at the cornerback position. While I believe Mitchell Schwartz might be able to hold his own against Graham at right tackle, it’s going to be a long afternoon for Laurent Duvarney-Tardif going against Fletcher Cox. He’ll most likely get help from center Mitch Morse, but that leaves Timmy Jernigan one-on-one against left guard Bryan Witzmann, who isn’t a very good guard either. Philly should be able to generate pressure up the middle.

The Eagles really dodged a bullet with Ronald Darby’s injury. NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported that he did not suffer any significant damage in his dislocated ankle and will only miss 4-to-6 weeks.

I immediately feared the worst when Darby went down, the injury was gruesome to watch.

 

So you go from thinking he’s gone for the season to a mid-season return. Now he’ll be back in six weeks or less.


This is obviously great news for the Eagles considering how leaky their cornerbacks are, although Jalen Mills and Patrick Robinson held up against the Washington Redskins after Darby went down. But they’re going to have to deal with arguably the fastest man in football this week in Tyreke Hill, who caught seven passes for 133 yards and a 75-yard touchdown against the Pats. Hill is making Kansas City forget about Jeremy Maclin very quickly.

Malcolm Jenkins did a fantastic job limiting Jordan Reed in the receiving game last week, but will he be the one matched up against a bigger and stronger Travis Kelce, who doesn’t possess the speed the smaller Reed does.

Alex Smith had a career game last Thursday night, completing 28-of-35 tosses for 368 yards with four touchdowns. He may not be as bad as people think, but he’s not doing that again.

 

CHIEFS RUNNING GAME VS. EAGLES RUN DEFENSE

PHI- 3.8 YPC ALLOWED (20/32), 64 YPG ALLOWED (10/32)
KC- 6.9 YPC (9/32), 185 YPG (2/32)

From fumbling on your first play from scrimmage after not losing a fumble in four year at Toledo to playing completely flawless football after that, what third-round rookie Kareem Hunt did last week was nothing short of extraordinary. He totaled 246 yards and three scores in all, with 146 of them coming on the ground and 98 through the air. One of his three touchdowns came on a 78-yard reception.

I’m sure he didn’t factor much into New England’s game-planning last week, but he has a target on his back now.

Graham was a menace in run defense against Washington.

PREDICTION:
While I think the Eagles’ chances of  beating the Chiefs actually improved following Kansas City’s stunner over New England – there is the possibility that Kansas City is riding a high – I doubt Andy Reid is taking this one lightly going against his former team. He also has a couple more extra days to prepare and we all know how great he is coming out of bye weeks. I think the Eagles will hang tough, but this is a hostile environment to go into and win.

23-16 KC.

 

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.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.