Philadelphia Eagles: 3 Concerns surrounding their Week 14 matchup
3. Can the Philadelphia Eagles defense contain the Saints’ offense?
The Philadelphia Eagles’ defense has been inconsistent throughout the 2020 season. They’ve been dominant at times. At other times, they have withered. The Saints’ offense hasn’t skipped a beat since Taysum Hill took over for Drew Brees and began leading the charge.
This may have been a game where the Eagles defense would have been better suited for Drew Brees believe it or not, but Brees isn’t playing, so the Eagles will need a plan to defend Hill, all-star receiver Michael Thomas, and perhaps the brightest star of them all, running back Alvin Kamara.
Hill and Kamara will pose the biggest threats to the Eagles defense, just like Hurts and Sanders will pose a threat to New Orleans. Kamara currently leads the Saints both in passing and receiving yards. Over the course of the past few games, teams have boxed the star running back in though.
The Saints have a ton of offensive talent, so the Eagles will need that pass rush to get home. They’ll need to contain Hill as best they can when he scrambles. It will be interesting to see what kind of game plan Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz comes up with.
To be honest, no one knows what’s going to happen, but we can dive into what the Eagles should do. Philly’s defense will have to use a similar scheme to what they ran versus the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens. They’ll need to get some push in the trenches and close the holes that Hill or Kamara want to run through. Philly’s linebackers, safeties, and cornerbacks are going to have to stick to their assignments and win.
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Expect Schwartz to run zone schemes to help contain anything that may go over the top. We may see some shadowing in man coverage, particularly Darius Slay on Michael Thomas. It’s going to be a crazy week. Hopefully, a lot of questions will be answered about this Eagles team. Doug Pederson and the rest of the coaching staff have a lot of work to do to get this team prepared for Sunday. We’ll see if they are prepared at kickoff.