Philadelphia Eagles: What to expect from Carolina’s defense, how to react

Might the Philadelphia Eagles borrow something from Carolina’s offense?

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni could take a page out of Joe Brady’s book from last week. Sam Darnold scored on a QB draw with a swing motion from the running back to clear Micah Parsons out of the middle and on a speed option.

The Birds need all the help they can get in the red zone, and in a copycat league, borrowing a few ideas that are working may not be a bad idea.

It would also be nice to see the end-around game incorporated a little bit more as it was in Indianapolis while Sirianni was there. We saw it once last week with Jalen Reagor taking the handoff, and there was another snap where we saw Reagor lined up in the backfield.

Keeping that defensive front from getting upfield quickly will be key. The screen game can help with that especially if Miles Sanders is more involved. These are all extensions of the running game that will be useful against a Panthers defense that held Alvin Kamara to five yards on eight carries. The Cowboys run game is the only outlier on the Panthers track record thus far.

From the Philadelphia Eagles’ standpoint, running the ball between the tackles might not be best the course of action. Regardless of how he gets it done, Sirianni has to find ways to establish the run and stick with it.

He’ll need to throw some changeups at the Panthers from time to time. Philly doesn’t need to go with a run-heavy offense, but they need to have some sort of running game to keep Carolina off balance.

With the injuries to the Eagles’ offensive line and the improved personnel on the Panthers’ defense, this could be an uphill battle. If the Birds offense is able to consistently move the chains, that would be an encouraging step in the right direction.