Game Preview – WAS at PHI

Another must-win game.

That’s what happens when you dig a 4-6 hole. Every game after that is must-win material.

What happened the last time a division opponent came to The Linc for an important night game? Oh yeah, Dallas won 27-20. They turned their season around and shoved the Eagles over a cliff.

Let’s hope the Eagles learned some lessons from that disaster. This team can’t make mistakes left and right and come away with a key win. They need to play with energy and emotion. They need to play winning football, like they did in the second half last week.

I wrote my preview for PE.com.

As I mentioned in there and in the previous post, run defense will be the key to this game. The Eagles must control Adrian Peterson. Washington doesn’t have a bunch of weapons. Their offense is built around the power run game.

They do get back Chris Thompson. I wish they didn’t. He is an explosive player out of the backfield and has had some big moments against the Eagles. LBs don’t have the speed to run with him.

You can argue the best vertical threat the Skins have is TE Vernon Davis. He still runs in the 4.5 range and can get down the field. He doesn’t catch a lot of passes, but averages 18 yards per reception, an insane figure for a TE.

Washington has backups at both OG spots. Fletcher Cox and Tim Jernigan need to win that battle. Those two are good enough to beat just about any blockers in the league. When facing backups, they need to really stand out.

This is a huge game because of the standings, but also because we’ll learn more about this team. The whole point in wanting the Eagles to get hot and fight their way into the playoffs is so that they can play at a high level at the most important time of the year. Nobody should want the Eagles to win ugly games to sneak in and lose the opening game. Nothing is accomplished by that.

If the Eagles lose or if they win a really ugly game, it might just be time to give up on this team.

I’m hoping the guys come out and have their best game in a while. They should be feeling good after the second half last week. A few players are returning from injury. The Eagles need to take these positive vibes and turn them into another win. Winning consecutive games is a good thing, right? The players do understand that?

The team has a chance to really help their season.

Can they do it?

Will they do it?

Stay tuned…

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