Gameday – PHI at TB – Wild Card

Posted: January 16th, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Gameday – PHI at TB – Wild Card

Yesterday I talked about the Eagles being pretty healthy. Oops. Apparently that is not the case and the team will be missing a couple of starters.

That’s not ideal.

Losing Sweat really hurts. He is the team’s best pass rusher and that’s a guy you want on the field when going up against Brady. The Eagles now need Derek Barnett or Ryan Kerrigan to really step up. That doesn’t feel very likely. I still think Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave are the real keys, but having a legit threat off the edge would be a big help.

As for Herbig, he was the third string RG so now we’re onto Sua Opeta, the fourth string guy. Crazy. Opeta has started and played this year, but he’s not as good as Herbig so this will hurt. The Bucs have good DTs and you can bet they’ll attack Opeta.

The Eagles still have the talent to win this game. These injuries won’t make or break the team. Tampa is missing several key players as well. Both teams are hurting, but also have more than enough talent to play well and win.

The biggest challenge for the Eagles will be handling Rob Gronkowski and Cameron Brate. Opposing TEs have been a major issue all year long. With the Bucs missing some WRs, you know Tom Brady will be feeding the ball to his TEs.

It will be interesting to see how Jonathan Gannon tries to handle them. Will they use bracket coverage? Will they use a CB or S or LB on Gronk? I’m not sure there is an ideal strategy. Gronk will go down as one of the greatest TEs in league history.

It sounds like the weather will be reasonable today. The hard rains came early and have gone away. There will be wind, but both teams should be able to throw the ball.

The Eagles will win if they can run the ball effectively and if the defense can affect Brady. He was 34-42-297 in the first meeting. The Eagles took away big plays, but Tampa had 27 first downs. They moved the ball consistently well until they went up 28-7. They got sloppy after that.

The defense can’t let Tampa move the ball like that. They must get stops or takeaways.

The Eagles have had a tough time with slow starts in recent weeks. That needs to change today. Coming back vs mediocre teams with bad QBs is one thing. Trying to do it vs Brady and the Bucs is very different.

As for a prediction, I think Tampa just has too many good pieces. I think they’ll find a way to win this game.

I’m excited and curious to see how the Eagles do. What we see today will help us to figure out where this team really is. Did a weak schedule get them into the playoffs and they’ll be exposed or is this a team that improved all year long and is ready to kick some ass?

I sure know which one I want to be true.

*****

As for Sweat, losing him for the day is bad, but the big story here is his health.

Crazy situation. I hope Josh gets healthy, whether he plays again this year or we have to wait for the 2022 season.

Just get healthy.

*****

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