Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Preview – PHI vs JAX in UK

Posted October 11th, 2026 | No Comments »

Tea, crumpets and bad offense. Are you ready for some Eagles football in London? They will take on Jacksonville, who has won 12 of their last 14 games. The Birds have the same number of losses in the past two weeks. That doesn’t bode well for Nick Sirianni and company.

The traditional rankings don’t show the Jags as a top team, but they are #2 in DVOA. They have won a pair of blowouts and aren’t that far from being 4-0. The defense will give up yards, but they are second in points allowed. Scoring on them isn’t easy. Their offense is solid. Sirianni must love the way they deal with turnovers. The Jags protect the ball on offense and take it away on defense. They lead the league in turnover differential.

The Eagles get Dallas Goedert back this week, but they will be without Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith, Drew Kendall and Hollywood Brown. The defense will be missing Jonathan Greenard. Not ideal in any week, let alone when facing one of the best teams in the league.

Sirianni talked about the need for the players to lock arms and support each other. The team did that for part of the game last week, but it wasn’t enough to get the win. They will absolutely need to do it this time around. There is a strange vibe with Lane Johnson retiring, Cam Jurgens being traded and all the injuries. This is a week when the team must come together and play with energy and emotion.

Let’s start with the new OL.

Mailata – Lampkin – Majors – Steen – Bell

That is two players making their first NFL starts and another guy making his second start. Not ideal. You’ll probably notice those two words becoming a theme this week. Lampkin and Majors are good scheme fits. I’m really excited to see what Lampkin can do. He’s looked great for two straight summers. It is fair to question him because of his size, but he needs a chance to show if he can play. Majors had a good preseason. We’ll see how that translates to a regular season game.

No matter who is out there, the protection must be better. That is part coaching, part communication and part execution. The guys up front must identify what is going on and get it blocked. Jalen Hurts can’t make plays if he doesn’t have time to throw.

Hurts must do his part as well. There were times last week when he did have a chance to throw and didn’t see open receivers. When the offense is struggling, the star QB must step up and do more. Hurts didn’t do that last week.

We’ll all be watching third downs closely. The Eagles were 2 for 9 vs the Bears and then 0 for 12 vs the Rams. That is insanely bad situational football.   You must be able to move the chains and sustain drives to have any chance to win games.

We’ll have some new skill players to watch. Will Shipley could be the key RB. Dameon Pierce and Carson Steele will make their Eagles debuts. It will be interesting to see what they can do. Both guys flashed this summer. The Eagles elevated TE Zach Ertz and OT John Ojukwu. Ertz could fare better when playing with Goedert. Ojukwu offers depth up front.

With this many guys out on offense, points will be at a premium. That means the defense needs to play their best game of the season. The defense simply hasn’t made enough plays this season. They have 2 takeaways and 4 sacks. That’s a good game, not what you want for the opening month.

The defense will get Zack Baun back in the middle. Maybe he can be a difference-maker. There are some positive signs. Drew Mukuba is coming off his best game. Michael Carter has flashed at safety. The defense has plenty of talent. They just need to play to their potential. It would certainly help if the offense could sustain drives and give the defense some time to rest, especially late in the game.

There are a lot of Eagles fans in England for the game.  The team will need every bit of energy those fans can give them if they hope to pull off an upset of the Jags. The Eagles can win this game, but they will need to play their asses off. They will need to be smart and clutch. The team hasn’t done these things so far in 2026 so this isn’t an easy ask. But it is doable.

Find a way and go win this game.

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