EAGLEMANIACAL.com

WE opened the season with a road win, over Bill Belichik. Now our Eagles get to come home, and play in front of 69,000 of their nearest and dearest. This week’s animal sacrifice managed to lose to the Buccaneers, last week.

Injuries to the their offensive line, probably won’t bode well for a rushing attack that gave away RB Dalvin Cook in the offseason, then ran for 41 yards on 16 carries (2.5ypc) last week. This basically means that, to move the ball, the Vikings have to throw it. Which could play right into our hands.

A win makes us 2 – 0. A loss drops us to 1 – 1. Either way, it would be far too early to party or panic.

Who’s Out:

PHI – MLB Nakobe Dean (foot) is OUT/ CB James Bradberry (concussion protocol), S Reed Blankenship (ribs), RB Kenneth Gainswell (ribs), all likely to play Thursday.

MIN – LB Marcus Davenport (ankle) likely OUT/ OT Christian Darrisaw (Ankle), C Garrett Bradbury (lower back) are day-to-day.

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The point of Four Things isn’t to predict a winner, it’s to discuss which tactics would give our Eagles the best chance to win this game. So here are the Four Things that we need to focus on this week versus: the Vikings.

1) Run Swiftly: I’m already on record as saying that Gainwell is a utility player. He’s nifty, but he’s not gifted enough, or hard-nosed enough, to be a bell-cow or to head a rotation.

On the other hand, RB D’Andre Swift is quicker, faster, has better balance, and is a more creative runner when setting up his blocks in space. I understand that the Eagles have an investment in Gainwell as a draft pick, but the object is to win games, not justify picks. Let’s get 12 – 15 carries in Swift’s hands this week.

2) Rush five: Last year’s 70 sacks were the result of a lot of five man pass rushes. This past Sunday, our new DC spent the day mostly rushing four, and we didn’t sack the QB until the 4^th quarter. Last year’s DC? He’s out in Arizona, with a team that collected 6 sacks, which was #2 in the NFL. Coincidence? Not at all.

This week, we get to tee-off on a statue, standing behind a beat-up offensive line, supported by a piss-poor run game. We need to turn the heat up, and hit their QB to force him to speed up his internal clock, and maybe make a couple of stupid mistakes.

3) Slay Jefferson: Last year CB Darius Slay, put Vikings WR Justin Jefferson, on a milk carton. Rookie WR Jordan Addision has potential, but without RB Dalvin Cook, Jefferson is the Vikings only proven, big-time playmaker. Taking him away again, should effectively rip the undercarriage out the Viking’s offense

4) Oh My Goedert: Part of why the Offense struggled last week, was the lack of involvement from TE Dallas Goedert. TE is a force-multiplier position. A TE active in the middle of the field, both loosens the box, and keeps the Safeties from squeezing deep routes on the edges.

To get QB Jalen Hurts looking like he did last year, Goedert needs at least 3 catches. That will re-set the Offense and get us clicking again.

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If the Eagles do these Four Things, then we’ll be virtually impossible to beat. That being said…

There is still going to be some rust this week. Even at the end of last week’s win, it didn’t look like, or feel like the Offense had figured something out. Defense didn’t look as rusty as the Offense. What it looked, was far less aggressive. That at least, has a quick fix that can be applied on Thursday night.

The difference in this Vikings game, will probably be Philadelphians. Last week the Eagles had to fight off a football team and a hostile crowd, because it was ‘Tom (wank wank) Brady Day’. This game will be Opening Day at the Linc, and you expect our fans to be even more amped than our players.

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WARNING: I don’t have the faintest clue as to what a point spread is, and I know even less about how it works. I know FOOTBALL and that’s it. If you use Four Things as a gambling tool, then you are a fool trying to lose your money, and will deserve it when you do.

Check back in a couple of days for Four Things Reviewed, and we’ll discuss how this game went.