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DEFEATING the Commanders opened up our lead in the NFC East. We took away their healthy run game, and made them one-dimensional. Now we get a Rams team that doesn’t exactly excel at rushing. After his 2 sack game against this team last year, DT Jalen Carter must be licking his chops.

With a win, we improve to 9 – 2, maintaining a solid hold on first place in the division, as well as our temporary second place in conference seeding.

A loss would see us stumble to 8 – 3, but we would still maintain first place. Even if Washington defeats Dallas and goes to 8 – 4.

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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. Often I list fundamentals, as some of the four things. BUT NO MORE! Unless something specific is needed, fundamentals like Running the ball; playing lots of Man Press; and Tackling instead of going for the strip, will be automatically included. (Like the five consonants and a vowel that Wheel Of Fortune automatically spots you.) So here are the Four Things that we need to focus on this week versus: the Rams

1) Don’t Get Cute: We are a running team, and our rushing attack is led by RB Saquon Barkley. Stick to that. TE Dallas Goedert is a nightmare for the Rams, because they don’t start a LB who can cover. This should be a game where Goedert sees 8 targets. There is no need to overthink how to attack this opponent.

2) Send the Dawgs: The Rams aren’t good enough running the ball, to make a living at it. Which leaves them leaning on the pass, behind a so-so offensive line, with a QB who has -7 rushing yards on the year. And now the bad news. While they do have a couple of good possession receivers, we have CB Quinyon “Quinyanamo Bay” Mitchell and NCB Cooper DeJean.

Whomever Mitchell ends up covering, may as well just stay home. Add to that the inside match-up of Cooper DeJean vs Cooper Kupp, and you can expect their statue of a QB to get caught holding onto the ball few times. Beat him up. Set the dogs on him.

3) Get An Early Touchdown: We do a great job of adjusting and coming back in games, but we have to stop playing with our food. We have too many games where we have to claw back in. Not this game. Not vs this team. Not while we’re on the road. Score early.

4) Blitz Over Their Right Tackle: Their starting RT is coming back from an ankle injury, and his fill-in also sustained an ankle injury. That’s a severe disadvantage vs a speed rush. Especially since their QB is right-handed, and this will flush him left.

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

Head Coach Nick Sirianni has already defeated Sean McVay. By the way, Sirianni did it with Sean Desai as the Eagles defensive boss. Now Desai works for McVay. Meanwhile, we have Vic Fangio and a top 10 defense.

We defeated this team last season, in their home stadium. Now we get to do it again. We played this team last season, and we won 23 – 14. Now we get to do it again. We defeated this team last year, when they still had DT Aaron Donald, and when we didn’t have Saquon. Well, at least that will be a different way to lose to us.

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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.