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ANOTHER successful home defense, and now we host the National Football Conference Championship Game. Whether you believe in RB Saquon Barkley, or openly and roundly criticize QB Jalen Hurts, they both continue to lift this Offense. Then there are the young guns on Defense, led by DT Jalen Carter and LB Zack Baun. This team is still heating up. It is still learning and improving.

This week we get a rubber match, against a team that won our last meeting, after we lost two key starters during that game. And even then, they just barely pulled it out. Oh, and did I mention that they were at home? Yeah. They were at home and needed that many stars to align, in order to beat us. This week the astrology is different. It’ll be them, vs our Eagles and 70,000 raving maniacs. All spelling the team name correctly.

I like our odds.

Win and we’re headed to New Orleans on our quest to win the Super Bowl.

Lose and it’s a short trip for the players to clean out their lockers.

Here’s to earning one more week of pain and sacrifice.

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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 Commanders.

1) Torment Single-high Coverage: We haven’t done this to them this year, but we need to make it happen Sunday. They will be loading the box to stop Saquon. So we have to capitalize on the one-on-one match-ups they leave WR DeVonta Smith and WR A.J. Brown.

Hurts has to identify the coverages, and get the ball out ASAP this week. If they show any form of Cover Two, audible to a run, and get behind either LG Landon Dickerson, or RG Mekhi Becton. However, if they walk a S up into the box, mix in some play-action and take advantage of the Commander’s so-so secondary.

2) Limit the Scrambling: The edges must be contained here. Especially the one manned by OLB Nolan Smith. When their QB goes to run, he should find a fence there on his right, to his passing side. This means that the DT playing beside Carter, needs to win that “A” gap to flush the QB, and not let him set his feet to run or pass deep.

3) Muddy the Coverage: Take away anything quick. Small cushions and Safeties who delay their drop will help crowd the box, and force their QB through his progressions. That helps us vs the short pass, the regular run and scrambles. Which gives our pass rush time to get to the QB, for sacks and causing errant passes.

They may get off a few deep shots; but I’ll trust CB Darius Slay and S C.J. Gardner-Johnson any day, over the ability of the Commanders third rate receivers, to track down rushed passes.

4) Geodert As Hot Read: Their chief pass rushers are their OLB’s with 10.5 and 8.0 sacks this season. The next closest player has 5. Their rush comes off the edges, and this is easily exploitable with short passes in the Flat to TE Dallas Goedert. In our first meeting Goedert caught all 5 of his targets for 61 yards. He was on I.R. during our second meeting, which again, we lost.

On third downs, Goedert should run to OLB Dante Fowler, and line up outside of him. If Fowler rushes Hurts, then Goedert vs Zone, should find himself all alone. However, if the coverage is Man, well that should create time for Hurts to hold the ball, as the play unfolds. Look, he’s gonna do it. We might as well find a way to make it stop costing us.

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

Not to be cocky, but the Eagles are the more talented team. The healthier team. And playing at home. While every indicator says that we should win this game, we still have to go out and play the thing. No one is going to just hand the NFC trophy to the Eagles. It must be earned, and our guys not only understand that, they respect it. Besides, I doubt that Head Coach Nick Sirianni would have it any other way.

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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.