EAGLEMANIACAL.com

TAKING a loss to the Bears has no dishonor in it. However, the way we lost, requires redemption. Our front seven is better than being pushed around like that, and we need an opportunity to prove it.

Lo and behold the Chargers appear! They are a team that believes in running the ball and running it violently. This is perfect! This is the fight that we need, or the fight we need to learn from before the playoffs begin. Understand, Chicago did us a favor by exposing a weakness. The Chargers now get to help us fix it.

With a win we’re 9 – 4, extending our lead over the NFC East, and still in the conversation for winning the #1 Seed in the conference.

A loss drops us to 8 – 5, but still in the lead for the division, though still catchable.

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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 Chargers.

1) Get Saquon 90 Rushing Yards: We have to get RB Saquon Barkley back on track. Not the team. Saquon. This team’s identity is as a running team. It’s time to get back to making the main thing the main thing, by doing what we do the main way.

2) Beat On Their QB: They have a QB with a broken (non-passing) hand and they’re starting him anyway. If they were concerned about how much we might hit him, they wouldn’t be doing that. A message about us, is being sent to us, and the rest of the NFL. At the end of the day, they will either be correct to have sent it, or they will have to admit it was a massive mistake.

3) Overwhelm Their Offensive Line: Every team’s offense starts with their offensive line, and the Chargers don’t have a good one. Make a point of showing that. They’re a big group, but not a particularly nimble footed one. Get them on E/T stunts, and diagonal surges.

4) Throw the Uppercut: If they load the box against our run, to keep us from jabbing the body; then we should throw the uppercut and hit them down the seams with TE Dallas Goedert and WR Jahan Dotson. That will keep their Safeties in the middle of the field and set up our Hooks, when we go deep to WR’s A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

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

The Eagles have hit some pretty rough sailing this season, and people are wondering if we’re about to be sunk. That has everyone looking at next week against the Raiders as our “get right” game. That said, I think beating a bottom-feeder should hardly count as getting right. We need to beat a winning team in order to say that we’re righting the ship. So going cross-country to chalk the Chargers in their home, sounds like exactly what we need.

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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.