EAGLES-SAINTS
THE BACKSTORY
The New Orleans
Saints and Philadelphia
Eagles took different paths to the postseason.
The Saints cruised
through the regular season with a 13-3 record, which included a 48-7 beat down
of the Eagles in
Week 11, en route to clinching the No. 1 seed.
Philadelphia's journey, however, proved tougher as the Eagles had
to overcome a 4-6 start before going 6-1 down the stretch to get in the
playoffs as a wild-card team.
Still, the postseason is often about clinching an
opportunity to extend a season regardless how a team gets in, and then let the
chips fall where they may. And for the Eagles,
the defending Super Bowl
champions took advantage of their situation with a win over the Chicago Bears last
weekend to set up a rematch against the Saints at
the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Sunday's meeting sets up a unique storyline between Saints quarterback Drew Brees and Eagles quarterback Nick Foles,
as both signal-callers are products of Westlake High School in Texas. Both
quarterbacks are former Super Bowl MVPs,
and the game marks the eighth time two Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks will face
square off against each other in the playoffs. History sides with the
higher-seeded quarterback, who has five of the seven such matchups.
New Orleans holds a 2-1 all-time edge over the Eagles in
the postseason, including wins in the last two matchups (2006 and 2013), and
Foles' lone playoff loss came against the Saints in
2013.
The game, of course, is more than just Brees and Foles, who
took over as the Eagles starter
in Week 15 after Carson Wentz suffered
a back injury. And the Saints will
find a much different opponent from the regular season.
The Eagles turned around their regular season since the embarrassing
loss with quality wins against the Los Angeles
Rams and Houston
Texans, and continued the impressive run into the postseason with
the victory over the Bears.
With the playoffs on the line, the Eagles'
defense also clamped down in the final six regular-season contests to allow
19.5 points per game.
New Orleans might enter Sunday's matchup as the heavy
favorite, but this showdown doesn't project as a repeat of Week 11's one-sided
outing.
UNDER PRESSURE
LANE JOHNSON: The Eagles offensive
line improved in protecting the quarterback since the Week 11 loss. In Weeks
1-11, the Eagles allowed
12.9 pressures and 3.1 sacks per game, but have allowed 8 pressures and 1.4
sacks per game since Week 12. And the front five didn't face a cupcake schedule
either, as elite pass rushers Aaron Donald, J.J. Watt and Jadeveon
Clowney had their shots against the Eagles in
the latter part of the season. The exceptional pass protection was capped off
by last weekend's shutout of Khalil Mack.
The Eagles need
to carryover the exceptional blocking on Sunday against a Saints defense
that finished the regular season ranked fifth in sacks (49). And Johnson will
matchup against defensive end Cameron
Jordan, who finished the regular season with 12 sacks while lined up
over the right tackle.
TED GINN JR.:
Ginn missed the Week 11 game while on injured reserve with a knee injury in the
first meeting before returning in Week 16 of the regular season. In his
absence, rookie wide receiver Tre'Quan
Smith gave the Eagles fits,
totaling a career 10 catches for 157 yards and a touchdown. The Saints,
however, didn't get enough consistency out of the No. 2 receiver spot with Ginn
shelved and need the veteran's ability to stretch the field to help take
pressure off All-Pro wide receiver Michael
Thomas, who will command a lot of the Eagles'
coverage.
MATCHUP TO WATCH
SAINTS CORNERBACKS
VS. EAGLES WIDE
RECEIVERS: Numerous Saints defenders
were uniform in pointing out the biggest difference between
Foles and Wentz, and it surrounds the former's ability to get rid of the ball
quickly. With that understanding, Saints cornerback Eli Apple said
it is important to disrupt the Eagles'
wide receivers at the line of scrimmage by being physical with the hopes of
re-routing the pass catchers to throw off timing between quarterback and
receiver. The Saints'
top three cornerbacks -- Apple, Marshon
Lattimore and P.J. Williams --
have proven they can play press-man, so the defense is equipped should
defensive coordinator Dennis Allen prefer that approach over zone-coverage
schemes. Either way, Eagles wide
receivers Alshon
Jeffery, Nelson
Agholor and Golden Tate present
a challenge to any defense, and the Saints can't
forget about tight end Zach Ertz.
PREDICTION
Running back Alvin Kamara turned
heads during the offseason when he said the Saints would have beat the Eagles in last year's playoffs, and
now New Orleans has the opportunity to do just that. The Eagles,
however, apparently have extra motivation from the Week 11 matchup with left
tackle Jason Peters taking
exception to the score, which head Coach Doug Pederson said he didn't believe the Saints ran up.
The chatter aside, Sunday's game will be an entertaining back-and-forth affair
between two quality NFL playoff teams. Only one can advance, though, and the
advantage in this matchup goes to the home team, where the Saints are
5-0 in the postseason since the Brees/Sean Payton era began in 2006. MY PICK NEW ORLEANS
SAINTS 27, PHILADELPHIA
EAGLES 20
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