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Let’s get you to the weekend. As always, you can reach me at [email protected]

Unlike the Buffalo Bills, the Eagles have to play a real NFL schedule (Bills have Lock Haven and East Stroudsburg the next two weeks). And the next two weeks provide quite the contrast when it comes to 2-0 opponents, specifically with regard to the Eagles’ recent history with them.

Next week, the Eagles are in Tampa Bay. If recent memory is any indicator, that one has disaster written all over it. Todd Bowles will probably heat Jalen Hurts up with a variety of blitzes. Baker Mayfield will probably throw five touchdowns, the guy even lit up Vic Fangio last year (pre-Coop at nickel, but still). It is probably gonna be 90+ degrees and the Eagles players will not be able to keep up in the heat. Dating back to the fateful November day that rookie Jameis Winston torched Billy Davis’ defense in front of a sad Linc, Tampa Bay has won six of seven against the Eagles. I do not know why, but the Bucs just own the Birds.

But this week, you have the Rams. Great coach, easily my favorite of the Shanahan Tree (the only one with a Super Bowl besides Gary Kubiak, too). A quarterback with more arm talent than almost anyone, making insane throws to two monster receivers (with Davante Adams taking over for Cooper Kupp). A creative defensive coordinator with legit young building blocks. A worthy adversary in Jared Verse. And yet, despite all of Sean McVay’s success, he is just 1-5 against the Eagles as head coach. I do not know why, but the Birds have just owned the Rams.

It had to be frustrating for McVay, with his record against the Eagles, to watch Jalen Carter wreck what would have been a signature win in last year’s divisional round. I have watched the ending sequence approximately 400 times over the past eight months, and after the final play ends, there is McVay, barking at the refs in the blizzard.

So, do McVay and Matthew Stafford owe us one on Sunday? We will see. Four things to keep in mind for this weekend…

(1) The return of explosive runs? Come on, Rams PR. Let’s get serious here.

Sure, in the regular season, that might be true. But two road games ago, in the same building you are playing in this weekend, you gave up THREE 40+ yard running touchdowns. Two of them were 60+ yards. Come on, man.

Saquon Barkley’s big-play ability was one of the defining features of last year’s Eagles. It is very rare to hit so many big plays on the ground. Seven touchdown runs of 60+ yards, when the previous NFL record was four. Saquon had four alone against one team, and oh yeah, it is these guys. Defensive coordinator Chris Shula plays a lot of sub-packages and does some crazy stuff to mess with the opposing offense, but Saquon absolutely destroyed the Rams when he got to the second level last year.

Anyway, lost in the talk of the passing offense is the lack of explosives on the ground. The Eagles had 25 runs of over 20+ yards last regular season, but just one through two games this year. Is this the week Saquon breaks one?

(2) One corner mismatch: Lot of talk about A.J. Brown’s production and usage, and I have some more of that below. Mina Kimes gave us a, “How about a crosser?” on her appearance this week, and it’s hard to argue with that. But more than anything the Eagles can do, the Rams unfortunately lost Ahkello Witherspoon to injury last week. That means they will be starting Emmanuel Forbes at one of the outside corners.

A.J. Brown basically ended Forbes’ career before it started. Here were Brown’s numbers in two games against a rookie Forbes in 2023 when he played for WASTEAM: 17 catches, 305 yards, 4 touchdowns. That’s all. Poor Sam Howell and Jahan Dotson would have been 2-0 against the Eagles in 2023 if Forbes had anything for A.J. He did not.

The former first-round pick, one of the skinnier NFL players you will see, was cut by Washington and claimed off waivers by the Rams. We will see if Shula can give him some help. Speaking of bad matchups on the outside…

(3) Another corner mismatch: Perhaps because I am Mr. Positive basking the Super Bowl glow, perhaps because there was another coverage bust later in the possession, I did not mention that Adoree’ Jackson running into his teammate on what should have been a 75-yard touchdown last week. That is an issue.

Adoree’ played OK last week, but he really should have against a depleted Kansas City receiving corps. Not this week, though. I am terrified of him going up against Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, with McVay calling plays. Speaking of that…

(4) Jihaad Campbell gets another test: McVay loves to give linebackers some eye-candy. Campbell called the Rams offense “motion-y” and there is no argument there. Via Sumer Sports, the Rams are second in motion rate, first in under-center rate and first in play-action rate. Needless to say, that type of offense provides quite a test for opposing linebackers.

Two years ago, when Kyle Shanahan put Nicholas Morrow in a blender in The Big Dom Game, the Eagles would be in real trouble in the middle of the field. But as you may have noticed, they have upgraded quite a bit at the position over the past few years. Still, good test coming for the rook.

The Eagles will be in all-white unis this Sunday, which is a pretty rare for a home game.

Info from the pressers: I wanted to focus on the offense this week…

Speaking of Jalen, a very enjoyable mic’d up video this week from Los Eagles. The video had some cool stuff, like Jalen and DeVonta Smith setting up the deep shot throughout the game while Jordan Mailata (“Take care of the ball and we’ll do the rest”) and Saquon Barkley (redacted) were defiant about the Tush Push.

My underrated two stars of the video, though: Safeties coach Joe Kasper, dapping up Drew Mukuba after his sack and exclaiming, “Surprised him on that one!” And Tanner McKee, in the middle of Nick Sirianni’s unsuccessful challenge, cracking up, pointing up at the scoreboard and yelling, “Zoom in on it, baby!” The Tanimal is as cool as a cucumber on those sidelines.

A.J. Brown’s route predictability: Good segment on yesterday’s Eagles show about the early extremes of the Eagles offense. And EJ brought up that through two games, Brown has been targeted twice on out routes, once on go routes and once on a crosser. Basically, it has been a ton of slants and in-breakers (Dan Orlovsky was all over this).

I am fully cognizant that too much of anything leads to complaints. A few years ago, we thought the Eagles threw a few too many low-percentage go balls. I dunno the right balance, but Kevin, maybe mix in some other stuff.

First day of camp: “I love the first day, man. Everybody all friendly an' s---.” — Namond Brice

The links, the links, the links:

It seems like the biggest takeaway from the first day of Flyers training camp is that Rick Tocchet is not John Tortorella. We knew that, but it sounds like the practice was purposely designed to drive that point home. There is no “rope test,” although I did see that the new NHL CBA outlawed on-ice fitness tests. If there is no “rope test,” my guy Torts loses his sense of purpose. Perhaps for the best that the Flyers moved on.

But despite having a no-nonsense style in some respects, it sure sounds like Tocchet is doing his best to be the anti-Torts. The Flyers did actual on-ice work today, and talked about the systems they plan on deploying. Tocchet is clearly trying to build relationships with some of his players, in a way that Torts clearly did not care about.

As for lines… not everything, but not nothing.

Alex Bump and Nikita Grebenkin, the two guys who are probably in pole position to battle for that final forward spot, both got put on real lines. Feels like a message: If you are any good, you should look pretty good playing with these guys.

The Jett got a decent spot, too, centering The Red Rifle.

I did not realize Trevor Zegras was so bad at winning faceoffs. 38 and 36 percent over the past two years, which is “worst in the league” type stuff. Not as much fun to talk about, but that is probably more important than his defensive deficiencies. Claude Giroux actually led the league in faceoffs last year among high-volume centers. Take that, Steve Ott!

Chel coming in handy. Kids, man.

Court Talk: This has been Court Talk.

Three more for the Phillies on the West Coast, but hey, at least they are not on school nights. Shoutout to reader for Patrick for pointing out the classic Boy Meets World episode “Father Knows Less” after reading about my thoughts about the Phillies, late-night baseball games and school nights. Great stuff from William Daniels and William Russ in that one.

The good news for the Phillies is that every loss to the Diamondbacks hurts the Mets. So, I am basically viewing this as a sweep regardless of what happens. Your weekend schedule:

Your tentative Friday schedule at ​PHLY​:

Have a great weekend. Let’s make it a good one today.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
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