Why the Eagles Should Be Confident – and Wary – Against the Rams

Why the Eagles Should Be Confident

Why the Eagles Should Be Confident

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Philadelphia, PAWhy the Eagles Should Be Confident - Throughout the NFL regular season, the Philadelphia Eagles pulled out some stirring performances to punctuate a 14-3 campaign. Perhaps the win over the Ravens – a team with veritable Super Bowl ambitions – was the highlight, or maybe it was the demolition of the Cowboys on December 29. In this game, the Eagles demonstrated their superiority. 

Yet, for our money, the most impressive performance was in Week 12. A trip to LA and the SoFi Stadium is rarely easy, but how the Eagles’ offense handled the Rams in that 37-20 victory was striking. It was smack bang in the middle of a tough run of games for the Eagles (Commanders, Rams, Ravens), yet their authority in it was plain to see. The dial started to move on the Eagles’ Super Bowl odds at that point, which is unsurprising when you look back at it. 

Home advantage may count for the Eagles. 

While not without flaws, that victory will instill plenty of confidence when the Eagles welcome the Rams to Philadelphia for the Divisional Round on Sunday. On paper, the Eagles should be heavy favorites. They put their 14-3 regular season record against the Rams’ 10-7 campaign. They are backed among the Super Bowl favorites, whereas the Rams are ranked as an outside chance. They also have a home advantage, which could count for a lot. 

However, we would argue that sportsbooks’ betting lines have this encounter down as a tighter affair than most pundits do. Moreover, we would say that the Rams we have seen so far in the Playoffs are much better equipped than the team the Eagles hammered in late November. Their performance against the Vikings in the Wild Card round will have caused Nick Sirianni to take note. It was impressive in many ways, not least because they stopped the Vikings from getting anything going offensively. Tactically, it was a masterclass from Rams head coach Sean McVay. 



McVay is a man with many plans. 

One of the interesting things we would say about the Rams is that they are adaptable – a testament to McVay’s nous as a head coach. To illustrate, we would point to a handful of games in the backend of the regular season that secured the Rams’ playoff position. There was a pulsating encounter with the Bills – another team we’d put in the elite category – which the Rams ended up winning 42-40, going blow for blow across the four quarters. Yet, the Rams reeled off three wins on the bounce straight after, holding their opponents to 6, 9, and 9 points while not scoring over 20 themselves. McVay knows how to play to opponents’ weaknesses and will have a plan for Philadelphia.



 

 

That said, the Rams are far from perfect. We saw plenty of times during the regular season that Matthew Stafford and the rest of the offense could put up limp performances, causing the Rams to lose against weaker teams. Stafford is not having his best season in LA, but he showed he can still raise his game when he needs to, and he did that against the Vikings. Sirianni will need a plan for him, too. 

All in all, the Eagles fans should be confident about the game. They were superior to the Rams in that November meeting and the better team if we look at the regular season as a whole. Yet, there was something galvanizing about that performance – you should note that the Rams were robbed of home advantage due to the LA wildfires – that saw them dig deep and play their best game of the season. The Eagles should be heading to the NFC Championship Game if everything goes by the formbook, but they should also be very wary of a team that has grown into itself as the season unfolded. 


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