Monday, September 19, 2016

Notes Going Into Tonight's Eagles Game vs The Chicago Bears

Image Courtesy: USAToday.com
  • The 1-0 Philadelphia Eagles travel to Soldier Field in Chicago as they take on the 0-1 Bears on ESPN's Monday Night Football at 8:30 PM on ESPN featuring color commentary with Former NFL Head Coach and "Gruden's QB Camp" Guru Jon Gruden. (Local broadcast will be aired on PHL17)  Gruden is quite the listen though as he broke down Wentz's game with him before being drafted on Gruden's QB Camp.
  • Carson Wentz is only the 4th player in the modern football era since 1970 to be drafted 1st or 2nd Overall to make their first Road start on Monday Night Football for the Nation to see.  Robert Griffin III in 2012 (Redskins), Jeff George in 1990 (Colts), and Terry Bradshaw in 1970 (Steelers). (Stat provided by ESPN)
  • Carson Wentz was named Pepsi's NFL Rookie of the Week with his 22-37, 278 Yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 101.0 QB rating in his Week 1 performance against the Cleveland Brown's.
  • Wentz and the Eagles offense will unfortunately be without TE Zach Ertz who disloacted his rib early in last Sunday's win vs the Cleveland Browns.  The hope is for TE Brent Celek and recently activated TE Trey Bruton to fill his role.
  • Also Ertz's absence will require WR's Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor, and Dorial Green-Beckham to play a major role in the aerial attack against an average Bears Defense.  Matthews had quite the performance last week hauling in 7 receptions for 114 yards and a score while Agholor had a decent game with 4 receptions for 57 and a TD, but Green-Beckham needs to be more involved this week.  DGB had 2 catches for 18 yards on his only two targets so I hope that he was able to learn even more of the playbook this week.  I believe DGB can be the X-factor for this offense in this game against the depleted Bears defensive backfield.
Match-up of the Night to Watch: Bears WR Alshon Jeffrey vs Eagles (Rookie) CB Jalen Mills
  • Eagles 2016 7th Round Selection (2nd Round Talent coming out) in this past April's NFL Draft will have his first real chance to prove his worth in Jim Schwartz's defense against a Top 10 caliber WR in Chicago's Alshon Jeffrey.
  • Mills will be stepping in for the injured veteran CB Leodis McKelvin, who has been ruled out for tonight's game.
  • Coming from Louisiana State University (LSU), which by some has been considered DBU (Defensive Back University) due to the NFL talent that has arose from the school such as Arizona Cardinals DB's Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu, there is a lot of expectation for Mills to follow in their footsteps and make a lasting impression on the league.
  • Alshon Jeffrey in the first half of last week's game against the Houston Texans caught 4 balls for 105 yards against a good Texans defense, but unfortunately for him he was shut out in the second half of the game due to a change in the Texans game plan which kept QB Jay Cutler under duress unable to do anything.  
  • If the Eagles Defense can attack Cutler in a similar way that the Texans did last week than I believe Jeffrey could be a non-factor in this game, but the rush has to stay consistent on the Eagles end, but we will see how this game plays out. 
 



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