Hogs Haven
Will Washington be able to re-take lead in the division from a surging Eagles team?
It’s week 11 of the NFL season and the 7-3 Washington Commanders will be facing a 7-2 Eagles team on the road at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA on Thursday (today) at 8:20 pm EST. The Eagles started the season a bit lackluster, going 2-2 to start the season, but have been on a heater since week 7, with blowout wins against the Giants, Bengals, and Cowboys (and a win against the Jaguars that would have been a blowout if they didn’t let the Jags back in the game late).
On offense, the Eagles are in their first year with Kellen Moore as OC and their fourth year of offensive-minded HC Nick Sirianni. Although Kellen Moore was supposedly given control over the offense after the offense regressed last year, many have criticized the offense for still looking more like a Sirianni offense than a Kellen Moore offense. In particular, the offense last year was criticized for lack of pre-snap motion and over-use of shotgun. Kellen Moore was expected to fix this, as he’s known for heavy use of pre-snap motion and putting the QB under center to run play action. This year, the Eagles still rank 19th in pre-snap motion and 20th in play-action rate.
However, the Eagles have an offense stacked with playmakers and in my opinion, primarily win because their players are better than those of their opponents. The Eagles have All Pros in WR AJ Brown, RT Lane Johnson, and QB Jalen Hurts, Pro Bowlers in RB Saquon Barkley and LG Landon Dickerson, and players who probably deserve those honors in LT Jordan Mailata and TE Dallas Goeddert.
The Eagles especially shine in their run game, with the 2nd most rushing yards per game in the NFL, behind only the Ravens. One interesting trend for this run game is the fact that they’re fourth in yards before contact per attempt but 24th in yards after contact per attempt; in other words, the offensive line is doing most of the work in creating those yards. QB Jalen Hurts also accounts for a significant amount of their rushing production, with the 3rd most QB rushing yards (behind Lamar Jackson and Jayden Daniels).
On defense, the Eagles are in their first year with Vic Fangio at DC. Fangio was actually hired as a consultant for Eagles DC Johnathan Gannon in 2022 and Gannon’s successor Sean Desai was a Fangio disciple, so Fangio’s fingerprints have been on this defense even before his arrival as DC. The biggest change has been a transition from the 4-3 front the Eagles have run over many years to a 3-4 front, though that transition really began last year when Matt Patricia was brought in to run the defense mid-season. Fangio typically uses 2 deep safeties to limit explosive plays, something that has been very popular around the NFL this year. He also typically runs a light box, relying on...
