It is very likely that through two weeks of the football season that you didn’t have the Philadelphia Eagles still looking for their first win of the season and the New York Jets holding a 2-0 record. But that is the way the teams line up for Sunday afternoon’s game.
This is an all-important game for the Eagles. Rallying back to make the playoffs after an 0-2 start is already challenging. Go down 0-3, the season might be over already.
With another must-win game facing the Eagles, here are six keys to the game.
- Better From Bradford – The offensive struggles hardly fall solely on Sam Bradford, but the Eagles need the quarterback to step up and lead the team to a win. He’s been busy in his first two games, but throwing just two touchdown passes with four interceptions is a concern. This needs to be a statement game from the quarterback as much as anyone else.
- Offensive Line – The Eagles most glaring weakness needs to turn things around. The guard play is suspect but has two new starters at the position. There will still be bumps in the road. But what about Pro-Bowlers Jason Peters and Jason Kelce? Why so many mistakes in the first two games? Like Bradford, those two need to be better on the line to attempt to make up for the mistakes that the two new guards are going to make.
- Linebackers – Kiko Alonso is out with injury. So is Mychal Kendricks. So enter Marcus Smith and Brad Jones. It could be an interesting day for the front seven.
- Marcus Smith – The 2014 first-round pick will likely see the most playing time he has yet in his career. He can thank injuries for that. But after sitting out the first two games of this season and eight more last year with very minimal playing time, is he ready to be treated as a regular? All eyes will be on what No. 90 has done to improve, to build confidence and to fit in with Chip Kelly’s bunch.
- Containing the Jets Receivers – Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker have packed a mean punch so far. Decker has 10 catches for 134 yards and two touchdowns in two games. Marshall has 13 catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns in two games. The Eagels secondary is already working on improving from the previous two games, but as was the case in Atlanta, playing against two capable receivers is sure to be a difficult task for this defense.
- DeMarco and the Ground Game – So DeMarco Murray is in and obviously Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles are with clean bills of health. That said, Sproles, who was said to be the running back least likely to run the ball, has the most rushing yards on the team. This is an area the Eagles need to improve on drastically because as Chip Kelly said, if the Eagles can’t get the running game going, they simply won’t win.
Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.
