Week One Preview: Eagles march into Washington

By: Jesse Larch, Sports Talk Philly Staff

The wait is over, and the Philadelphia Eagles will finally being playing a game that matters when they travel to Landover, Maryland to face the rival Washington Redskins in week one. 

The Eagles will walk into FedEx Field looking to change their luck after having dropped five straight contests against the Redskins, and not having won in Washington since 2013. 

Both teams will be lining up differently than they did last season, with both teams overhauling their receiver groups. The Eagles will be without Dorial Green-Beckham, Bryce Treggs, and Jordan Matthews in favor of newcomers Alshon Jeffery, Torrey Smith, and Mack Hollins. The Redskins lost Pierre Garcon and Desean Jackson and signed Terrelle Pryor to go with former first round pick Josh Doctson who is coming off of an injury that made him a non-factor a year ago.

Doug Pederson has already mentioned that he is expecting Josh Norman to cover Alshon Jeffery throughout the game, which is a matchup that favors the Eagles. 

Norman is one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL, but struggles mightily with large, big-bodied receivers like Jeffery. Jeffery had 92 yards on five catches a year ago against Norman while with the Chicago Bears. Jeffery had our old friend Matt Barkley throwing him the ball on that day, so with a better quarterback in Carson Wentz throwing the ball, Jeffery could again have a big day against Norman. 

While the Eagles have a good matchup with their receivers, they will need to be on alert for the Redskins running game. Behind one of the best offensive lines in football, Rob Kelley killed the Eagles a season ago. Kelley carried the ball 21 times against the Eagles for a total of 121 yards and one touchdown, and added two catches for 25 yards. 

The Eagles front seven has gotten deeper with the additions of Chris Long and Derek Barnett, but with all-pros Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox on the line Kelley still managed to punish the Eagles defense. It will be key for the Eagles to stop Kelley while the Redskins break in their new passing attack. 

The focal point of that Redskins passing attack is the extremely accurate arm of Kirk Cousins. Cousins has been elite in terms of accuracy over the past two seasons, but not against the Eagles. Of all teams that Cousins has faced, his second lowest completion percentage comes against the Eagles with a 58.2 percent success rate, nine points below his career mark. 

Despite his reduced accuracy against the Eagles, however Cousins still boasts a 97.3 quarterback rating against the Eagles in his career, which is above his career total.

The Redskins are missing one quarterback from preseason, and he is now on the Eagles practice squad. Nate Sudfeld elected to come to Philadelphia's practice squad after receiving offers from both the Eagles and Redskins. Sudfeld spent all of last season with the Redskins organization and all through this years caps and preseason. It will be interesting to see if having someone so familiar with the Redskins offense will give the Eagles an upper-hand on Sunday.

Recently acquired cornerback Ronald Darby will get a great opportunity to prove himself in week one as he is expected to cover Terrelle Pryor who caught 77 passes for 1,007 yards and four touchdowns in Cleveland. Similar to Jeffery, Pryor is now in a better situation with Kirk Cousins throwing him the ball instead of whoever happened to be healthy for the Browns last season. Although he has only had one season of success, Pryor is expected to be the top receiver in Washington this season. 

With so much change on both sides, it is hard to make a prediction, but Lane Johnson made a strong statement in a Players' Tribune article a few weeks ago. "Let me tell you what’s going to happen in a couple of weeks: This team is going to go down to D.C. and whup some a** against the Redskins."

Tune in on sunday afternoon to see just how much of a whuppin' Lane and the boys put on the Redskins. 

Injury Report

The Eagles are fortunate to be heading into this game with perfect health, while WR Jamison Crowder, C Spencer Long, and LB Ryan Anderson are all listed as questionable heading into this contest for Washington.

The Redskins will also be without linebacker Su'a Cravens who developed into a playmaker for the Redskins as a rookie in a hybrid linebacker role. Cravens has taken an absence from the team while he considers retirement. Cravens is 22-years-old, and this is the third time that he has reportedly considered retiring. Once while in college at USC, once during his rookie year, and again now. Cravens will leave a hole in the Redskins defense on Sunday, especially in the run game and against tight ends. 

Broadcast Information:

Time: 1:00 p.m. EST

TV: FOX, commentary by Kenny Albert and Ronde Barber

Radio: 94.1 WIP, commentary by Merrill Reese and Mike Quick

Online: NFL Game Pass