Philadelphia Eagles vs. New York Giants Preview & Prediction | PFF

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With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world’s largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of five for live sessions based on over 1.7 million client reviews. This World Mental Health Day, we are collaborating with those therapists who have helped millions of people take a step forward. If you’re ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start that journey. Our listeners get 10% off of their first month at betterhelp.com/pf. That’s betterhelp.com/pf. Another really nice Thursday night football matchup here. Another divisional matchup here for the Giants. You had the thrilling victory in week four. You had the surprising defeat in week five and now you’re hosting your rival and the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. I’ll start with this one cuz I kind of want to talk about Jack Dart. We had Okay. the Jacks start winning the game in week four, obviously losing the game in week five, but to be honest with you, buddy, they weren’t that different. I mean, his PFF passing grade was it was around 55. It was between 55 and 60 in both of those weeks. So, it’s not like Jackson really let the world on fire. I think he was a little bit better as a rusher in week four. And honestly, I just think that he kind of caught him off guard in week four with what Jackson Dart was even going to be for that team. That’s how they end up getting the victory there. what I’m looking to see this week because I want to focus on that side of the ball for the Giants. The offensive line’s obviously got to play well for them. The Eagles like a lot of to throw a lot of different stuff at you. So, Andrew Thomas played really well last week. He’s got to play really well again this week. Cam Scataboo, you need to get something uh out of him a little bit more than what you got last week. We focused on the wide receivers when we went through the review show and how poor the wide receivers played for this team, which they need to play better overall. But I want to look at specifically Jackson Dart in this game over the middle of the field. When you look at the last two weeks, he had three attempts over the intermediate middle of the field in week four, 57.2 passing grade. Only two attempts in that area last week, 55.5 passing grade. To me, that sort of holds the key for him. Can you be somebody who can attack down the middle of the field? And it’s going to be difficult to do so against this Eagles safety duo and of course, Zack Bond as well. But that’s really the next progression for him. And and to be honest with you, I always sort of think that’s the next progression when it comes to those college quarterbacks making their jump to the NFL. A lot of college quarterbacks, they just attack outside the numbers. That’s sort of like how they’re able to push the ball deep down the field. That’s what their offensive coordinator wants to do with them. And that was a lot of what Jackson Dart did when he was at Old Miss. Can he be more of a middle-of the- field passer? I want to see that from him. But then, of course, you’ve got the running aspect of it as well. The Giants defense specifically, I do want to talk about them a little bit. Their run defense grade as a team is 22nd in the NFL. It is 62.2. Their EPA per rush allowed though dead last. And Dalton, I don’t think that’s good for this week specifically because been all this talk of, oh, you know, the Eagles don’t have an identity. You talked about it on Monday, them having the highest run rate of any team in the NFL last year and them kind of getting away from that this year. They don’t really have that same sort of success, but a lot of the same bodies are still there. Dude, I I I think they’re going to lean into Saquon Barkley heavily in this game. I don’t think they’re over they’re not going to overthink it at all. I think that certainly they’re going to run the ball until the Giants show them that they can stop it. And so those two things are really what I’m looking for in this game. Can the Giants defend the run a little bit better than maybe what they have so far this season? And then on the other side of things, can Jackson Dart attack that middle of the field against a uh stout Eagles defense when it comes to defending the middle of the field? Yeah, I I think when you look at the effectiveness of the Eagles run game, the biggest problem so far has been some inconsistency on the interior of their offensive line. And obviously that’s never easy when you have to block Dexter Lawrence. And I think that matchup between the Eagles offensive line and the Giants defensive line really defines a lot of this game. If the Eagles win this matchup, they can run away with this game pretty handily. But the Giants defensive line, it’s one of the most talented in the NFL and it can keep them in any ball game they’re playing. And so Lawrence on the inside, especially in the run game is huge. And then I think we have to look at just the superstar matchup that we have between the Eagles offensive tackles, Jordan Milada, and Lane Johnson against the Giants edge defender trio, Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, and Kavon Tibido. Right? You look at these matchups with these players. And Carter is an interesting one also because we know he can move around and play between the tackles and stand up and rush from wherever he wants. But he’s off to an outstanding start as a pass rusher. 82.4 pass rush grade. Brian Burns as usual excellent self 79.5. Kavon Tibido 65.3. That’s solid. The Giants are one of just two teams so far this year to have three different players with at least 18 pressures. The other one’s the Denver Broncos. So when you look at the heat that this team applies off the edge as pass rushers, you really know that Jordan Milada and Lane Johnson are going to be, you know, they’re usually up to the task, but they’re going to have to be in this game. Otherwise, Jaylen Herz under pressure has not been great this year. He wasn’t great last year. He actually had the lowest passing grade in the NFL under pressure last year. So, I think when you look at the pass rush matchup off the edge with that group of guys you saw right there against the Eagles tackles and like you mentioned before with the run game, I’m really looking at Dexter Lawrence on the inside against Cam Jurgens and Landon Dickerson and Tyler Steen. Those guys, the Eagles have not been able to run between the tackles quite as effectively this year. So, that really is, I think, a matchup that’s going to define this game. The Eagles offensive line against that Giants talented defensive line. Okay, we’re going to give our score prediction in a second. I see some people in the chat already talking about who they think is going to win this game, but we got to hear from Terron Armstead first. This was the trench matchup that he wanted to highlight this week. So, let’s hear from Terron and then we’ll give you guys our predictions of who we think is going to win the game. So, let’s check it out. Here we go. Back with our guy Terron Armstead preview another trench match up here that we have for the week. It’s Thursday Night Football. We’re kicking it off with Terron as we’re kicking off this week in the NFL. Giants Eagles. And as if this wasn’t a heated enough rivalry just because of everything that we’ve got in the divisions, you know, a young rookie quarterback coming up for the Giants. Obviously, the Eagles, they’ve had success, but hasn’t quite looked like it was last year, man. In the trenches, specifically, the Giants defensive line against the Eagles offensive line. Deron, this is going to be one of the best trench matchups of the week, and we get it on Thursday Night Football. So, actually, my first question to you is, well, how about Thursday Night Football? Like, talk to me about the short week, especially somebody who, you know, you’ve been on the show the last couple of weeks talking a lot about preparation, getting into the film room, understanding your opponents when you have a condensed week. How does that change things for you in your preparation? It definitely it definitely adds more layers and and and different dynamics, especially for a team like Philly who I I don’t think they’ve played a noon game, a one:00 game yet this season. It’s been Thursday, Monday, Sunday. Um, I mean, defending champs, so prime time TV. Thursdays are challenging, especially like you got to consider if you were the traveling team the week before. So, if Philly played against the Chargers in LA and had to fly to Philly, get get back Monday, can’t do anything, trying to recover from the game and the flight. And then if you got to be the the traveling team going going to New York, you got to leave Wednesday. you got one day in Philly where you can do anything football related. So, um it condenses everything and and the thing about it for the coaches, they want to condense the game plan, too. So, if your normal playbook for the week is 200 pages, it’s going to be down to about 50 pages. You guys are going to have your breadandbut players. You’re going to stick to a few third downs and and adjustments to what what kind of blitz they have for the week, but the the playbook is condensed on both on all sides of the ball from both teams. So, when you’re talking about condensing the playbook a little bit there, I want to I want to ask a followup. Like, when you do condense the playbook, would you say that the plays and the scheme and that game plan is more about just, hey, this is what we do really well as a team? Like, we’re we’re just we’re going to run these plays that we know we do really well versus the percentage that it might be like, hey, this is our opponent. This is sort of like what they might struggle with. these are the things that we want to implement for this team specifically. What’s the do do you think that it’s more one or the other? Do you think it’s, you know, dead even or or when you say condens in the playbook, which side of things do you think the coaches lean on a little bit more? Definitely your bread and butter. So, if you’re outside zone team, you’re going to be heavy outside zone based. You might have a a couple counter plays, maybe a trick run play, but for the most part, you’re going to keep everything sweet, short and short and sweet. You wanna you want to focus on execution on a short week because you don’t have all the reps to go through and and get the timing of everything to get the feel for everything to see how it’ll work out in the game. So, you’re going to go to what you’re sure of. That’s install one, install two, the plays that you put in first. Sean Peyton would always say on those Thursdays, it’s it was about a fast start. And the team that makes the team that doesn’t turn the ball over on a third on a Thursday wins the game. So, it’s already like condensed playbook, limited amount of possessions, limited amount of like flare and explosive plays designed. So, if you lose a possession, if one team has 12 possessions, you have 10 possessions, you’ll lose the game. So, it was always about like the execution and keeping it simple on those Thursdays. All right, let’s talk about that execution in the trenches. Andrew Thomas, when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best offensive tackles in the NFL for the New York for the uh for the New York Giants. and he and he is fantastic. He’s going up against a Philadelphia defensive line that is going to be pretty ferocious against him and it feels like they’ve definitely got to step up in a lot of ways, but I do want to mainly talk about the Giants on the defensive side of the ball. So you’ve got Brian Burns, you’ve got Kavon Tibido, you’ve got Abdul Carter, you even got Dexter Lawrence who can line up it feels like anywhere at that size, which is crazy to think that he’s able to do that going up against a Philadelphia offensive line that I mean he’s one of the best in the NFL simply put. So when you talk about these offensive tackles, Lane Johnson, Jordan, a lot of these guys, they could go up, it feels like they could go up against any of them and they’re really good pass rushers. So again, we we’ve talked a lot about game planning throughout the throughout the your time when you have been on the show. How do you game planning? It’s a team that has four players, the top caliber that you could go up against at any time. Which one of these guys would you maybe start your week with to say, “Okay, I got I got to plan for this guy first and then we’ll sort of talk about what this guy’s able to do.” How would you even approach if you’re the Eagles offensive lineman handling a diverse defensive front like the one that New York has? Yeah. No, it definitely presents a lot a lot of challenges. Not many teams have a stable of guys that can really get active like that and that can that can win one-on- ones consistently. For the for the Giants specifically, me, I would start with Brian Burns. I’m starting with Burns. He’s he’s playing at a really high level. He’s productive every week. He’s finding ways to to get after the passer, get his hands on the football, too. So, was creating turnovers and all those things. So, I’m starting with Brian Burns. Then I’ll transition to the to the other two rushers, Kavon Tibido, Abdul Carter. I’ll pay I’ll spend a lot of time on them too. Same process, don’t get me wrong. The same amount of time, same due diligence, but I am going to start start with Brian Burns first. And also, I’m I’m going look at Dexter Lawrence. I I want to I want to get a read on on him as well because a lot of what they would what they do in pass rush is based around Dexter Lawrence and he’s generating the double team. So, if the double team is coming to him, then they want to line guys in certain spots in order to to have rush lanes and rush lane integrity. If if Dexter Lawrence is getting one-on- ones, then that that creates another challenge now interior. So, we got to we got to figure out exactly where Dexter will be, who he’s trying to occupy. Is he lining up over the center, trying to take the center and the guard, or is he getting out wide and want to try to uh create a one-on-one for himself? So, uh it’s it’s a lot. It’s it’s a week that you know you’re going to log more hours than normal on that on that iPad. What makes Lane Johnson as good as he is? This is somebody who has played at right tackle and I know some people in the well it feel it feels like not anymore thankfully but it felt like for a long time it was like all right Hall of Fame case like yeah but he was a right tackle and I and obviously I think that we’re sort of past that at this point especially when you talk about the longevity and the greatness of Lane Johnson. But like truly what is it about him that makes him so fantastic just year in and year out? I mean, when he was younger and he was a little bit more athletic, obviously that was something he leaned on. But now, man, it’s like he’s winning with so much wisdom in his older age as the years are going on for him in the trenches. So, just I’d love to hear from you. Like, what do you appreciate about Lane Johnson? What makes him so great as a right tackle for the Eagles? Lane’s a perfectionist, Trevor. He’s he’s somebody that takes his craft very seriously. He um he’s working on himself, on his game around the clock. years ago I’ve been me and Lane came into the league together. Years ago, we were training in Dallas. Lane was standing with me. We were staying here in a house in Dallas and it’s like he never we will be sitting down watching TV and he’ll just hop up and and just start doing squats or just start stretching and sitting in his I’m like lane sit down, bro. Just chill. He’s just always like seriously he is like obsessed with his process and finding ways to just make himself better. Um so him being a perfectionist and really locking in honing in on his technique, we both came in as really athletic guys and as the as the years go on, you have to learn more tools and add more to your technique. He has done that and he’s also still very very strong. So Lane puts his he put those long arms on people. His anchor is incredible still 13 years in. Um he’s he’s Hall of Fame player. No doubt. No doubt about it. Too many people questioned it because he played right tackle instead of left tackle, but uh we know how good the guy is. And the Eagles offensive line in general. We know how good the the Giants defensive line could be in this game. It’s going to be a fun one. Thursday night football, like you said, it’s everybody’s best versus everybody’s best. It’s what your bread and butter is. It’s what your strength is. We’re gonna have fun watching on Thursday. I know you are too, Toron. I appreciate it, my friend. Sure. Appreciate you, bro. All right. Does the uh wisdom of Terron Armstead sway you at all, Dalton? Who you going with in this game? Uh look, I I think it is a great matchup there off the edge. Again, it’s going to be a battle, you know, won or lost in the trenches on that side of the ball, I think. But I I think the fact too that the Giants are so one-dimensional on offense right now, they’re getting Tyrone Tracy back in the back field this week along with Cam Scataboo back there. And Jackson Dart’s obviously been really good with his legs. The Giants are going to have to win this game running the football, but they also lost Darius Sllayton for this week, you know, due to a hamstring injury. So, I think the Giants are just so onedimensional, and it’s hard to beat a team like this if you are onedimensional. I’ve got the Eagles 24-13. I have it similar. I think the Eagles are winning this game. I I it would it would it would be a pretty big feat for the Giants to to take down the Eagles in this one. Even with the Giants being at home, I I think Philly is going to bounce back and I think that they’re going to uh look pretty ferocious in this one. I’ve got the Philadelphia Eagles winning 28 to4. Um, I think it’s a two-score win for um for Philadelphia

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Philadelphia Eagles and The New York Giants.

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