Loss to Lions serving as prep for Patriots
PHILADELPHIA >> The Eagles are using video cutouts of their Super Bowl 52 victory over the New England Patriots to get ready for the regular season rematch this Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
That’s more of a motivational thing, though, because they’ve already gotten a hands-on snapshot of what to expect by virtue of playing the Detroit Lions earlier this season at the Linc.
The Lions and head coach Matt Patricia are as close as it gets to playing against a Bill Belichick team, Patricia having worked at New England long enough to collect three Super Bowl rings.
The formula is fairly obvious: Take care of the ball, play defense, add a play on special teams and let your veteran quarterback, in that case Matt Stafford, manage the rest of the game and voila, you get a 27-24 victory like the Lions had in Week 3.
Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz will be better prepared to counter the age-old Belichick philosophy of taking away a strength of the opposition. In the loss to the Lions, it was tight end Zach Ertz. He had seven targets worth four catches and 64 yards. The Lions allowed Nelson Agholor 12 targets and eight receptions for 50 yards and two touchdowns.
“What the Patriots do on defense and what the Lions did, they’re similar schemes there,” Wentz said. “They wanted to double Zach all day. So that was their flavor of the day. We’ll see what their kind of flavor of the day is early in this ball game too. But we’re definitely prepared and on top of it for if they do want to go that way.”
The Lions have been in a free fall, as they’ve lost five of six since beating the Birds.
The Patriots (8-1) are coming off their only loss, a 37-20 drubbing by the Baltimore Ravens. Like the Eagles, they’ve used the bye week to heal and get ready for the second half of the season.
Tom Brady’s passing statistics have been not nearly as remarkable as in other seasons, as he’s completed
64.8 percent of his throws with 14 touchdowns and five interceptions. The numbers are a lot like those of Wentz, who’s connected on 62.7 percent of his attempts with 15 touchdowns and four picks.
Both quarterbacks have had turnover at the wide receiver position, the Patriots parting ways with Josh Gordon and Antonio Brown, the Eagles losing DeSean Jackson to injury.
Both teams have solid run games.
The difference is the Patriots have produced a leaguehigh 27 takeaways, including
19 interceptions. Devin McCourty has five interceptions for the Patriots, who have four defensive touchdowns and are
plus-17 in turnover ratio. The Eagles have 13 takeaways, including defensive touchdowns by linebacker Nate Gerry and Orlando Scandrick, who has since been released. They’re minus-one in turnover ratio.
What’s encouraging for the Eagles (5-4) is that in their two-game winning streak, they’ve carved out an identity. They know they can prevail without the deep threat of Jackson, who’s on injured reserve, by rolling up their sleeves and getting dirty, rather than with explosive plays.
“You can definitely win with this,” Wentz said. “And we’re going to find ways to create that. I’m never worried coming out of games when we didn’t have an explosive play. There’s plays every game that either I miss or we miss as a team that we leave out there. Without a doubt you can win like that but at the same time I’m confident that we will find ways to make big plays and be explosive in both the passing game and the run game.”
Ertz, who the Patriots doubled on third down in SB 52, expects the same sort of attention this time around.
“Obviously the first nine weeks, we didn’t play our most consistent ball,” Ertz said. “But the past few games I feel like we’ve kind of found our recipe for success. I think that’s leaning heavily on the run game and obviously making enough plays in the passing game to keep them honest.
“I think the Lions game, going against Patricia, I already watched that game again this week. I think there’s a lot of similarities before those two schemes. Obviously, we dint have our best game on offense against them. So, I feel that’s something we can draw on.”