UNEVEN MATCH

Rams’ offense has the advantage against depleted Eagles secondary

opposite directions the Rams (11-2) and Eagles (6-7) have been traveling since the Eagles won the Super Bowl in February.

The Rams opened as 10-point favorites and now are favored by 12 after the Eagles revealed that starting quarterback Carson Wentz has a stress fracture in his back. He’s almost certain to be shut down for the season, though coach Doug Pederson insisted on Friday that he could still play against the Rams.

Wentz, of course, is far from the only injured Eagle, which is this team’s biggest problem.

On Friday reserve tackle Jordan Mailata became the 14th player to go on the injured reserve list.

Among the others who have missed multiple games this season are Wentz, running back Darren Sproles, cornerbacks Avonte Maddox, Sidney Jones and Rasul Douglas, linebacker Jordan Hicks, defensive tackles Tim Jernigan, Destiny Vaeao and Haloti Ngata and wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey.

Foles and some of his teammates will need to develop rapport in a hurry. Running back Josh Adams and tight end Dallas Goedert have never worked with him in anything other than a preseason setting. New wide receiver Golden Tate hasn’t worked with him at all.

Foles was not made available for interviews in the week leading up to the game.

Held to six points by a stout Chicago Bears defensive front last week, the Rams’ previously strong running game might have finally been solved by aggressive pursuit to the ball coupled with disciplined backside play to stop running back Todd Gurley from cutting back against the grain.

At full strength, the Eagles might have the personnel to do this, but with Jernigan (back) out indefinitely, Hicks (calf) to miss another game and unproven depth behind defensive tackles Ngata and Fletcher Cox, they are closer to minimum strength than maximum.

What’s more, they will have a hard

time keeping their interior defenders fresh because of the pace of the Rams’ play and their propensity to stay in the same personnel packages for an entire drive.

Credit coach Sean McVay for designing the kind of offense his Eagles counterpart, Doug Pederson, would love to employ.

Though they stay mostly in “11” personnel (one running back, one tight end), they can align and deploy their receivers

and tight ends so many ways that they can run almost every play in their expanding book without having to substitute.

“Even in short-yardage and goal-line they’re in the same personnel group,” Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz marveled. ”They also don’t have a lot of situational subs where they use different tight ends. A little bit using 81 [Gerald Everett] and 89 [Tyler Higbee] or switching a different wide receiver in. They pretty much stay with the guys in there and play that. So with that way it does make it a little bit more difficult to sub.

“We’re going to have to be

surgical with our substitutions, particularly on third down. We like to roll our defensive line. Haven’t been able to do that as much as we have in the past. Any time you’re going sub you have to hurry on, hurry off and then also you have to be able to communicate quick. They turn around and break the huddle and snap the ball. Everybody has to be on the same page when it happens. They did it a little bit last year. They’ve taken it to a different level this year.”

Schwartz further explained how the Rams are unique.

“All their guys are sort of interchangeable,” he said. “They

can use their tight ends as wide receivers. You’ll see their wide receivers line up in block, sort of like tight ends would. You’ll see them close to the offensive tackle. Not many teams you see wide receivers stay in the protection and protect; the Rams do. So even though they’re in one personnel group, it really plays like four different personnel groups for them because of the interchangeable [parts].

“All their tight ends can be a wideout; most of their wideouts can be a tight end; the running back can be a wide receiver, he can be a running back, and he can also line up in some tight

end positions in some of their empty stuff. To say they stay in one personnel group, yeah, the jersey numbers stay the same, but the way they’re using them — you guys know how much we value multi-dimensional players in defense. It gives you the ability to able to play a lot of different ways — they’re sort of the offensive counterpoint to that.”

Gurley, especially, is the total package, according to safety Malcolm Jenkins.

“I think he’s right at the top,” he said. “You look at what you want out of your running back. Vision, he’s got it. Speed, he has

breakaway speed, he can hit home runs. … He can put his head down and get those 3-, 4-yard runs when there’s nothing there. He’s jumping over guys, stiff-arming, spinning, juking, has all the moves in the open field to be elusive. He’s solid in protection.

“I mean, he’s everything that you want in a running back.”

And the Rams are everything anyone can want in a team.

Tough assignment for the Eagles, to say the least.

nfierro@mcall.com Twitter @nickfierro 610-778-2243