Eagles-49ers player matchups to watch in Week 13

Eagles-49ers player matchups to watch in Week 13 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles (10-1) will host the 49ers (8-3) on Sunday afternoon in a rematch of the NFC Championship Game.

Here are some key matchups to watch:

Eagles middle of the field vs. Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle 

If you’re trying to stop the 49ers’ offense, you have to start with McCaffrey, who deserves some legitimate MVP chatter. That’s how good he has been and how much he has meant to the 49ers’ offense.

In 11 games this season, McCaffrey already has 1,328 scrimmage yards and 16 touchdowns. He’s an incredible runner but you also have to account for him as a receiver. And he’s not just some finesse player either. McCaffrey is great after contact, averaging 2.0 yards after contact per attempt this season. First, you gotta catch him, then you’ve gotta tackle him.

“You’ve got to put bodies around him,” Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai said. “Have to get different looks, affect his route progression from different angles and put different matchups on him because they do a great job of creating matchups there. So, we’ve got to be able to have multiple different ways and different angles at which we want to cover him and leverage them.”

In addition to McCaffrey, the 49ers also have one of the best tight ends in the NFL in Kittle, who has 46 catches for 667 yards and 5 touchdowns. The Eagles have struggled against tight ends at times this season and they won’t be able to give Kittle the same type of attention they gave Travis Kelce a couple weeks ago because the 49ers have too many offensive weapons.

This season, the Eagles have given up 55 catches for 520 yards and 6 touchdowns to opposing tight ends. They did a nice job on Dalton Kincaid last week but before the bye, Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson gave them fits.

On top of all that, it sounds like LB Zach Cunningham (hamstring) won’t be able to play in this game. That means Nicholas Morrow and Christian…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/eagles-49ers-player-matchups-watch-120000579.html

Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia

Publish date : 2023-12-01 12:00:00

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